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, December 7, 2010

Why do we need the rich?

by Dan Russell from Socialist Worker

The author provides an easily understood Marxist perspective on jobs, wealth creation, and capitalist myths. A good primer on how the capitalist economy doesn't work for workers. and how it should be organized by workers, for workers.

However, his solution is hardly innovative or helpful:
When workers fight collectively and strike for a larger piece of the pie--whether for higher wages or higher taxes on the rich to pay for social or employment programs--they demonstrate that their labor is what drives the economy, and they begin to march down a path toward a different society.
We can't solve current problems of a dysfunctional, climate altering, and resource depleting economic system under the control of a powerful, small class of people using methods from the 19th and 20th centuries. Not that those methods aren't useful, but many more need to be created. Most critically needed are methods to take control of information and its dissemination. WikiLeaks is a good, but not a sufficient, example of a new method. And any attempts by corporations to control or limit access to websites must be fought vigorously.