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

Thursday, August 9, 2012

If Bradley Manning Were Chinese…..

Click here to access article by Hameed Abdul Karim from Lankaweb (Sri Lanka). 

The author contrasts US media treatment of a Chinese ‘dissident’ with that of Bradley Manning. 
In the forefront of the minds of readers and viewers were images of a kind, altruistic and benign America doing all it has to do for a freedom loving man like Chen and negative images of China oppressing its own people who are craving for freedom and justice from the ‘communist regime’.
This brings us to another dissident. He is an American and his name is Bradley Manning.
Unfortunately, there are so many naive Americans who view "news and information" coming out of their TV mind-altering-box as reality. Like so many wonderful inventions produced by the rational discipline of science, television, instead of enriching our lives and promoting our liberation, has been hijacked by the One Percent to exploit and oppress us.