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, June 25, 2016

Past Is Prelude: Stalin Was Right About National Defence (Part I of 2)

Click here to access article by Michael Jabara Carley from Strategic Culture Foundation.

Absolutely excellent! Carley reviews the history of relations between the West and Russia/Soviet Union since the Russian Revolution of 1917 in order to provide an understanding to lessor informed minds about the present conflicts between the West and today's Russia. 

I have read a considerable amount of this history, but Carley gives additional details to this history that I found absolutely fascinating. And he provides numerous original posters to illustrate this history.

Essentially this very accurate history suggests that the West regarded the Russian Revolution has bringing to power a system that was in extreme opposition to capitalism, a system that had provided capitalists in the West with so much wealth and power. The Soviet Union was the ultimate apostate that rejected private ownership of an economy--blasphemous to the religious-like devotion of capitalists to their system! This single event became a prime factor in understanding the rest of the history of the 20th century. In this 21st century the global domination agenda of the neoliberalist Empire does not tolerate any challenges from countries that aspire to be independent. It is this that drives the US-led Empire's aggressive actions against present day Russia (and China).

Because I don't want to burden readers of my blog with too much, I will post the second and concluding part tomorrow. But if you, like myself, are too curious to wait, here is the second part.