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, November 13, 2012

Skyfall, starring David Petraeus

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times Online.

The author uses his inimitable sarcastic humor to ridicule the media's portrayal of Petraeus' downfall as a Hollywood production. And I think, with many others, that it has about as much to do with reality as a Hollywood film.
With US corporate media now totally berserk, the master narrative remains that The Samurai General did the honorable thing by resigning. It all goes back to good ol' American Puritanism. You can be a killing machine, responsible for the death of untold numbers of civilians. But don't you dare betraying your devoted wife.
If you believe this story, then likely you believed all the other Empire productions such as the reasons for going to war against Iraq, all the official reports on the 9/11 tragedy, the Kennedy assassination, etc.