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, February 25, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Tuesday, February 25, 2020

This rather lengthy piece addresses a very important subject: social-economic and ultimately coercive power. He starts off with a fundamental description of what it is, and ends up with a specific discussion of its presence in the current US election scene. I've long considered this power as a crucial problem that humans have not been able to overcome.
I think power is a fatal human flaw which will end in the extinction of human and many other species. Only in the roughly last 10,000 years have we seen the appearance of self-serving ruling classes. During this history we have seen, because of human cleverness, a vast increase in the number of humans. This period is nearly a "drop in the bucket" compared to the 200,000 years of the appearance of humans on our planet Earth. But during this micro period of "civilization" we've seen one system after another (capitalism is the latest) that created tiny ruling classes through the use of power.
Our evolution has been largely shaped by the last 190,000 years when we lived in tiny bands which became dispersed all over the planet. Human species has not had time to evolve the means to cope with the vast increases of their population in this current period that is required to counter the power of the current ruling classes. Thus, our weakness in confronting powerful ruling classes is our fatal flaw that will end in our extinction due to the ruling classes' destruction of our habitat.
  • Bolivia: Anatomy of a CIA Coup by Hugo Turner from Internationalist 360°. (Note: What struck me about this essay is that the same methods have been used here in the USA with modifications in order to preserve the fiction of "democracy". But after Sanders is neutralized(def.#1) one way or another by the capitalist ruling class, I predict that even this well-worn fiction will be ultimately shattered and ordinary people of the USA will find themselves much like citizens of poorer countries. Then things could get really hot!)
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