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

Saturday, December 24, 2011

New York to Host Israel's Top Drone Lab

Click here to access article by Max Blumenthal from Al-Akhbar. 
Presented as an anodyne research and development initiative that promises to produce thousands of jobs and hundreds of "spin-off" tech companies, the Cornell-Technion campus is also likely to be a boon to the military-industrial complex in the US and Israel.
As America's industrial base mostly disintegrates from the neo-liberal policies of the ruling capitalist elite, there is one sector that continues to boom--weapons technology and production. This article reveals in this example how the sector is increasingly wedded to the Israeli ruling class. 

It's becoming clear that the rulers of the Empire realize that many people, especially in the US, the center of the Empire, are beginning to see through the lies about the War on Terror and the War on Drugs. Hence, they are becoming a morally bankrupt ruling class that must increasingly depend on their sophisticated weapons and the threat of violence in order to continue their domination of many people across the globe. Never before has it been possible for so few to impose their will over so many. The only weapon, we the people have, is knowledge and the use of technology to spread that knowledge. But ideas are powerful, so the future of the 99 Percent remains in question: are we destined to live under conditions of barbarism or can we establish societies that are free of dominating, exploitative ruling classes? Stay tuned...or better yet, stay active.