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 25, 2011

The True Meaning of Keith Olbermann

by Will Bunch from The Huffington Post

The author on this liberal website claims to have intimate knowledge of the personality and character of Keith Olbermann, a popular liberal TV commentator. That may be, but he misses the more important issues in his removal from NBC.
 
Olbermann's dismissal from NBC following immediately after the FCC approval of the Comcast purchase of NBC, raises all sorts of speculation. It seems that corporate media can no longer tolerate even liberal views to contaminate the Empire's messages.  The limits of political discourse that are acceptable in mainstream media continue to narrow as the concentration of the media continues. 

However, this commentator only touches superficially on those issues and leaves us with the comfortable impression that Olbermann accomplished his mission, the Bush administration was stopped, the lies of the far-right has been exposed, and all is well with the world. Check out this ridiculous statement:
Olbermann might have felt that now was the time to go. What he inspired during Bush's presidency was nothing less than a revolution, and it's often hard to adjust when the romance of revolution fades.
The lack of concern shown by this liberal commentator for the ongoing agenda of the Empire , illustrates how much the political center has shifted to the right in the US.