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

Saturday, October 15, 2016

“So Called” Communist China

Click here to access article by Jeff J. Brown from All China Review.

I have been a bit skeptical of all of Brown's article regarding China because they seem to be excessively positive. Brown sounds to me like a China booster. I have also been skeptical that China can by offering cheap labor for capitalists to exploit remain untouched by the whole culture of capitalism. And, in addition, there is the further problem of alarming pollution that China has exhibited by being the "workshop of the world". Still, with the paucity of accurate information about China that Western corporate media offers, I think we need occasionally to read Brown's reports with a critical eye.

The following is probably the editor's introduction to the article:
Despite the Western empire’s banner of democracy in China, communism is working well in its society. The article discusses how China’s socioeconomic and geopolitical advances since 1949 can be attributed to its unique version of democracy.