Editorial: Fighting the 4 Plagues -- We Have To Do Things Differently

By Don Hazen

June 22, 2013  |  Almost two weeks ago, I wrote an article:  "4 Plagues - Getting a Handle on the Coming Apocalypse [3]."  Reader response was strong, and the article quickly shot to top of our most-read list. I detailed the "plagues" that dominate our economy and way of life: financialization, militarization, and criminalization — forces that exacerbate the huge array of problems we face—poverty, unemployment, mass incarceration, climate destruction, gun violence, financial corruption, spying and privacy, and much more. They threaten democracy, fray our social order, worsen conditions in communities round the world, and damage our psychological health.

As a result, many of us are alarmed at the direction of our country, and rightly so. By many measures, our society is a depressing mess. Tens of millions are severely suffering economically, while many more are stressed out and traumatized, desperately attempting to cope with both chronic and acute problems they have never faced before.