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

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Collapsing empire watch

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon

In this brief article the author provides a number of links to data that provides support for the thesis that life in the US is deteriorating, and probably at an accelerating rate.
It's easy to say and easy to document, but quite difficult to really internalize, that the United States is in the process of imperial collapse.