Surviving Capitalism (Not) : How Come the World is Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome

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, February 16, 2019

How Come the World is Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome

Click here to access article by Andre Vltchek from New Eastern Outlook.

His argument that most of the world's suffering, exploited, oppressed, poverty-stricken people love the images of the West is a very sad insight on humans. It seems that there is nothing like "success" and "winning" that attracts the admiration of others even when this success comes about using the cruelest and the most criminal of means. Of course, the "Stockholm syndrome" doesn't infect everyone, but it is little consolation to discover that it infects many, if not most, people. Perhaps this is another reason not to grieve over the coming extinction of humans.

It may sound incredible, but it is true: in countries that have been damaged, even totally robbed and destroyed by the West, many people are still enamored with Europe and North America.

For years, I have been observing this ‘phenomena’, even in the most plundered, devastated war zones and slums. Often I was shocked, other times thoroughly desperate. I did not know how to respond, how to react, how to describe what I have been observing.