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, January 8, 2018

Living Through the Catastrophe

Click here to access article by Jerome Roos from ROAR Magazine online.

This is the first article of the 7th issue of the magazine, and authored by the founding editor of ROAR Magazine which was formerly known as Reflections on a Revolution before Roos and associates sold it to a foundation. I have been very critical of Roos and associates--see this and this (along with David Graeber at other websites)--for running a series of articles on their former website which featured prominently the influence of Murray Bookchin, an American radical, on the Syrian Kurds. The clear implication was that this group was spearheading a very progressive agenda in Syria, but not the reality of collaboration with the US to undermine the Syrian government. However, I believe with this issue of the magazine entitled "System Change" that they are on much more solid ground in dealing with the ecological disasters awaiting us under capitalism. 

After reading this first article of the 7th issue of the magazine, you may be interested in reading many of the other articles. Roos sums up his article with this insight:
Against these neoliberal delusions, we must stand firm and insist: the real catastrophe is capitalism, and the only acceptable outcome system change, not climate change. As unrealistic as this may seem from the dominant perspective of capitalist realism, the future of our species — and that of countless others — now depends on it.