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

Friday, August 21, 2015

The Myth of Chinese Capitalism

Click here to access article by Jeff Brown from The Greanville Post. (Note: One can also listen to this article as he/she reads it in a podcast. I did both.)

As I listened to Brown and followed along by reading the article, I was not impressed with about the first half of his presentation which kept claiming that China was a socialist and communist country while arguing that China had far outperformed US and Western capitalist countries, and then quoted a large section of China's constitution and statements made by China's first post-Mao leader Deng Xiaoping as supporting documents. While listening to his delivery I was a bit put off by a delivery that seemed loaded with sarcasm toward an audience that already agreed with him.

However, I did find worthwhile substance about two-thirds of the way through the article which argued, and backed up by data, that China's economy is thoroughly under the control of the Communist Party and its state organs.

Because of the fact that we in the West have received so much disinformation about China and that authentic sources are very difficult to obtain, I think that this alternative source is well worth following, but one should do so with some critical reservations.