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

Sunday, July 31, 2011

The crimes of Emperor Rupert

Click here to access article by Tony Iltis from Green Left (Australia). 

The Rupert-British government scandal is revealing what many on the left have been arguing for years: the close integration of right-wing media with the ruling capitalist elites: to sustain and promote the interests of that class. In other words, mainstream media is an indispensable propaganda organ of the governing class and used to manage the minds of working people
The illusion of pluralism in corporate-dominated democracies is promoted by the media, like mainstream parties, having a spectrum of opinions but none which question corporate rule.