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

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Why does Greece not simply get it over with and default?

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from Reflections on a Revolution
History has shown that defaulting countries tend to fall harder but recover faster. So why does Greece’s left-led government not simply get it over with?
Roos's essay provides some answers to this question and to Greece's dilemma as the Syriza administration play this game of chicken with their international creditors. So far the creditors seem to be set on an uncompromising hardline course--perhaps because their capitalist "house of cards" is so fragile that they have no choice. So, it appears that the outcome is finally up to ordinary Greek citizens. Their dilemma and ultimate choice brings to mind the soliloquy of Shakespeare's Hamlet
To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them?
Should the Greece government default, the consequences could have widespread geopolitical as well as economic reverberations throughout the world. As usual, the vast majority of my fellow Americans are sound asleep, and their dreams are filled with illusions purveyed by corporate media which have little to do with the real world.