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, May 27, 2013

Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism

Click here to access article by Andrew Gavin Marshall from The Hampton Institute: A Working Class Think Tank.
Empires don't just happen; they are constructed. They can also be deconstructed and dismantled, but that doesn't just happen either. Opposing empire is not a passive act: it requires dedication and information, action and reaction. As relatively privileged individuals in western state-capitalist societies, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to understand and oppose what our governments do abroad, how they treat the people of the world, how they engage with the world. It is our responsibility to do something, precisely because we have the opportunity to do so, unlike the majority of the world's population who live in abject poverty, under ruthless dictators that we arm and maintain, in countries we bomb and regions we dominate. We exist in the epicenter of empire, and thus: we are the only ones capable of ending empire.
This researcher has dedicated his life to providing information to us in the 99 Percent about our masters in the One Percent. He outlines the history of the construction of the American Empire starting from the conclusion of WWII and the defeat of the German capitalists. The latter had their own empire building designs when they decided to sponsor the Nazi party.

In this introduction, Marshall takes us on a tour of the many ruling class think tanks and other institutions. During this grand tour we will meet the ruling class political directors who have constructed the current Anglo-American Empire. What is particularly useful to us is his decoding of their public speeches and writings to reveal what they really meant. This is good training for us to learn how to decode their current public pronouncements to keep us from constantly being manipulated and fooled into supporting their projects.