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, April 9, 2015

Western Moral Bankruptcy and the New “Eastern” Hope

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook.

There is much I like about this article, but also some parts that I disagree with. I have a profound respect for Black and have in the past posted several very excellent articles by him (see this, this, and this).  

In this piece Black joins such astute political observers as Pepe Escobar, William Engdahl, Tony Cartalucci, and Mike Whitney who regard Russia and China (and other BRICS countries) as representing a positive force in the world by creating a "multipolar world". I don't see, as yet, much hope with the "New 'Eastern' Hope". Russia and China have strong capitalist economies, and capitalists are always prone to imperialism, social injustice, and environmental destruction.  I just don't see the evidence to justify this optimism. To be sure, they are not at the stage of advanced capitalism characterized by imperialism, but that is only a matter of time.
...in the east, in China, in Russia, in Latin America, a new energy has shone its light on human possibilities, on sharing, cooperation, love of mankind instead of hatred, peaceful cooperation instead of conflict and death. We in the west need now to look to the east, to the south, to our own past, to find the strength and the will to regenerate ourselves, to save ourselves, and the planet we live on, from those in our midst who would reduce us to slavery and hopelessness.
And, Black completely ignores the failures of the revolutions in Russia and China.

Otherwise, I think there is much truth in his other observations such as the perspectives of young people in the 1960s versus today.