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, February 8, 2011

Reaganomics Sucked Wealth up, Did Not Trickle it Down [8:31m video & script]

Paul Jay interviews Michael Hudson for Real News.

I've become so sickened with US mainstream media's portrayal of Ronald Reagan as a kind of superhero among US Presidents. I remember the Reagan administration in connection with the Contra War (US sponsored Honduran mercenaries) against Nicaraguans seeking independence from the Empire in the early 1980s. I visited that country twice during this period and witnessed the destruction these mercenaries inflicted on health clinics, schools, and cooperatives. I also associate his administration with the attacks on US labor unions, on the rise of the neo-cons in the government.

Of course, like all post WWII Presidents, he was largely a figure head, a second rate actor and former GE salesman whom the public found very personable and likable, much like Obama today.
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