Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Democratic Elections in Syria

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

Monday, April 28, 2014

Democratic Elections in Syria

Click here to access article by Thierry Meyssan from VoltaireNet.

When is an election a legitimate exercise in something like "democracy"? Well, opinions vary widely depending on the viewers' interests, and the viewers usually have some kind of big stake in the outcomes of elections. The universal cry of humanity for social justice has produced this process of elections to select and legitimize leaders, but it is a thoroughly corrupted system used by ruling classes to fool their subjects. You simply cannot have ruling classes and fair elections--this is, or should be, a self-evident contradiction. One might argue, as Meyssan does with the planned Syria election, that some elections are more legitimate than others. (See also Viktor Titov's views on the Syrian elections.)

For me, the best part of this article are the observations Meyssan makes about the gross hypocrisy which the planned Syrian elections are viewed by Empire directors and their associates.