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

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Grooming Children for Profit

from New Left Project (an interview with Agnes Nairn is co-author of Consumer Kids: How big business is grooming our children for profit.)
She spoke to Samia Aziz about how children are targeted and manipulated by today’s corporate marketing strategies, and the social and psychological impacts of this rapidly intensifying phenomenon.