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, November 10, 2013

Syria has Changed

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet
The media coverage of the war in Syria examines only military, diplomatic and humanitarian action. It ignores profound transformation. However, one does not survive a sea of ​​violence without changing profoundly. From Damascus, where he has lived for two years, Thierry Meyssan describes this evolution.
It appears from this report that real democracy is developing in war-torn Syria; and it is developing because of the war and partly assisted by the withdrawal of US support for the jihadi terrorist groups sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The war has seriously weakened the Assad's regime who, in order to survive, had to appeal to the support of the people by reducing their class oppression. 

It's a sad commentary on human nature that it takes such calamities for real power of the people to emerge. Whereas before the war, people were pursuing their own interests through the class structure which favored certain classes over others, now under the stress of outside forces they have united against a common foe. 

Does it follow that if peace is completely restored in Syria, then this flowering of democracy will once again degenerate into class war? I think the answer is yes. So long as ordinary people allow some members to establish themselves as privileged members of society through any institutional arrangements (the current popular one being private "ownership" of social-economic property), we will see societies degenerate into authoritarianism and torn apart by class war.