John Perkins Explains Market Implosions
The world has changed a great deal since I wrote Hoodwinked in 2009 – and in precisely the direction predicted in that book. The Occupy movement, the financial crises in Europe and in our own country and events in Latin America and the Middle East continue to escalate. Countries are in turmoil. Leaders have been toppled. We have entered the time prophesized by indigenous cultures around the world – the Mayan era of 2012, the Andean people's Pachacuti (Time of the Great Turning).
A mutant, viral and extremely dangerous form of capitalism has thrived under the ever-increasing powers of Wall Street, Big Business, and governments that support them (in other words, under the continuing reign of the robber barons who are collectively defined in Hoodwinked as the corporatocracy.) Today thousands of citizens rise up and demand that we take back our government and our banking systems from bloated fat cats who are not interested in long-term sustainable practices, corporate social responsibility, or a marketplace that serves us, the People.
One of my predictions in Hoodwinked was that a new president would not change the system, that he knows he is vulnerable to assassination – especially the kind of character assassination that can occur from a well-planted rumor (e.g. that he fondled a female aid). Unfortunately, that prediction was right. President Obama has demonstrated that he is subservient to corporate interests. His key advisers come from Big Business – and they will return to their corporate offices after they've served their time in Washington. Conflicts of interest are accepted as the 'norm'. Many voters had hoped to experience a marked shift away from long-term predatory capitalism and military expansion; instead, the opposite has happened.
AND we have learned an essential lesson. Campaigns don't change politics and a president doesn't change the United States. It is up to us to take back our country. The solutions revolve around you and me. As Hoodwinked makes clear – and as history proves – when We the People are lethargic, we are abused. When we take action, we mold our destinies.Hoodwinked offers five strategies for actions we can each take that will give us, the 99%, the power to win back our country – and the world.
The OCCUPY movement is part of one of those five strategies. It is a profound way of elevating all of this to new levels. It is already having major impacts, including shaking people awake, transferring money from national to local banks, discouraging military enlistment, and supporting unions and local farms and businesses. Yet it is just one of many things we can all do to tear down the bastions of the robber barons and create new systems that focus on serving the public interest – through cleaning up pollution, feeding starving people, providing adequate health care and retirement pensions, developing more efficient and sustainable forms of energy, transportation, and commerce, initiating an educational system that inspires its students to be sustainable and just members of a society that benefits us all, and a nearly limitless array of other creative actions.
Now that Hoodwinked is out in paperback, I hope you will read it and discover your own path. Look to your passions, follow your heart and take action! Together we will change the world!
John Perkins
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