The dynamics of power and authority have been transforming and shifting during our own lifetimes, right before our eyes; if we bother to notice. Control and authority is being transferred out of the political sphere into the sphere of economics and business, and this transfer has been underway for several years.
But it is important to recognize that this process has been taking place during our lifetime, and is taking place right now; it is not something that has always been the case. We are living in a generation during which a tremendous change is occurring in the nature and structure of power in the world. Financial elites have more power in 2016 than they had in 2006; they are taking bold and rapid steps to monopolize, increase, and consolidate their control, every year, every month, every week, every day. Even if it is a cliché, nevertheless it is true; we are at a turning point in history. This generation is truly at an enormously important crossroads.
If we do not recognize the changes that have taken place during our own lives in the system of power, if we do not comprehend and address that the seat of authority is moving out of the political realm and into the economic realm (in which there are no democratic mechanisms for accountability to, or participation by, the public), we will proceed down the road to our own dispossession, marginalization, and enslavement , with no recourse to pursue our rights except violent rebellion which will almost certainly be doomed to catastrophic failure.
If we, on the other hand, recognize the changes, the wholesale transfer of power and authority to the private sector now, we can potentially either abort that process, or else we can impose our own measures to democratize private power. We have the ability to do this, we have the means, and the elites know this and are afraid of it; but as long as we remain distracted, deluded, misdirected, and divided, we will be incapable of confronting them.