Surviving Capitalism (Not) : John Stoehr: Selling war from 1917 to 2012 [Part 2 of 2]

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

Monday, April 2, 2012

John Stoehr: Selling war from 1917 to 2012 [Part 2 of 2]

Click here to access article by John Stoehr from Al Jazeera.

Concluding his two part essay, the author continues with historical illustrations of ruling class management of protest using propaganda--and when that fails--the application of violence against protestors. In addition to militarizing local police forces, the present ruling class has developed elaborate systems of surveillance to track protestors.

The US government has spent about $635bn over the past decade militarising local law enforcement. That...includes "tanks and drones, robot bomb detectors, grenade launchers, Tasers, and most of all, interlinked video surveillance cameras and information databases".