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

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Globalization: Fast Track To Nowhere

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from his blog East by Northwest

This writer examines the fast-life created by capitalism on steroids that is destroying everything we love about communities, and he doesn't like it. There are hints throughout the article that he is becoming aware of what is causing the drastic transformation of all life in service to the profit addicted capitalist ruling classes.
  • ...that’s what fast living or, to be precise, the system that creates it does. It corrupts and destroys most things that get in its way. It recasts everything in its own image. 
  • The root of the problem needs to be addressed. The slow life, whether slow food or slow urban environments, is impossible if we fail to realize that decisions about urban planning, economic activity, investment, products and services, etc, are made through the capture of governments, regulatory agencies and courts by corporations adamant on expanding and perpetuating their dominance.  
  • ...we must eradicate the material conditions that produce and perpetuate class-based exploitation and divisions on an increasingly global level. 
  • What we need is proper democracy achieved through, for example, common ownership of banks and key industries and a commitment to ‘green’ policies and renewable energy. 
          [my emphasis]