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, November 19, 2012

Utopia on the Horizon

Click here to access introduction. This is a 28:03m film by Jerome Roos, Leonidas Oikonomakis, Andres Cornejo from Reflections on a Revolution. (Note: Although the interviews are conducted in English, I strongly recommend that North American viewers use the version below which includes English subtitles.)

 After more than a year of protests and continuing austerity crushing down on the Greek people, you may be wondering where they are in their political consciousness. In this film using the backdrop of the protests, riots, and police attacks, the filmmakers interview Greeks from various stations in life to offer their views on this subject. I think what they are saying to us is that they have been on a journey that has taken them from political innocence with all of its illusions about bourgeois democracy to a much more realistic consciousness of how their society is governed. As a result they are turning away from conventional political institutions and starting to create their own institutions. But, view it and see what it says to you.

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