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

Monday, May 7, 2012

How Occupy Wall Street Has Already Won

Click here to access article by Molly James from Policymic.
...the extremely power[ful] notion that citizens need not rely on governments or corporations to seek a better world is out of the bottle and won't be corked again. 
I think this thesis really captures the significance of the current zeitgeist. The Occupy movement is still a minority, still rudimentary in form; but this initial step is very much on the road to revolution. Many others are about ready to take this step. It will only take more business-as-usual from the political operatives of the One Percent to convince more to take this all important step in the right direction. And this will surely happen simply because more business-as-usual is on the agenda--capitalism is ideologically bankrupt.

Further on down this path lies the revolutionary awareness that capitalist governments and capitalism must be completely demolished and new people-centered institutions must be designed and created.