There has to be spiritual transformation among the masses, who have to be willing to recognize that their oppression is not a law of nature. That's what Latin American bishops were doing when they formed base communities. They were trying to get peasants to recognize that you can take your fate into your own hands. That's what the civil-rights movement did here. That's what the women's movement did.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

My linguistics is pretty theoretical.

Expressing criticism of society is not being a grouch.

Now financial liberalization is just a catastrophe waiting to happen, and there are very well understood reasons for that.

I don't know what it means to say that 'the internet should have a voice in Washington'.

The times are too difficult and the crisis too severe to indulge in schadenfreude. Looking at it in perspective, the fact that there would be a financial crisis was perfectly predictable: its general nature, if not its magnitude. Markets are always inefficient.