Power to the People

I've been reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Given the current political climate, I've found the chapter called "Robber Barons and Rebels" particularly compelling.  Zinn describes the events of the second half of the 19th century, including the economic crises and the multitude of strikes and demonstrations by the nascent American labor movement. I find it very disturbing how many parallels there are between then and now, particularly the tight relationship between the extremely wealthy and government. I am not a fan of conspiracy theories and I try very hard not to be paranoid (which has not always been easy, trust me), but when I read about some of the Supreme Court's decisions from the 19th century, decisions that resulted in reversing or eliminating regulations on corporations, I feel that we have gone back in time. How is this different from our current Supreme Court? Maybe we're stuck in a perpetual tug of war between the very wealthy and the rest of us for control over the country. Can you say that we've made any progress at all when it was the Supreme Court of the late 19th century that decided that corporations were individuals, a decision reinforced by our current Court in recent rulings?

Whatever it is, it certainly isn't new and I'm not sure we've learned anything over the past 236 years. Honestly, I used to be a very positive person. I was optimistic and believed in the power of evidence to carry the day. But I just can't seem to sustain it anymore. There are so many people who refuse to be persuaded by facts and, I must admit, it makes me want to break things sometimes. I suppose I could blame FOX News, but isn't the real problem that there is an audience for FOX News? There will always be liars, but why are there so many people who want to believe these particular lies? And when I look at individuals I know who watch and believe FOX News, I'm deeply bothered. If they were all business owners, I would say that their primary priorities were de-regulation of industries and eliminating workers' rights. However, the people I'm thinking of are not all business owners. They work in a variety of jobs and they are not wealthy. But they don't seem able to see that the policies that are recommended by FOX News and the Republican Party are designed to benefit the wealthy and to harm the middle and lower classes, their own people. Would someone please explain this to me?

As someone who has worked her entire adult life in public education, I can't help but feel that this is the true failure of our schools -- our failure to instill in students a healthy respect for evidence and logic. I blame it on religion.