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

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Our American Pravda

Click here to access article by Ron Unz from The American Conservative

I think the value of this article lies in its illustration of an old-fashioned conservative who was a dedicated anti-Soviet ideologue and now is someone who has discovered some truths about the political nature of the US.

Old fashioned conservatives usually had a moderate respect for truth and decency, but they were even more influenced by their dedication to the capitalist system that brought them so many rewards in terms of wealth and power. Well, it seems that their power has been eclipsed by the new capitalists who operate currently under the banner of neoliberalism (literally "new capitalism" because liberalism, the original ideology of capitalism, is often used as a synonym for capitalism), and are logically referred to as neo-conservatives. The latter are a breed married to Israel-firsters that have ensconced themselves in the center of all our major institutions to influence our foreign policies in the direction of imperial domination over the rest of the world. This domination is led by their major international credit institutions, IMF and the World Bank, aided by the imposition of the US dollar in world trade, and enforced by the violent arm of NATO should all else fail.

This development has had some positive results for old-fashioned conservatives, because having lost most of their influence, many of them like this author are now able to be more objective about some of the realities of media coverage and the electoral system. It seems that in this post-Cold War era he is no longer blinded by hysterical anti-Soviet propaganda, and thus is able to see more clearly how today's ruling class functions.