Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The society of commodity

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, March 27, 2013

The society of commodity

Click here to access article by Efor from Eagainst (Greece).

There is much food for thought here. Consumerism drives the profit machinery of capitalism, but it also impacts our minds.

Mass societies produce individuals who instead of undertaking political responsibilities and initiatives, become addicted to following and voting for the political choices someone else has prepared for them, exactly as they don’t get to decide what kind of goods they want to produce, how to produce them or in which way they want to distribute them.