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BAE Scandal, Covert Money, Political Power, and The Rule of Law

Will the BAE scandal heat up? Will Cheney be named? Along with Prince Bandar  (aka Bandar Bush)? Riggs Bank and Carlyle Group? (File under Rule of Law and/or Theory of Social Change.)

Crowd Sourced Theory of Social Change

O my, did I ever have a fine idea! Foundations to make their grants effective need a well-grounded theory of social change. For that, they need an accurate map of how things are. What are the chances that a grant officer in a cushy inside job, under the direction of a monied and conservative board is going to come up with an accurate map of how things are at street level, or behind the closed doors where power games are played in secret, among those sworn to mutual aid and protection? So, to remedy this defect, why don't we crowd source the map of how things are, and with it the "theory of social change"? That way as Ford and Rockefeller and Pew invest their grants for change, they will have a whole cadre of street people to guide them.  We might enlist some whistblowers too, to make sure we get good data from inside the corporate and governmental firewalls. The Foundations could frame the question this way, "What do you on the street need from us to bring this whole rotten system to its knees?" For that there might be answers, a whole cacaphony of voices. 

Wiser are the Children of Darkness

“Help us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. From his view we may indeed see the basic weakness of our condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.” (Martin Luther King — 1968)

In your theory of social change is your roseate vision unopposed? Do you assume that poverty, injustice, and  fraudulence are without defenders? Who is called, as Martin King puts it, to opposition of the world we want? What can we learn from the wisdom of those who would keep up in our place?