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, July 20, 2014

Big Brother To Get Bigger in Mexico

Click here to access article by Don Quijones from Wolf Street. 

While opposition is gathering against net neutrality and electronic surveillance in the US portion of the Empire, it appears that a major effort to accomplish these objectives is well advanced in the Mexican section. Such nefarious measures have been carefully wrapped in propaganda material that appears to reign in monopolies. Thus, the public has been carefully prepared to view these measures as "reforms". (I think it is a truism that whenever ruling class media presents legislation as a "reform", what they really have in mind are measures that will harm the interests of ordinary people and benefit their class.)
...as El Confidencial warns, the anti-trust measures are effectively a carrot hiding a much larger stick within the large- and fine-print – a stick that could soon be wielded against political and social activists, investigative journalists, high-profile members of the political opposition or any other groups that threaten the status quo.