Picking Francis I, with Edward Snowden a close runner up, demonstrates how the power-hungry Financial Capitalist networks of the Society of Control are being challenged by both the most traditional channels of discourse as well as the most anti-imperialist channels. It some ways, it does not mean all that much. Nonetheless, if folks who might have never seen themselves as allies can overcome their presuppositions about each other, the greater number could find a voice against the manipulative Powers-that-Be.
At a time when the limits of leadership are being tested in so many places, along comes a man with no army or weapons, no kingdom beyond a tight fist of land in the middle of Rome but with the immense wealth and weight of history behind him, to throw down a challenge. The world is getting smaller; individual voices are getting louder; technology is turning virtue viral, so his pulpit is visible to the ends of the earth. When he kisses the face of a disfigured man or washes the feet of a Muslim woman, the image resonates far beyond the boundaries of the Catholic Church.
via The Choice: Nancy Gibbs on Why Pope Francis Is TIME’s Person of the Year 2013 | TIME.com.
