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, March 12, 2011

From "Morning in America" to the Nightmare on Main Street

by Henry A. Giroux from Truthout. 

I find that Giroux is one of the most insightful observers of world events. In the article he tries to warn us that the...
...policies that informed Reagan's neoliberal agenda have given way to the intense assault now being waged by his more extremist governmental descendants on all vestiges of the democratic state. This brutal evisceration includes a rejection and devaluing of the welfare state, unions, public values, young people, public and higher education; and other political, social and economic institutions and forces in American life that provide a counterweight against the political power of mega-corporations, the rich and the powerful.
In the middle of the article is an audio link to a 54 minute interview he gave on a recent broadcast from Santa Fe Public Radio station. (This is separate from the text in the article.) In this interview he looks at the protests across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East as a growing global fightback by mostly youth against the crushing neo-liberal policies being implemented in many places of the world by the global capitalist elites.
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