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
Monday, June 9, 2014
Counter-power as common power: beyond horizontalism
Although I've only had time to read half of the article (before my noon deadline), it looks to be an exceptional critique of the Occupy Movement's creation of general assemblies in which movement organizers attempted to introduce a direct form of democracy. Following the critique is a 19:04m video in which Not An Alternative presented a report on the Media, Communication, Outreach panel at the Global Uprisings Conference in Amsterdam, (November 2013)