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, March 11, 2013

We're Fighting the Wrong War!

Click here to access article by Peter G. Cohen from Nation of Change
As I see it, stamp collecting or golf is an interest;  wanting other nations’ gold, oil or uranium is not an interest,  it is coveting, and you can read about it in the Ten Commandments. 
This author is stating obvious observations about government spending, a topic that is currently featured prominently in the mainstream media but always portrayed as excessive spending on social programs rather than military adventures to promote Empire "interests". What the liberal author fails to explain is the reason that this occurs. Spending on weapons to be used to secure access to cheap labor, markets, and raw materials is the most direct route to increase of profits by industrial and financial corporations. This, of course, is what the capitalist system is all about. 

This sort of superficial political criticism is much too common in the US today, and is responsible for holding back real solutions to our many problems.