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, September 13, 2014

Springtime for Russophobia

Click here to access article by Mark Hackard from The Soul of the East.

I love this piece with its satiric edge regarding Empire propaganda portraying its various enemies as the latest versions of Hitler. However, only in the final paragraph is there a hint of a deeper insight that is missing from the most of the satire. Aren't we really witnessing what psychologists refer to as "projection", that is the projection of one's own embarrassing qualities onto another as a way of warding off any conscious awareness of these qualities in oneself? 

I think this term is very apt with one exception. I don't think that the directors of today's capitalist Empire are unaware of what they are really doing using this type of propaganda. They just don't want us to become aware that they are the new Hitlers and the new Nazis.

Despite the attractive use of "humanitarian" packaging, what is the essential difference in today's world to that of the German capitalist would-be empire?  Are we not seeing another capitalist empire engaged in constant bombings and invasions by its NATO armies, by "coalitions of the willing", and by proxy armies against any country that offers any resistance to the Empire's interests?

Anyway, read the article and enjoy a pleasant antidote to the barrage of current Empire propaganda portraying Putin and Russia as the latest incarnation of evil which require the good guys of the Empire to come to people's rescue.