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

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

300 economists give support for the Occupy Wall Street movement

Click here to access article from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

Happenings like this suggest that cracks are beginning to appear in the capitalist fortress that towers over everyone on Earth. Economists are typically well-indoctrinated technicians of global capitalism that keeps the machinery running while justifying its existence. I doubt they are opposed to capitalist markets as such even though the operations of the latter result in widespread harm to society, but more by the appalling actions of ruling class enforcers on protestors and the cutbacks that institutions of higher learning are now experiencing. "But wait, there's more!"

The very first sentence in their statement reveals an important fact that they know from first hand experience: that their profession is subject to ongoing and rigorous discipline from the ideological masters of the Empire.
We are economists who oppose ideological cleansing in the economics profession.