Expressions of discontent are not merely reactions to the state of the healthcare industry or the exorbitant costs of health insurance. They stem from something much deeper: a collective fear born of a system that feels rigged against the many, a system that seems to serve only the privileged few while crumbling under the weight of its own inequities for everyone else.
In every sphere—sports, business, and life—we are taught there will be winners and losers. But in the current landscape, it often feels as though the deck is stacked, and for many, survival itself has become a desperate struggle. We cry out for relief, for fairness, yet we know those in power are not listening. Worse still, their indifference signals that they do not care.
Instead, they focus on maintaining their narratives, employing intimidation, obfuscation, and silence to keep the machinery of exploitation churning. Meanwhile, ordinary people are left battered and exhausted, bleeding from a thousand cuts inflicted by the very system that claims to champion freedom and opportunity. Adding insult to injury, those in power insist they hold the moral high ground, invoking tired slogans such as “This is America” and “We’re defending capitalism!” But these mantras ring hollow to a populace that has had enough.
The Strain of a Broken Dream
This unrest is not about a single issue. Yes, healthcare costs are crushing, but the deeper grievance lies in the pervasive sense that the voices of ordinary citizens are being ignored. Life grows harder by the day; we are tired, hurting, and desperate. Many feel hunted, and the realization is dawning that this plight is not new. It has been building for years, even as we were preoccupied with survival—juggling bills, working overtime or multiple jobs, relying on prayer, support groups, or medication just to cope. While we toiled, the American Dream quietly withered.
Today, the promise of opportunity seems reserved for those who exploit the system—the conmen, the corporate swindlers, and the ethically bereft. Success is increasingly tied not to hard work or innovation but to gaming the system within the confines of corporate America: the banks, insurance conglomerates, arms manufacturers, and pharmaceutical giants. These entities wield their power with impunity, secure in the knowledge that the average person lacks the resources to fight back. They deploy propaganda, weaponize the media, and manipulate social platforms to suppress dissent and preserve their dominance. Their insatiable greed has bloated the system to the point of collapse.
The Signs of Systemic Decay
Consider the tangible effects of this greed. Automobiles and trucks are now priced beyond the reach of average families, left to gather dust in dealer lots. Higher education, once a pathway to prosperity, has become prohibitively expensive, driving many to abandon it altogether. The healthcare system, ostensibly designed to save lives, has become a Kafkaesque nightmare, where battling insurance companies can feel as lethal as the illnesses themselves.
Meanwhile, politicians work in the shadows, dismantling the last vestiges of the New Deal—programs like Medicare and Social Security that were designed to protect the vulnerable and stabilize the economy. These safeguards, championed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a means to preserve capitalism from its own excesses, are now under relentless attack.
Are we hurtling toward a new form of feudalism? The indifference of those in power suggests they neither know nor care. The imagery of a zombie apocalypse may seem hyperbolic, but it captures the despair of those left scavenging for basic necessities in rural America and urban wastelands. For many, solace comes only in the form of meth, opioids, or alcohol. Meanwhile, the wealthy and powerful—insulated by their riches—turn a blind eye to the decay, preoccupied with hoarding more wealth as the system teeters on the edge.
A Breaking Point Approaches
As the system collapses under the weight of its own contradictions, the vultures circle. The ultra-wealthy, with their obscene fortunes, stand ready to exploit the wreckage, buying up the remnants of society for pennies on the dollar. This predatory dynamic is not lost on the public. Many have reached their breaking point, their anger simmering into a volatile mix of despair and defiance.
Some are beginning to sense that the game is irreparably rigged, that meaningful change through conventional means may no longer be possible. This growing disillusionment fuels a dangerous reality: when people feel they have no voice, no recourse, and nothing left to lose, they may take matters into their own hands.
The cracks in the façade of this “land of opportunity” are widening. The question is no longer whether the system will break but how, and who will bear the cost when it does. For now, the voices of the dispossessed grow louder, demanding to be heard before it is too late.
Steve Schneider says
Very well written, Jack.
Happy New Year, to the extent that is possible.
