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

Friday, May 3, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombings: the Emergency Declaration as a State of Exception

Click here to access article by Philippe Theophanidis from Aphelis

The author, who as a highly trained specialist in images (iconography), is quite concerned about legal aspects of the growing police state in the US after viewing numerous pictures submitted by civilians of events related to the Boston bombing. 

The author, of course, is a product of the US educational system which indoctrinates people to believe that our society is governed by laws that are processed through a legitimate system of government. As such the author exhibits a very naive point of view and is threatened by the images he viewed. The article essentially attempts to reconcile the images he viewed with his indoctrination. 

If one somehow has escaped this indoctrination which has been carefully crafted by a capitalist ruling class to provide cover and legitimacy for their rule, one can see and understand the realities of what happens to such a society when, for whatever reason, this class feels it necessary to dispense with the cover and reveals the hidden, brutal fist of fascism. We've seen this before in Spain, Italy, Germany, and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, and in many other areas of the world since.