The grand old diplomat Stephan Hessel tells us to get outraged.
Here is the original text: Indignez-vous – Stephan Hessel
Yes – we should be outraged. Unethical, superbig multinational capital based on the neoliberal philosophy attacks democracy, environment, climate, our values. The neoliberalists have for the last forty years systematically abused democratic institutions, giving the impression that governments and organisations like the UN are out to harass and exploit us. They disseminate the message that the smaller a government is, the better. They tell us to accept removing civil rights like a quality public school system, medical systems, municipal infrastructure system, pensions etc, spreading the myths that anything organised by the public has to be overly bueuracratic, expensive and inefficient. The only solution in the neoliberal mind is privatisation – except when they have financial losses. Then they scream for socialisation, asking the taxpayers to bail them out. They have managed to decouple financial capital from real or productive capital, facilitating financial acrobatics and financial swindle schemes like subprime loans – a perfect system for enriching the billionaires and impoverishing everybody else. The latest neoliberal stunt is a global financial crisis where those who caused the crisis demand that everybody else pay the costs.
They have persuaded politicians to sell public property and institutions – property owned by the people – at symbolic prices to private capital interests, thus robbing the citizens, giving the booty to a handful of billionaires. They have paralysed our politicians by a huge propaganda industry, thereby paralyzing any meaningful interventions to prevent global warming and depletion of the world’s ecosystems. Their corporations thrive on wars, armed conflicts and disasters, through the “Shock doctrine“. Their profits increase with the scale of the war or natural disaster, and privatisation on a broad scale in the disaster area is rapidly enforced. In the long run we might be able to handle global warming. But global warming and climate change are symptoms of an all-encompassing depletion of the Earth’s natural resources and ecosystems.
More Proof the System is Broken: Bee Colonies Are Collapsing Left and Right
Global Footprint Network
Mashey Report Confirms Heartland’s Manipulation; Exposes Singer’s Deception
Climate sceptics – who gets paid what? Leaked documents show US thinktank the Heartland Institute has been making payments to experts and scientists to cast doubt on climate science. Here, we profile some of the figures (The Guardian February 2012)
The Right-Wing Plot to Undermine Science in Public Schools (Alternet, February 2012)
Ignorance is strength (NY Times March 2012)
The multibillionaires and their neoliberalist politicians pretend they work for freedom, but have established a new economic order where tsunamies of money go to the worst dictatorships in the world; extreme-islamist tyrants in cooperation with the giant arab-american oil companies (Aramco, ExxonMobil, Chevron Texaco Corp., ConocoPhillips, Halliburton etc . The only freedom they are for, is more freedom and profits for the multinational companies. They hate it when ordinary people in the Middle East or anywhere else try to build democracy. The neoliberalist agenda is to destroy democracy to establish corpocracy with anonymous CEOs in closed boardrooms taking all decisions, with elected politicians as obedient puppies. | The Koch brothers exposed (Rolling stone April 2012)
Profiting from catastrophe: If fossil fuel companies burn all their reserves we’re undeniably screwed Here are the facts: The business models at the center of our economy are in the deepest possible conflict with physics and chemistry (Bill Mc Kibben in Alternet, February 2012).
Has Regulation-Free Capitalism Become the Spirit of our Age? Why We Must Restore Faith in Government
62 Richest People on Earth Own the Same Wealth as Half the World’s Population
To My Grand-Daughter: I Am Sorry We Ruined the World for You
Democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry, and an ignorant public is just what Santorum and his allies count on (Alternet Feb. 2012)
Their vision of the perfect society is a society that existed in the Middle East 1400-2500 years ago. They all preach a gospel of hatred and violence against people who deviate from their own orthodox beliefs, and think it is fine to kill opponents in the name of their religion. In addition to having Abraham in common, they all also have the old angel – the lightbearer – Lucifer – in common, and whose path they willingly and (maybe) unwittingly follow. The old god that required children to be sacrificed, Molok, is apparently still worshipped. The carbon barons follow in Abraham’s footsteps and see children as expendable, even be it their own. Stealing their children’s future for an extra billion today is applauded. They all support fascist-like states, and want to replace democratically elected governments with some sort of corpocracy or fascistic theocracy. They all look forward to “doomsday”, constructing illusions that they will be “on the right side”. The small, fanatical groups of apocalyptic christians, jews and islamists seem to be on the rise. This is one reason why these groups couldn’t care less about the environment or sustainable development. They are looking forward to the destruction of the world. Their greed has no limits. “The dark riders of the last oil” will fight to their last breath for keeping the fossil fuel society going for some more years. The cost to all the others will be staggering, the risk enormous.
Unburnable carbon: wasted capital and stranded assets
The Grantham institute on the climate and the environment
Opus Dei and the War on Birth Control: Neofascism Within the Catholic Church
The right-wing corporate-backed war on our schools
Why do dangerous financial criminals roam free? – Prosecutors like Eric Schneiderman need cops on the beat to put financial crooks behind bars. But thanks to Bush, these cops are missing in action. (Alternet, february 2012).
You should by now be outraged enough to distance yourself from these destructive, violent and greedy forces that so much dominate the world. It is time to take a stand. It is time to look at the options. You may e.g. go through the page on Eco-economy on this blog
Education for Sustainable Development 