Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Free speech vs the free market

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

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Free speech vs the free market

from Green Left (Australia). From Australia we get this report on the creative ways that the managers of their capitalist society limit free speech. Compare the methods used there with those we face in the US.

In the US it's clear that free speech is only permitted to the extent that few people hear it; otherwise it is severely limited when it attacks the governing system and ruling class policies. We have been provided with numerous spectacles and TV entertainment that have been very successful in distracting people from any serious examination of the issues facing our society, while mainstream media coverage of the news succeeds in confusing the issues as well as dis-informing most us.