We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, August 2, 2010

Three years later and still nothing has been learned

from The Economic Populist.

It is clear to me that the managers of the capitalist system have no idea how to get the economy going again for working people--their focus is on preserving the system, protecting their assets, and fooling working people into thinking that we are only in a temporary cycle that will turn up soon.