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, April 26, 2010

Vichy America

from Information Clearing House. This is quite a rant, but it expresses the frustration that many of us feel regarding our fellow Americans who just don't get it (sadly, that includes some of my relatives). 

Okay, so the Teabaggers have been victims of many decades of brainwashing by corporate media, educational systems designed to teach what to think instead of how to think, and the illusion of a democratic government that is bought and paid for regardless of who wins. But still I find it quite astonishing. Never have a people been so duped into serving those who are oppressing them. 

I really think the author is spot on when he states, "Then as the presidential election season is upon us the Republicans will again put up a weak challenger and maybe the teabaggers will hoist some clown as their standard bearer thus making sure that Obama is re-elected." 

I think that Obama is the perfect candidate for the machinations of the governing class. Being a black man (even though he was raised by a white grandmother who had a successful career in banking) with a gift for rhetoric, he is still seen by many (liberals and mainstream non-racists) as someone outside of the white establishment who is concerned about the interests of ordinary Americans. In other words, he is a kind of wolf in sheep's clothing. But a wolf whose appetite is mostly for gaining the approval of the "respectable" people--the white establishment.