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

Friday, October 1, 2010

Be a Citizen Journalist

from the The Awareness Initiative

Although this site is mostly about a new film entitled, Deceptions, I liked this segment the most because we as working people need, as a prerequisite to taking back power, to take back access to information away from corporate media giants.
Citizen journalism (also known as "public", "participatory", "democratic", "guerrilla" or "street journalism" is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information."  (Wikipedia)
While at the site you may want to check out the film, which is about to be released, but only to schools and theaters only. They, however, have made it available for viewing on this site by breaking it up into seven segments which you can watch on your computer. Each segment is around 12 minutes. I've sampled some of the segments and can't say that I have learned anything that I didn't already know. They present alarming information that has been presented many times before.

Also, I am not fond of an "evil doer" way of looking at contemporary economic, political, or historical events. I insist on looking closely at the system of capitalism which, by its nature, produces so many sociopaths that rise, like scum, to the surface of power structures.