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, March 11, 2013

Can Civilization Survive Capitalism?

Click here to access article by Noam Chomsky from Nation of Change
Within the RECD [really existing capitalist democracy] system it is of extreme importance that we become the stupid nation, not misled by science and rationality, in the interests of the short-term gains of the masters of the economy and political system, and damn the consequences.
Our masters in the One Percent ruling class must continue to obscure, promote skepticism, and deny radical climate change in order to continue milking working people and nature for their obscene profits. There are so many costs, referred to by Chomsky as "externalities", incurred by both profit operations that are never registered in market transactions. Referring to ecological costs, this dean of social critics warns us:
The externality that is being ignored is the fate of the species. And there is nowhere to run, cap in hand, for a bailout.

In future, historians (if there are any) will look back on this curious spectacle taking shape in the early 21st century. For the first time in human history, humans are facing the significant prospect of severe calamity as a result of their actions – actions that are battering our prospects of decent survival.