Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Uncle Tom’s Empire

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, April 15, 2019

Uncle Tom’s Empire

Click here to access article by C. J. Hopkins from his blog Consent Factory, Inc.

Hopkins first aims his satirical weapons at the "mandarins of the corporate media" (the talking heads on TV and their bosses in corporate media), but then goes on seriously to make a rather convincing argument, especially as applied to people like Manning and Assange:

The goal of the media and other propagandists is not to deceive or mislead the masses. Their goal is to evoke the pent-up rage and hatred simmering within the masses and channel it toward the official enemy.

However, I think the "mandarins" mostly do this when the directors of the Empire engage in obviously despicable behavior, but otherwise they do both: deceive and direct anger at their enemies.