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, November 30, 2013

Surviving Oligarchy

Click here if you wish to access the source of this posting on Michael Hudson's website.

This 8:37m clip is from a 2011 film entitled "Surviving Progress" and features a segment by Hudson in the YouTube video below. 

Like all liberal critics of the economic crisis, Hudson stays on the edges of safe criticism by attacking debts, but never the current system in which debts are one of the major consequences. Although I haven't seen the film, I would be very surprised if it ever explicitly mentioned the system of capitalism; and like the film's title merely refers to "progress". However, such material can lead one to question the capitalist system which produces such huge amounts of debts and so many debtors, and on the other side a small number of creditors among the capitalist class.