Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Delusional People Who Want to Frack This Country Up

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

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The Delusional People Who Want to Frack This Country Up

by James Howard Kunstler from AlterNet.

On Sunday night CBS hauled Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, on board their flagship Sunday infotainment vehicle, 60 Minutes, to blow a mighty wind up America's ass (as they say in professional PR circles). America is lately addicted to lying to itself, and 60 Minutes has become the "go-to" patsy for funneling disinformation into an already hopelessly confused, wishful, delusional, US public.

Following this opening paragraph the author continues on to reveal the real story that corporate media carefully omitted.

The problem with mainstream media is that they disseminate so much disinformation that it is impossible to correct all of it. The only solution that I see is for people to establish their own media and to wean ordinary Americans off corporate media. The remaining huge question is how to accomplish this.

I think that it is inevitable that people will eventually tire of being lied to as they see their living standards plummet and more extreme weather caused by capitalist growth. However this "eventual" time might be too late to save the planet for humans to live on.