Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Three Powerfully Wrong--and Wrongly Powerful--American Narratives about the Arab Spring

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, June 11, 2011

Three Powerfully Wrong--and Wrongly Powerful--American Narratives about the Arab Spring

Click here to access article by Jillian Schwedler, Joshua Stacher, and Stacey Philbrick Yadav from Jadaliyya.

And as Obama made clear in his speech on the future of the region, the Administration will fully support political reforms, but only as long as the dominant neoliberal economic system remains intact. In this regard, the Administration finds no shortage of domestic comprador elites eager to decouple economic and political reforms before too many take notice. These local elites—who stand to profit mightily—are ready allies for the United States in “de-economizing” the so-called transitions and trying to promote a blind deference to electoral processes and political reforms while concealing the likely failure of these processes to resolve the socio-economic imbalances that led to the uprisings in the first place.

This excellent piece offers a critical review of popular themes held by a large segment of the US population regarding current events in the MENA countries, and the authors offer a much more accurate portrayal of the real issues driving events in the region.