Of course there are some beautiful souls in all these countries who have stood in solidarity with #Syria but there are also many who are still asleep, who don’t realise that these young men and women are dying for us, not only for Syria. What amazes me is the level of defensiveness in the comments – because this man, who has survived a number of attacks by the terrorists – has dared to openly criticise the people in the West for their passive collusion in the pain of his people. I take full responsibility for my government and their crimes – they would not exist without us and in my very humble opinion, we must start to take responsibility for what happens globally during our lifetime. WE are the change we are searching for, not our governments, not our President, not our pseudo-humanitarian NGOs, not the UN, not any institution that is automatically compromised by its sponsors and its establishment backers.
in the time remaining, to help us understand how the man-made system of capitalism will lead to the extinction of our human species, and so many others.
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