Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Five Challengers of the Neoliberal Jackboot

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, March 31, 2012

Five Challengers of the Neoliberal Jackboot

Click here to access article by Vijay Prashad from CounterPunch.

The US Empire is increasingly feeling the presence of the "five challengers" or the BRIC countries who are flexing their economic muscles. Because these countries are ruled by capitalist classes, I doubt that there is anything progressive about this except that they act as a counter-force to the aggressive Empire that is on a rampage across much of the globe.

One thing that was brought to my attention in the article is how the Empire has organized non-UN economic organizations to pursue their neo-liberal policies just like they have used NATO to pursue military operations that the UN would not endorse. The political operatives of the Empire are willing to use the UN when they can control it; but when it poses obstacles for them, they ignore it and use alternative organizations such as NATO and "coalitions of the willing".