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, February 19, 2014

American Media Coverage of Sochi

Click here to access article by As'ad AbuKhalil from Al Akhbar

This posting is a little late in relation to US media coverage which occurred at the start of the Olympics. Still, in a rather brief and cursory way, it introduces the larger issue of how the US ruling class uses media to shape public opinion to further its interests of profit and power. Because shaping of public opinion is a primary weapon in the arsenal of the empire builders who are creating so much havoc throughout the world, we need to critically examine all the evidence and analysis of it whenever and wherever it raises its subversive head.