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

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Bloodbath on the Nile

Click here to access article by Esam Al-Amin from CounterPunch.

I offer this post because the author reports details that I've not seen elsewhere on the tragic and dramatic events that are still unfolding in Egypt. He captures their profound significance and that they will likely have a major influence on future political events in the region. Where he falls down, in my opinion, is his weak liberal-democratic analysis of the event that is typically found in the Western world's progressive-liberal media. He doesn't seem to understand that the Egyptian military regime is an authoritarian monster created by the capitalist Empire and must be seen in the context of the dynamics of that Empire.