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

Saturday, June 29, 2013

MF Global and Wall Street: Whose Job Is It To Take the Keys Away

Click here to access article by Pam Martens from Wall Street on Parade
In one ... conversation revealed in the CFTC’s lawsuit against Corzine and O’Brien, the [MF] Global Treasurer states: “We have to tell Jon that enough is enough. We need to take the keys away from him.”
Is it really the job of an employee on Wall Street to muster an intervention against a very powerful man in order to save their customers’ funds? Isn’t it the job of Congress....
The author knows that the system isn't functioning, that there is something basically wrong with it, but she has little idea how much. I don't mean to disparage her or her comments because she and the MF Global Treasurer, are like most Americans--they haven't clue of how serious the problems really are. 

It is not merely John Corzine whose keys should be taken away, but the entire class of people who have the keys to power over the US and much of the world. To take away their keys, we must destroy the entire capitalist system that distributes the keys to power that has permitted and encouraged this rampant greed, poverty amidst islands of extreme wealth, full-spectrum surveillance of citizens, and the construction of a police state. At the same time we must use all of our creative energies to construct a new system that can sustain human and all life on a healthy planet.

Like the Wall Street employee, like Edward Snowden, like Bradley Manning , like Julian Assange, like Mark Klein, like Sibel Edmonds, etc., we must all stand up and shout, "enough is enough!". We need to take the keys away from the entire capitalist class!