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, January 11, 2011

Government-created climate of fear

by Glenn Greenwald from Salon

This popular blogger among progressives is also a constitutional lawyer and author. Thus, his remarks in this article about the function of "the rule of law" in the US is particularly interesting: it clearly shows that he as changed his views. It very much appears that he, too, is beginning to see the fact of the growing fascism in the US. 

(I try not to use political words carelessly. So often the word fascism is used merely as a buzz word to denote something very bad, or a slur. What I mean by it is a highly centralized rule representing the interests of corporations and political authorities that uses brute force, or the threat of force, to intimidate people into submitting to government authorities.)