-Caveat Lector- Radical - No. Not the wild eyed, Molotov slinging, variety. I'm talking about the real meaning of radical. From the word R-A-D which means _ ROOT. For most periods of societal existence, Progressives' function is to move the society forward and prevent stagnation. The function of Conservatives is to act as a societal flywheel by keeping stability. Both are necessary for a healthy society. But things are always changing. At certain points in societal development, both Conservatives AND Progressives perform the function of maintaining the status quo. Progressives take on the function of conservatives. They no longer move the society forward, but merely tweak the " system." This is because they are now comfortable within the system even if that system is indisputably harmful to themselves and others. At this point it falls to radicals to kick Progressives in the ass to remind them what it means to really be progressive. Radicals never lose sight of what roots are. It is in their nature to do so. For most of a society's existence, radicals are annoying. But at the birth, and more importantly in the decline period of a civilization/culture/society's transition, it's ONLY the radicals who have kept a clear vision. Tweaking the status quo is no longer the right tool for the job at hand. Progressives ( honest ones, anyway ) know what needs to be done. Eventually they will come around to do what needs to be done because like most of the others in their society, THEY WILL HAVE NO CHOICE IF THEY WISH TO SURVIVE. The root of almost all our most serious problems is our economic system. Capitalism is the first or second main reason for the wanton destruction of our biosphere. The one we need to live in. The lumberjacks cutting down the Amazon ( the "lungs" of our planet ) are not doing it for the exercise. They are being paid to do it by companies who will use the world's natural resources for personal profit. The economic system is why our political system is corrupt and primarily serves the Rich and their instrument of destruction, the corporation. The corporations in turn, now dominate EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE. What you eat. What you wear. What you play. How long you work. What your income will be. What music will reach your ears. Further more, it's the economic system itself, which has forced the destruction of this society, by forcing both parents to go to work for it. The results are what is happening to the new generations. Their schooling is designed to produce shallow consumers, and docile employees which are easily distracted by corporate owned sports, TV, movies, crappy books, and even the news. No one is being taught how to think. We are no longer Homo Sapiens Sapien. We have devolved into Homo Economicus. A creature too stupid to survive the changes that nature has in store for us. The story below is an example of why Progressivism has become useless. The economic system co-opts all. It IS the cancer of the planet. Progressivism is like taking aspirin for a brain tumor. I am very, very sorry to say. Joshua2 =========================================================================== Subject: German Greens 'Come Of Age': Back Bombing, Nuclear Waste Transport Thursday, March 8 2:01 AM SGT Germany's Greens, in new realpolitik, seek healthy coalition BERLIN, March 7 (AFP) - The junior partners in Germany's government, the Greens, will argue in a party congress this weekend against their Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's decision to permit the transportation nuclear waste but will nonetheless continue to back their coalition pertners. Like Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a former radical turned Greens leader who is a leading member of the government of Social Democrat Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the Greens have come of age politically. "The Greens have had a new conscisouness of themselves, since almost a year," their managing director Reinhard Buetikofer told a news conference ahead of a congress in the western city of Stuttgart from Friday to Sunday. Typical of their new realism and moderation, the party founded in 1979 out of anti-nuclear and pacifist movements backed NATO bombing in Kosovo in 1999. They have compromised also on a platform promise to see Germany abandon nuclear energy, accepting a new timetable for a switch from nuclear that was much slower than they had wished. In a press statement distributed Wednesday, the Greens leadership said their achievement has been to give the government "an ecological and social" slant, despite their inability to get everything they want under Schroeder. Renate Kunaest, currently party co-leader but due to be replaced in Stuttgart, is now agriculture minister, heading a government drive to increase organic farming in an effort to combat by-products of industrial farming such as mad cow disease. Radicalism remains strong among the rank-and-file, however, and Buetikofer said the congress will be aiming to resolve differences over how militant Greens policies on the environment and other issues should be. "The debate on the nuclear transport will be violent and lively", he said, adding that he was certain it would lead to compromise. Another dispute is over so-called ecologist taxes on fuel, which the Greens want to increase and which Schroeder refuses as being against his policy of reducing taxes. But Buetikofer, looking towards the next general elections in 2002, added: "We as Greens have an overriding interest in keeping the red-green (Social Democrat-Green) coalition together." The Greens have plummeted in popularity since the last general elections in 1998 and are keenly aware of the need to revive their fortunes. The next key step for them is to do well in two elections March 25 in the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, of which Stuttgart is the capital, and in Rhineland-Palatinate to elect regional parliaments. Nowhere is the Greens new realpolitik clearer than in the dispute over transporting nuclear waste, with their Environment Minister Juergen Trittin, also a former 1960's radical, now calling on his party not to demonstrate against the convoys. Such demonstrations have in the past been violent in Germany, with thousands of police mobilized to control militant environmental protestors led by the Greens. Trittin said in a letter to party members, made public after the centre-left coalition government approved the transports in September last year, that the conditions were right for nuclear waste to be transported from a retreatment center at La Hague in France to a German stocking center in Gorleben in the north of the country. Trittin said the Greens would "cause more damage than good" and Greens co-leader Fritz Kuhn said they would "lose their credibility" if they protested against the decisions of their own government. Transports are set to resume this month, after being stopped in May 1998 under the previous conservative administration of Helmut Kohl following uproar amid reports of radioactive leakage from the containers. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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