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, March 12, 2013

South Africa’s Troubled Times

Click here to access article by Danny Schechter from Consortium News.

I am posting this article because it illustrates another example of a nation torn by corruption, class war, and deteriorating economic conditions for the 99 Percent in many countries. 

It seems to me that our human inhabited planet contains the germs of revolt nearly everywhere, and it is only a matter of time when various areas break out like boils into open class and/or anti-imperialist war. No matter how often capitalist ruling classes change their superficial images: from an oppressive rule by a Mubarak to an "elected" Morisi, from a Bush to an Obama, or from an apartheid state to a capitalist version of "democracy", conditions for the 99 Percent continue to deteriorate.
The sense of traditional solidarity, class cohesion and community is under strain by a blatant Darwinism with even the poor embracing that core capitalist value to “look out for number one,” as government services – what they call “delivery” promises – falter and fail.
See also my posting of an article entitled "Get Rich or Lie Trying: Why ANC Millionaire Julius Malema posed as a Radical".