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, June 15, 2017

Mark Crispin Miller on “conspiracy theory”

Click here if you wish to access an 25:54m interview with Mark Crispin Miller by RT directly from Miller's website. 

In this interview this specialist in communication studies offers his understanding of the words “conspiracy theory” often used by Empire agents to smear views that they don't like. This weapon is a part of the vast arsenal that Empire agents use in their largely one-sided war on authentic information.
One of the most divisive terms in the English language today is the phrase ‘conspiracy theory.’ Its stigma has a chilling effect on people and the label has the subtle power to shut down enquiring minds and, with them, any inconvenient conversations.

But where did the term come from, and how does this catch-all phrase affect independent thinkers, international debate and the media today?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and Professor of Media Studies at New York University Mark Crispin Miller.