Political Solutions Are No Longer Working

So I was thinking after listening to this talk (at the highlighted link) by Howard Zinn on the topic of patriotism, government and citizens in a democracy.  His words got me to thinking and then I began to write. Listen to his lecture. 

He's an interesting guy who participated willingly in the destruction of Germany during WW2 and became a historian and social critic afterward. At the following highlighted link is Zinn talking about "Three Holy Wars."

Americans and the rest of the people in the world are in the grip of something that is strangling the life out of them. That something is the current economic organization of society which mandates the present world conditions as a likely outcome of the rules governing the economic system. 

"Grin and bear it, it will get better." we have been told.  The experts are not that hopeful anymore even as the politicians hold rallies and avoid confronting reality by selling promises never meant to be kept.
It's a bitter bread they're baking that we the people are being forced to buy and eat.  

The people who were elected have sold us out. Ninety percent of the time lawmakers give the non-voting donor class what it wants. To support this obvious obfuscation the important decisions at the highest levels of our government have produced a propaganda program that has the characteristics of a madcap party hosted by the Marx Brothers, Albert and Costello and Laurel and Hardy. We recognize that madcap party as the Trump Administration along with it's supporters in congress and out.

People are capable of extremes of behavior. We can make war and we can make peace. Is it possible the present economic system does not hold the possibility of peace? So far it has not worked out. You can see that, right? (Smedley Butler at the link)

If you think your civil rights are still intact it might be a good time to begin using as many of them as you can. At the highlighted link is an audio essay by Henry Thoreau.  Thoreau is an American original. This work on THE DUTY of civil disobedience has inspired many. At one time it was required reading. It was time of war with no end in sight leaving only a horrible past to remember and an even more horrible future to imagine. 

Here we are again.

I'll let Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky leave something for your thoughts about what to do with your civil rights.