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, August 9, 2010

Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Even when it’s not out of sight)

by Dahr Jamail from Dahr Jamail's Dispatches.

This fine journalist is one of a few outstanding, independent US journalists who, unlike most of his peers, remains unembedded with the ruling class.

The author has trained his sharp-eyed journalistic gaze upon the record breaking environmental disaster in the Gulf that our ruling class would prefer that we forget about. His comparison with the US government's handling of this disaster with the Soviet Union's handling of the Chernobyl disaster is precious. If you want to avoid the usual soothing ruling class palaver about the Gulf disaster, then you must follow honest journalists like Jamail.
The lives of Gulf coast fishermen and residents are being destroyed. Scientists, environmentalists, and toxicologists are describing the Gulf of Mexico as a growing dead zone, a kill zone, and an energy sacrifice zone. As you read this, oil is everywhere around southeastern Louisiana, and continually washing ashore in Alabama and Mississippi.