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There is No Future, but We're Still Alive
Late 20th-century activism united Americans in a shared vision of the future, but the dream is dead, and we're still here.
Social, political, and economic deterioration started before I was born, but the erosion wasn't as visible or widespread in the early 1980s. People still felt empowered and believed in a liveable future. Millions participated in nuclear disarmament protests, international cooperation achieved the universally ratified Montreal Protocol, and the environmental movement propelled climate change to the forefront. The late 20th-century activism united Americans in a shared 21st-century humanitarian vision.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Cold War relieved the US government of a socialist rivalry, facilitating a global capitalist strategy to implement before the new millennium. The fall of the Berlin Wall opened the gateway for the neoliberal, free-trade fanatism that rolled through the 1990s, establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) and an internationally integrated economy. World economic dominance was within the US' reach, and everyone would be better off.
By 1999, trickle-down deregulation and free trade policies stagnated wages, reduced employment opportunities, exploited workers, and ravaged the…
