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, August 17, 2012

Stand Strong and Do Not Despair: Some Thoughts on the Fading Student Movement in Quebec

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from his blog.

This young, very articulate, and wise Canadian blogger puts the latest struggles of the Quebec student movement in a much broader perspective: their strike against higher tuition was but a battle in longer, bigger war against those who defend a system that has gone global, a system that is intent on exploiting everyone, everywhere who are not a part of the global One Percents who lay claim or "ownership" over everything of value.
Our elites, much like Marie Antoinette, looked upon the massive unrest and anger of the population and declared, “Let them eat cake”: let them have elections, let them buy televisions, iPods, and game systems; let them choose between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Democrat and Republican, Liberal and Conservative; let them buy a house and have a car, let them go to school and get a job, let them think and feel as if they are free and in charge… but do not let them take freedom or take charge. So now, it’s payback time for all the small concessions they have granted us, each one in their eyes, an unjust and undeserving sacrifice, always proclaimed to have catastrophic consequences to the economy and society and “free industry” and “enterprise.” So now, it is “all for them, and none for us.”

Now, we don’t even get our cake.