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

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Extremism normalized

Click here to access article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon.

An excellent piece by a trained constitutional lawyer who essentially argues that a conversion of the US into a police state is becoming normalized--although he doesn't frame it quite like that. The argument is very convincing. As the concentration of power and wealth increases, we are seeing an all-out class war waged on the streets across North America and Europe. In the US we see militarized police being directed by the Department of Homeland Security and equipped with all kinds of short-of-lethal weapons attacking unarmed, peaceful protestors.