Reply #3: These two excerpts sum up the shift we need to make globally:

[OneGrassRoot]

in my opinion :)

"We believe that the people really do have the power," continues Alves. "People think someone else will fix this, but we have to. The people who are supposed to find solutions, our elected representatives, clearly aren't. We have to show we're not merchandise in the hands of bankers and businessmen."

The movement's aims are ill-defined ("It's normal, we're only just beginning," says Alves) but boil down, explains Pedro Murteira, a social education student, to common sense. A more participative democracy: a system that works for the good of all rather than the profit of a few.

Murteira says he hopes the crisis will lead to "a whole new way of organising our lives, and of consuming. Not a personal perspective, but a collective perspective. Because the real problem isn't the crisis, it's the system."


We can't afford rugged individualism. We must think and act collectively. What harms one of us, harms all of us.