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

Friday, February 14, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Friday, February 14, 2020

Stuart Scott quit his day job in 2008 to serve humanity and life on Earth full time as a climate change and eco-social strategist. Here is one of his first speeches at the UN climate talks, one of the 'intercessional' rounds of negotiations between the annual COPs, or Conferences Of Parties. Everything he said is as urgently relevant today as it was back then. But the climate talks have continued as a disingenuous ritual of 'kicking the can down the road', until now we are experiencing a climate emergency of huge proportions.
(Note: Zuesse, as a social democrat, must distort certain details of history in order to salvage his view "That’s not what capitalism was supposed to be." Thus a ruling class becomes an aristocracy, government become a "regime", and he places too much emphasis on individuals to explain his social democratic view of 20th century history that turned capitalism (in his view) from a hopeful enterprise to a disaster.

However, as a stickler for truth, he presents a much more realistic view of history than do thoroughly capitalist-indoctrinated historians who largely rewrite history to manage social consent for the ongoing disastrous actions of the US ruling class. 
The latter saw opportunities in 1941 to construct an empire out of the rubble that WWII left behind. Like any good capitalist, early on the ruling class saw this exciting opportunity and launched their initial attempts to defeat all opposition whether domestic or abroad. Their domestic opponents posed a more serious threat in 1945, and the latter were to weak to resist. So, they began their attacks on labor unions with the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 (also see this), and went on to weed out socialist-minded opponents in the film industry. This was only the beginning of an effort by the US capitalist ruling class to establish their own empire.

So, the simple answer to his question is a resounding "yes"! but not the individualist reasons he gives. The causes are systemic--capitalism.)
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