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, October 30, 2017

The English-speaking world’s fear of calling communism, ‘communism’ [a best post]

Click here to access article by Ramin Mazaheri from The Greanville Post. (Note: It appears from what he writes that Mazaheri is an Iranian-American analyst living and working in France.)

Mazaheri scores another "best post" from me with this excellent article explaining some key socialist concepts that cannot be talked about and are "verboten" in the English speaking world. They are repressed because of the faith-based religion of capitalism that is practiced throughout the US-led Empire, and from which a tiny class of people exercise so much political power and enjoy so much wealth. Sticking with this metaphor, it is a sin to speak of these concepts as having anything to do with socialism. Hence former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis changed the wording a bit in order to challenge the Eurozone's austerity policies. 
...even if Varoufakis rejects other key Communist tenets – one-party system, bans on capitalism, bans on far-right hate speech & groups, bans on divisive media – his entire book is based around this three-word phrase which is a thinly-veiled euphemism for the more common terms of “redistribution from rich to poor” and “central planning”.

Just say it openly, man!
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