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, October 4, 2013

Asma and Bashar al-Assad

Click here to access article by Gilles d'Aymery from Swans Commentary

This author has done some clever sleuthing of mainstream media's portrayal of Bashar Assad and his wife Asma over time to provide us with another brilliant illustration of how ruling class gatekeepers manipulate information to support the interests of their capitalist masters. The ownership of media provides the most powerful tool in the arsenal of ruling class weapons, and it is astounding to me that most ordinary people are still  unaware that corporate media largely serves to manipulate their views of the world. 

Nearly a hundred years ago people like Upton Sinclair in Brass Check and George Seldes in Even the Gods Can't Change History tried to warn us about the many lies constructed by capitalist media to manipulate ordinary working people. Since then there have been many others like Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Yet, I still find many of my fellow Americans who naively believe whatever the boob tube talking heads tell them. No doubt the educational system of the ruling class has also contributed to this mindset of believing whatever authority figures tell them.