[NCUC-DISCUSS] Maintaining Systems

Nicolas Adam nickolas.adam at gmail.com
Mon Oct 27 01:28:06 CET 2014


Of interest (to me and, perhaps, to this list) was

"Cohen's world seems to be one event like this after another: endless 
soirees for the cross-fertilization of influence between elites and 
their vassals, under the pious rubric of "civil society." The received 
wisdom in advanced capitalist societies is that there still exists an 
organic "civil society sector" in which institutions form autonomously 
and come together to manifest the interests and will of citizens. The 
fable has it that the boundaries of this sector are respected by actors 
from government and the "private sector," leaving a safe space for NGOs 
and nonprofits to advocate for things like human rights, free speech and 
accountable government.

This sounds like a great idea. But if it was ever true, it has not been 
for decades. Since at least the 1970s, authentic actors like unions and 
churches have folded under a sustained assault by free-market statism, 
transforming "civil society" into a buyer's market for political 
factions and corporate interests looking to exert influence at arm's 
length. The last forty years have seen a huge proliferation of think 
tanks and political NGOs whose purpose, beneath all the verbiage, is to 
execute political agendas by proxy."


Thx DeeDee

On 2014-10-25 11:09 AM, DeeDee Halleck wrote:
> http://www.newsweek.com/assange-google-not-what-it-seems-279447
>
> a useful read.
> xx
> DeeDee
>
> -- 
> http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.org
>
>
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