Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Dark Homes: inside the world’s most expensive residence

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

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Dark Homes: inside the world’s most expensive residence

Click here to access article by Michael Barker from Ceasefire (Britain).

One Hyde Park, in the heart of London, is considered to be the world’s most expensive residential building. Beneath the glittery surface, however, a snapshot of its owners and residents can tell us a great deal about the nature of modern capitalism.

Well, actually not so much about "modern capitalism" as about modern capitalists who are mostly "absentee owners, hiding behind offshore corporations based in tax havens" and who "live in fear of contact with the rest of the world."