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Once you get over what a mess the system is, once you lower expectations, instead of being depressing it can actually be interesting. Try to see it from a detached observer status, even though it affects you and people you love, because you cannot do anything about it anyway. A great teaching tool about our powerlessness is the StarPower game, play it with people someday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarPower_(game) I'm of the opinion this sort of thing cannot be changed, it's just a mechanism of humanity. Cynical, selfish people rise to the top, those who optimize for power get it. They self-select. Ambition for power, for control over others is not something people with empathy would want to work hard for. Revolutions just change who is in power, they never change the dynamics, and often make it much worse. Think Animal Farm. Western Democracies have a shit load of problems, but I actually think they're the least worst option. At least we mostly get free internet and free press. I actually think one of the worst problems we have is that so many people are actually ok with violence against black people. Trayvon Martin, police shootings, rampant prison violence. That's probably the thing I am least OK with in our society, well that and violence against women, but these are actually a problem with the attitudes of the general population and local governments, not a big bad corrupt federal government. I also think the FBI is a pretty good organization when it comes to fighting political corruption. FBI agents are seriously committed to rooting out corrupt politician, and if anything the FBI's capabilities to go after politicians was actually a threat to our democracy when Hoover was running that organization. So even if you mistrust the FBI, that's something to be thankful for. |
In that regard, things are quite a bit better than they were, say, in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Eighteenth century Europe brought a kind of reform to business, the new discipline of economics started to hold politicians at least somewhat accountable for forwarding the cause of trade for its own sake. They of course still routinely interfered with commerce in service of their own ends, but this sort of thing became frowned upon enough to become a major issue in the democratic revolutions of the period.
So I wouldn't say that it can't be changed, our ability to organize on levels large and small is slowly evolving for the better, and one of the big drivers of that evolution is outrage.
At one point in human history, effective leadership was a big stick and the strength to wield it. Now even the most brutish strongman needs to have certain social graces or he won't be in power for long.