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, January 26, 2010

Main Street's Disneyland folly

by Julian Delasantellis from Asia Times website.
The fantasy seems to suit the country better; then again, who ever thought that "Tomorrowland" would refer not to a bright and shiny Disney attraction, but to a boarded up, vandalized, abandoned and crumbling never-occupied housing development?