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

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, December 17, 2020

  • Barbarians at the barn: private equity sinks its teeth into agriculture from GRAIN. Note: I am posting this lengthy article to show you that investors and managers of worker and government pension funds are taking over farmland all over the world and causing many problems for humans and the environment to add to their wealth. This is how capitalist practices serves the food needs of humans the profits and power needs of a tiny minority of capitalists and associated professionals working in Wall Street.
It is disconcerting that the biggest players in the private equity industry are people’s pension funds, followed by governments’ development finance institutions. They are responsible, yet there is zero connection between them and the people whose money they are investing, much less between them and the communities impacted by these investments.
  • Year Zero by CJ Hopkins, a political satirist, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. 
2020 was GloboCap Year Zero. The year when the global capitalist ruling classes did away with the illusion of democracy and reminded everyone who is actually in charge, and exactly what happens when anyone challenges them. 
In the relatively short span of the last ten months, societies throughout the world have been transformed beyond recognition. Constitutional rights have been suspended. Protest has been banned. Dissent is being censored.
  • New World Next Year 2021 featuring James Corbett and James Pilato offering an-end-of-the-review and some hopeful predictions about next year. It lasts nearly 34 minutes and is posted on The Corbett Report.
  • Life Without Lies from the YouTube channel of Journeyman Pictures, a one minute preview entitled "The Troublemaker". This is a best post because it is so urgent.
Facing up to the climate crisis on a journey of self-discovery
It is in times of crisis that we find out what really matters to us, that we get to discover who we really are, as individuals and as a society. The Troublemaker delves deep into the ideas and emotions behind the international wave of civil protest, born in the face of the unfolding climate crisis. Through the eyes of a visionary leader who co-founded ‘Extinction Rebellion’, and a previously law-abiding citizen inspired to take action, The Troublemaker aspires to stir the audience from passive resistance to a life-affirming defence of our future. Now that we understand more about what a ‘global crisis’ feels like, it can no longer be ignored.
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