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

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Ukraine crisis and the political lies of the media

Click here to access article by Alex Lantier from World Socialist Web Site.

What I really connected with in this piece by Lantier is his argument about the degeneration of US media into a monolithic Orwellian loudspeaker for the ruling class. I have expressed this feeling several times in my articles. I cannot recall in my lifetime that mainstream media was so full of disinformation, and so pervasive. I'm absolutely amazed at this development, and wondering what it might portend.

If the emphasis is put on "warmongers", then I agree with Lantier's statement that "A vast gulf separates the working class from the warmongers in the American ruling class and their lackeys in the media."  I think there is a gulf to the extent that ordinary Americans are not on board with any more aggressive actions over Ukraine; and, I think that Empire directors are aware of this and only going so far as to punish Putin and his friends with economic measures. 

Still, these directors and their European counterparts are playing a dangerous geopolitical game as argued by Paul Craig Roberts in his article "The World Moving Closer to War". The fact that they are willing to play such a game is very worrying. Do they really think they can intimidate Russia and their ruling class? Or is the strident rhetoric necessary to pacify the right-wing in the US?