Power vs. Hope: Where Do They Lead?

We live in anxious times. Actually, times have always been anxious but especially now.

We have a distorted economy that works for an elite few and not the many. Foreign powers are trying to corrupt our democracy. Men are scared of being accused of sexual misconduct -- and women are even scared of accusing them. Social media rules our world in scary ways. The threat of terrorism is never far from anyone's mind.

More and more, NYC is being sold off to the highest bidders. And, oh yes, and the president of the United States is insane.

Lots of reasons to be anxious. The only thing that seems like a Balm in Gilead is that TV is better than ever. That's about it.

If you want to understand why, structurally, our society is so warped, read these two very different, but ultimately interrelated NYC tales. One is about how Donald Trump and his family used out-right fraud to increase their wealth. Another is about the bad decisions made by clueless rich people who drove the New York City Opera out of business. In both stories, you read about the arrogance of wealth -- the indifference to consequence, the belief that they can do no wrong even when they very wrong things, complete insouciance to the people who work for them or the society they live in. It makes for depressing, rage-inducing reading -- but explains a lot about how greed and willful blindness inflict so much damage.

But hope is always somewhere, glimmering on the horizen. It was true in the past and it's true today.

Read the original 1967 review of the Velvet Underground, predicting that this was an important band (indeed it was, it revolutionized music). And read a short interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the soon-to-be-Congresswoman who's bravery and brilliant political instincts will, hopefully, lead to a revolution in how this country is governed -- and how we might unwarp our society. There's always hope somewhere, fighting against the dominant paradigm, fighting against the power, always something good boiling beneath the surface, creating inevitable, positive change.