We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Too Big to Jail?

Click here if you wish to access the source posting and introduction from Moyers & Company, a PBS program, to this 23:21m video featuring William Black, a former bank regulator.   
While large banks have been penalized for their role in the housing meltdown, the costs of those fines will be largely borne by shareholders and taxpayers as the banks write off the fines as the cost of doing business. And by and large these top executives got to keep their massive bonuses and compensation, despite the fallout.
But the story gets even more infuriating, the more Black lays bare the culture of corruption that led to the meltdown.
Black leaves little doubt that banksters in the financial industry have the government thoroughly corrupted and under their control. He leaves us with little hope by offering a vague suggestion about fighting back to where he thinks democracy once existed. Of course, he has been thoroughly indoctrinated in the capitalist version of democracy which has inevitably led to where we are now. No, we can't go back. Our only hope is to destroy the cancer of capitalism which has enabled a small segment of the population to take complete control of our society.

What I found most disturbing is his conviction that we are headed for a much bigger economic disaster (20:02m). Unfortunately, it appears that only a huge disaster can wake people up sufficiently to make the necessary radical changes.