Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Greece at the global forefront

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

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Greece at the global forefront

Click here to access article by Stathis Gourgouris from Al Jazeera.

The author argues that there is more at stake in Greece than a national economy and a parliament.

...what is especially important is the broader social and historical context of these elections. The collapse of credibility in the entire political system underlies the essential paradox of these elections: a bankrupt country, whose population is profoundly disaffected with the political system, gathers to exercise its democratic right to elect officials that are to preside over a national terrain that has effectively lost its sovereignty.

We are witnessing a dramatic articulation of the essential contradiction between democracy and capitalism. More than ever, this is the essential political problem of our times.

Of course, the author is referring to capitalist "democracy" which is a fake form of democracy instituted in the late 18th century to seduce working people into assisting the bourgeoisie fight against the aristocracy which led to the latter's downfall and numerous revolutions.