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, August 13, 2016

Rethinking The Cold War and the new one

Click here to access article by Paul Craig Roberts from his blog.

Roberts never ceases to amaze me. This former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration can pack more profound truths in one article than I have ever seen done by any another informed political observer. Most profound and disturbing of all is his observation that a nuclear war is much more likely now than in the earlier Cold War--and I think he is right. 

His only failing is that he argues that a "handful" of individuals--instead of an entire economic system--are responsible for the crimes of the Empire. It is the system that serves a capitalist class with so much wealth and power that is the driving force behind their aggressive policies and actions.