The moment people think they can't fight Exxon, or City Hall, or whatever, they become powerless by definition. They create their own powerlessness".
From another person I was reading the other day... ""The most powerful weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." If the oppressed fight each other based on differences of race, gender, ability, citizenship status, sexuality and so on, and if the oppressed also believe that there is no alternative - that they are incapable of making substantial change and are incapable of self-governing - then the oppressed will maintain the logic and institutions of deeply unequal and unjust societies."
That was Steve Biko, a South African anti-apartheid leader who was murdered by the police.
It's the same thing that Harriet Tubman was trying to teach, and Malcom X. Worth thinking about.
Anyway, Mr. Nader goes on to explain how the Democrats changed their funding source in '77, and what happened along the way as Corporations realized the people were too weak, and they could take back what they had given over the years.
He makes a good point - the Germans lost WWII, we won, and much of Europe was devastated. Yet the Nazis that fought in that war still get a pension, our soldiers don't. Other countries have 4 weeks leave, paid tuition in institutions of higher learning, better public transportation, better pensions, etc. We have little to none of that.
He mentions how little effort, relatively speaking, it has taken to get McDonalds and Walmart onto the top of the discussion lists, the new minimum wage in D.C. Not nothing, but it didn't take millions of our 320 million people to effect a little change, or get people to thinking about it, which may lead to something.
If one is really about change, it's worth listening to him and at least thinking about what really could be done in what he acknowledges today is a far different world, that of the global multinational corporation.
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