Afghan pomegranates (I've never had any better) are reaching the end of their season and will soon be gone from the produce stands that line busy streets like this one in Kabul's Puli Surkh district.
It was good to read your "last lecture," Seamus. I thought of you when reading Chris Hedges' piece today entitled, "No Act of Rebellion is Wasted." There is one paragraph that I heard your voice coming through. It is this: "All energy directed toward reforming political and state structures is useless. All efforts to push through a “progressive” agenda within the corridors of power are naive. Trust in the reformation of our corporate state reflects a failure to recognize that those who govern, including Barack Obama, are as deaf to public demands and suffering as those in the old Communist regimes. We cannot rely on any systems of power, including the pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, liberal religious institutions, universities, labor, culture and the Democratic Party. They have been weakened to the point of anemia or work directly for the corporations that dominate our existence. We can rely now on only ourselves, on each other. "
FYI, the whole piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/print/63398
Afghan pomegranates (I've never had any better) are reaching the end of their season and will soon be gone from the produce stands that line busy streets like this one in Kabul's Puli Surkh district.
It was good to read your "last lecture," Seamus. I thought of you when reading Chris Hedges' piece today entitled, "No Act of Rebellion is Wasted." There is one paragraph that I heard your voice coming through. It is this:
ReplyDelete"All energy directed toward reforming political and state structures is useless. All efforts to push through a “progressive” agenda within the corridors of power are naive. Trust in the reformation of our corporate state reflects a failure to recognize that those who govern, including Barack Obama, are as deaf to public demands and suffering as those in the old Communist regimes. We cannot rely on any systems of power, including the pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, liberal religious institutions, universities, labor, culture and the Democratic Party. They have been weakened to the point of anemia or work directly for the corporations that dominate our existence. We can rely now on only ourselves, on each other. "
FYI, the whole piece is at:
http://www.commondreams.org/print/63398
Larry