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

Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Logic behind Mass Spying: Empire and Cyber Imperialism

Click here to access article by James Petras from his website. 

The retired professor of sociology tries his hand at deciphering the logic of empire building. Empire builders obviously use violence, deceit, subversion to build their empires, but in the process they also create many enemies. To deal with the latter problem, they must construct vast spying networks to head off resistance to their rule. The professor provides more of the details of this process and illustrates the logic by referring to the history of the US Empire. I'm not as hopeful as he is about the ultimate consequences of this logic.