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

Friday, April 20, 2012

Why the Israeli state is terrified of peaceful protest

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution.

The author assembles a lot of first and second hand reports including videos to explain the headline.
The extreme violence of the Israeli state against peaceful protesters reveals a deep-seated fear inside the country’s political establishment. Realizing that they cannot successfully guarantee civil consent and popular legitimacy, successive governments have embraced violence as a necessary tool for the state to guarantee its survival in a context of eroding international support.
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