Regarding the current state of affairs in this country, what should be the number one priority of the citizenry? Ending the the control over our government by a tiny group of billionaires and corporatist cartels.
The reasons for that are obvious. In this arrangement, a very tiny group of uber-rich people are dictating policies specifically designed to take down the proper business regulatory infrastructure, destroy the social safety net, weaken workers' rights and protections, and defund the public sector (i.e., the government) so it can be replaced with a for-profit private sector, all at the expense of the citizenry.
These policies are actually killing people around the country. They are creating havoc in millions of households. They are plunging more and more people into poverty and homelessness. In short, it is an all-out assault on the citizenry by the ruling elite.
In the face of this reality, there was a very brief period that resembled a normal reaction to this brutality being imposed by the ruling elite in the form of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But incredibly, it fizzled away... But the brutal imposition of a new economic order resembling neo-feudalism hasn't abated. In fact, it has accelerated.
How is this possible? The main reason for this is that we are being manipulated (controlled) with the propagandist messaging we're being exposed to 24/7 by the corporate media conglomerate.
Almost every single media outlet (print, radio, TV) espouses an eerily similar narrative when it comes to major issues, including the economy, education, government regulation, and national security.
This is not surprising, since billionaires and the myriad of propaganda organizations they fund (CATO, AEI, Heritage Foundation, to name a few), have gone out of their way to first, take control over the entire media machinery, and second, use that control to spread the narrative that support their interests.
And so from morning until night, we are constantly being exposed to false narratives, lies, and absurdities, which we end up internalizing.
And so like in a science fiction novel about dystopian worlds, we end up with millions and millions of people entranced by the carefully-designed propagandist messaging of the ruling elite, unable to take any meaningful action against the imposition of an increasingly fascistic Corporate State.
One chapter of the book shows millions of people sitting in front of a giant TV, as the floor beneath them begins to open, eventually swallowing them, without even noticing.