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, August 31, 2014

The Covert Origins of ISIS

Click here to access article from StormCloudsGathering.

Over the past several years I have occasionally read articles on this website that appeared to be well written, well reasoned, and well documented. However, when I've looked into them further, I have always been left with an uneasy feeling. This happened again today. 

Once again upon reading this article through most of the article I was impressed with the well documented facts and the sound reasoning that lead to sound conclusions about ISIS. But after this, I and the reader, is led down to some very prescriptive conclusions that end up nowhere substantial. First there is this:
Now you might be thinking: "This all sounds fine and good, but what does this have to do with me? I can't influence this situation."
.... I'll be honest with you though, this isn't going to be easy. To succeed we have to start thinking strategically. Like it or not, this is a chess game. If we really want to rock the boat, we have to start reaching out to people in positions of influence. This can mean talking to broadcasters at your local radio station, news paper, or t.v. station, or it can mean contacting influential bloggers, celebrities, business figures or government officials. Reaching out to current serving military and young people who may be considering joining up is also important. But even if it's just your neighbor, or your coworker, every single person we can reach brings us closer to critical mass. The most important step is to start trying.
Then we are led to a 13:47m video entitled "The Road to WW 3" which refers us to "The Natural Rights Foundation". Trying to locate the latter website seems only to lead to Common Ground which provides little substance and merely asks one to subscribe to the website as does the StormCloudsGathering website. 

Such an experience feeds my suspicions (paranoid fantasies, "conspiracy theories"?) about how national security agencies might want to gather information about activists and potential revolutionaries by luring them into their data bases by running articles like this. Just a thought. You must decide for yourselves.