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, January 27, 2012

Should consumers boycott Apple?

Click here to access article by Alexandra Le Tellier from Los Angeles Times.

Apparently now that the obscene exploitation of Chinese workers by US corporations is becoming common knowledge through reports filtering in from foreign and domestic independent sources, the NY Times is now covering the story and, by it leadership role in US media, is giving permission to other US media outlets to also start reporting this story and offering opinion pieces on the subject. I think that is the way that coverage is controlled in the US by our political masters in the One Percent. The Washington Post also appears to function the same way.

Because of the great concentration of ownership and control of US media, the ruling One Percent do not need an Orwellian Ministry of Truth or a Pravda to control information that is allowed to be released to its citizens. By this more indirect means of control, they have succeeded in the minds of many of its citizens to maintain the fiction of an independent media and objective reporting while actually controlling what information is provided and how it is framed for consumption.

Hence, it is of vital importance in any serious effort to change the power arrangements of our society to first, support all independent journalists as much as we can, and second, to establish and support our own media institutions.