in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
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, October 23, 2013
From Obamacare to Single-Payer: An interview with Benjamin Day of Healthcare-NOW!
Day provides an extremely helpful antidote to the daily poison provided by ruling class media on the subject of health care in general, and "Obama Care" in particular. I do not share Day's hopeful comments about any progressive change. Health care is a major part of the ongoing class war, a war which is daily being won by the capitalist ruling class.
Facing ecological and resource limits to capitalist growth, their directors are increasingly forced to extract their wealth from society itself. Or, to put it another way, capitalist ruling classes all over the world are being confronted by planetary limits to exploitation, and now see the necessity of stealing from the poor, and even the middle class. Running out of opportunities to exploit nature’s gifts, the parasite of capitalism is now feeding more aggressively on its host — society. Therefore, adequate health care can only be achieved through the overthrow of the capitalist system and the construction of an ecologically sustainable and socially just system.