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, November 26, 2010

“US has unprecedented imperial military presence in the world” [10:26m video]

Tom Engelhardt is interview by RT

Engelhardt provides an excellent overview of US's military establishment, its bases protecting the Empire, the mad pursuit of a never-ending war policy that is destroying the US, and the present terrified state of ordinary Americans.

What is lacking in the interview is a systemic political understanding of this phenomenon as reflected in statements such as "the media is in bed with the militarists". Mass media and the military, along with all other significant institutions, are all under the control of a class of people who own, and reap the rewards from, all the important economic activities in the nation and in much of the world.