Corporate Domination of our Institutions But Movement to the Left in Many Areas

I have two readings to recommend today: a reading of near despair and a reading of hope. The reading of near despair is by Chris Hedges from Tikkun. He argues that all of the major institutions of our society are controlled by corporate money and is pessimistic about the possibility of changing this through ordinary electoral politics. Tikkun believes that Hedges’ view is too pessimistic but thinks that he has much of importance to say.

The other reading is by Chris Bowers on Alternet entitled 4 Signs the Country is Actually Moving to the Left. It is not surprising that he is able to gather data showing sharply increased acceptance of interracial marriage and gay marriage, a declining gender gap, and increased acceptance of marijuana though all of the data is interesting. The most surprising conclusion is that public sector social investment as a percentage of GDP is the highest it has ever been. Well worth reading.