The belief that we can make things happen through positive thoughts, by visualizing, by wanting them, by tapping into our inner strength, or by understanding that we our truly exceptional, is peddled to us by all aspects of the culture, from Oprah to the Christian Right.  It is magical thinking.  We can always make more money, meet new quotas, consume more products, and advance our careers.  This magical thinking, this idea that human and personal progress is somehow inevitable, leads to political passivity.  It permits societies to transfer their emotional allegiance to the absurd―whether embodied in professional sports or in celebrity culture―and ignore real problems.  It exacerbates despair.  It keeps us in a state of mass self-delusion.  Once we are drawn into this form of magical thinking, the purpose, structure, and goals of the corporate state are not questioned.  To question, to engage in
criticism of the corporate collective, is to be seen as obstructive and negative.  And these cultural illusions have grossly perverted the way we view ourselves, our nation, and the natural world.  This magical thinking, coupled with its bizarre ideology of limitless progress holds out the promise of an
impossible, unachievable happiness.  It has turned whole nations, such as the United States into self-consuming machines of death.

We can march into Copenhagen.  We can join the International Day of Climate Action and its worldwide climate protests.  We can compost in our backyards and hang our laundry out to dry.  We can write letters to our elected officials.  We can vote for Obama and chant, “Yes We Can”, but the corporate power elite is no longer concerned with our aspirations.  Appealing to their better nature, or seeking to influence the internal levers of power, will no longer work.

The rot of imperialism, which is always incompatible with democracy, militarizes domestic
politics.  This militarization, as Sheldon Wolin¹ writes, combines with the cultural fantasies of hero
worship and tales of individual prowess, eternal youthfulness, beauty through surgery, action measured in nanoseconds, and a dream-laden culture of ever-expanding control and possibility, to sever huge segments of the population from reality.  Those who control the images control us.  And while we have been entranced by the celluloid shadows on the walls of Plato’s cave, these corporate forces have effectively dismantled Social Security, unions, welfare, public health services, and public
housing―the institutions of social democracy.  They have been permitted to pollute the planet, long after we knew the deadly consequences of global warming.

We are living through one of civilization’s seismic reversals.  The idea of globalization, like all “inevitable” utopian visions, has imploded.  The power elite, perplexed and confused, clings to the utopian dreams and outdated language of globalization to mask the political and economic vacuum.  Massive bailouts, stimulus packages, giveaways, and short-term borrowing, along with imperial wars we can no longer afford, will leave the United States struggling with trillions in debt.  Once China and the oil-rich states walk away from our debt, which one day has to happen, interest rates will skyrocket.  Eventually, the Federal Reserve will become the buyer of last resort.  The Fed has printed perhaps as much as two trillion new dollars in the last two years.  Forcing the Fed to buy this much new debt
will see it, in effect, print more.  This is when inflation, most likely hyperinflation, will turn the dollar into junk.  And at that point the entire system, beset as well by environmental chaos, breaks down. 

Chris Hedges, Death of the Liberal Class,
pp. 200-201

¹Sheldon S. Wolin "Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and
the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism"