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, December 6, 2012

Washington floats chemical weapons charge as pretext for Syria buildup

Click here to access article by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site

The author sees the latest Empire propaganda regarding Syrian use of chemical weapons and NATO deployment of surface-to-air missiles on the Turkish border as preparations for a wider war in the Middle East.
In the offing is a war with potentially far more devastating consequences than the eight-year US intervention in Iraq or the more than decade-long war in Afghanistan. In attacking Syria, US imperialism is aiming to pave the way for an assault on Iran in a bid to reorganize the entire region in its own interests.
I can't express to you how depressing these developments are to me. Instead of the world wars we saw in the 20th century, in this century we are witnessing never ending mini-wars and widening split between the "haves" and the "have-nots" throughout much of the world. How right was Rosa Luxemburg who in 1915 asserted that it was either socialism or barbarism that was facing the human race?!

Although I started this blog as an effort to join with others to turn the tide against barbarism, it now appears to me that my blog is only offering a chronicle of our descent into barbarism.