Hypercapitalism transforms the economy from a tool communities use to sustain themselves into an “end in itself.” Its success is measured by the GDP, not by the health of communities or the planet. Its method is saturation marketing. One casualty of hypercapitalism is the public. People become objects to be manipulated, not individuals to be served.

Under hypercapitalism the nature of work is transformed. A worker seeking to support his family and contribute to his community finds himself delivering junk that detours through your home on the way to the sanitary landfill. The worker loses self-esteem. Now those who “hew the wood and carry the water” are the only ones who serve. The rest of us become shills in a game which the properties use to enrich themselves.

Hypercapitalism’s supporters, the Chamber of Commerce, political parties unified in support of the system by their need for campaign cash, stockholders, etc., spread the myth that our politics are polarized while both parties labor to prop up a broken system. To sustain the myth it becomes necessary to enlist the public in “culture wars,” tea parties and other diversions.

Let’s rededicate ourselves to government by the people, create a new third party to destroy hypercapitalism and its rationale, the legal fiction of corporate personhood, and work for economic justice for all. The Independents have been suckered into the polarization myth and pretend that there is room in the political center. The Green have raised our consciousness but they will be ineffective as a party. The Working Families Party has proven itself effective at the local level. Could it be carried to the national level? Our future is up to us.

John E. Gibson

Blooming Prairie