Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Fascinating Spell Cast by Weasels

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

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The Fascinating Spell Cast by Weasels

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from his blog Behind the Curtain.

Curtin expresses his thoughts about one of three human weaknesses that looks increasingly likely to cause the extinction of humans--the fascination of humans for weasel-like others who exude authority and power:

It’s still the same old story, a gory story of the fight to dominate and control that is coterminous with human history or longer. It is an ancient myth that we still live by. As in days of old, the siren song is often sexual in nature, not sexual in the passionately loving sense, not an encounter between two unknowns seeking to discover each other, but an instrumental sexual enticement wrapped in power, prestige, money, false charm and fake bravado whose purpose is domination.

The other two are: the seduction of power that often leads to the corruption of people (related to the latter weakness), and the lure of immediate gratification in place of an ability to assess developments in the future that might pose threats .