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, July 30, 2011

Disastrous Outcomes From an Orchestrated Crisis

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts.

This former member of the Reagan administration goes even further than the author of the above article with his criticisms of the current administration and the "orchestrated" financial crisis:
The offshoring of US jobs, GDP, tax base, and consumer demand that has eroded away the US economy and the government’s tax base, thus elevating the deficit, is somehow not a crisis. These are just the imperatives of globalism and the routine maximization of shareholders’ profits and management’s performance bonuses.
But, then he abandons this line of thinking and goes back to acceptable discourse that it is all about evil Republicans and incompetent Democrats. Following this standard line, he blames the victims--the American public for voting them into office--as if we had some real choices! As if people had access to real information about political and economic issues!