Jack Jones says
I’ll be with you in spirit, shaking the tree. I’ve been trying to create my own reality by prose, friendships, music and hope. Regardless of what happens we have each other, and each others backs by sketching our facet of love and humanity on the pages of Democracy Chronicles. Thank you for your kind words. Adrian and Gabriel deserve it even more…
Michael Ossipoff says
All sadly true. Progressive political-parties, the Greens in particular, have been saying it too.
…& offering the needed repairs!! That’s what must be emphasized.
As you point out, all of those wrongs are justified as the public’s democratic will, the result of our voted-choice.
There are 2 oligarchy-owned parties, which Gore Vidal identified as “one party with 2 right wings.” They’re known as “The-2-Choices” . How very odd that the worst 2 parties & policy-sets are always the 2 choices. :-D
…when there are thorough, detailed & complete party policy-platforms about departing from that dismal quagmire.
Public-Citizen reports that polls show that, by a huge majority, Americans want the progressive policies that are the same as what Greens’ platform proposes. …like 2/3 or 70%.
Nader says that 85% want the rich to pay the higher marginal rates that they used to. …& that 90% want to fully prosecute corporate crime.
But no:
The mass-media have people convinced that none of that is “viable” (because only the people want it))
…& those who don’t believe it, believe that everyone *else* believes it, & that that makes it become true. …& so it comes to pass that, led by media, we all follow each other like lemmings off a cliff.
(No, lemmings don’t really do that…only humans.)
…told that a vote for honesty, & for what we actually all want, is a vote for the the greater evil, & so we have to vote for the lesser-evil, as the only way to avoid greater-evil apocalyptic catastrophe. …& astoundingly, people keep on believing that, every time!!
:-D
Whom did you vote for in November? (You don’t have to tell, but *you* know.)
Two famous quotes:
“It’s better to vote for what you want & not get it, than to vote for what you don’t want & get it.”
“When you vote for a lesser-evil, you get an evil.”
Do you think we could just stop voting for evil.???
That could end all the evil, all the wrongfulness, that you described.
Yes, we should have a better voting-system, like Ranked-Choice Voting, or a Parliamentary government elected by party-list proportional representation, allocated by Sainte-Lague.
But, absent that, we could still just vote for what we want anyway.
“But most people won’t do so, & so we’ll just split the vote & elect the Republican”?
Hello? The Republican wind half the time anyway, in spite of all our devoted sucker lesser-evil giveaway!!!
Anyway, who’s splitting the vote?: Those voting for honesty& what we want, or those voting for (“lesser”) evil?
Show the lesser-evil voters that we won’t help that goal, & that therefore they’re not going to be able to elect their evil anymore!!
So yeah, let them, by their sucker-split, keep electing what they’re trying to prevent, till they catch on that it won’t work anymore.
This reply answers your article, regarding cause & fix.
Vote for the policies we all want!!
Vote Green!!
Jack Jones says
Hi Michael, I’ve been thinking on this matter for a while now. I was hoping for the best with Biden, he wasn’t perfect but I think he treated labor pretty decently. I agree with you , that the Democrats and Republican parties feel the same in the big picture, with the Republican Party going further to the right. I was hoping that the Democratic Party would have been taken over by the progressives by now, like the way that the far right took over the Republicans Party, but to no avail. Chris’ Hedges, who was Ralph Naders speech writer, and ex New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief. Has long championed 3rd party support and I believe you and he are right. I think I was hoping for President Biden to become a FDR. Again, it’s probably time for the country to stop dreaming, and gambling away our country and get all in on the 3rd or Green party. It feels that the tail is wagging the dog, corporate America always wins, one way or the other. A continued, dug in position of support is what’s needed no matter, what the oligarchs throw at us. I appreciate your response, Jack
Michael Ossipoff says
Yes, exactly. Show the lesser-evils suckers that we vote from principle, for honesty, & that we’ll never share, help or support their sucker-giveaway.
Next time a lesser-evil sucker says, “A vote for Jill is a vote for the Republican. You’re just going to make the Republican win”:
Answer:
“That’s right. We’re going to sink your lesser-evil. We always will. So, unless you want to always elect the Republican, maybe you’d better start voting honestly for what we all want.”