Personal empowerment and personal consciousness are great messages, and those of us who choose to live by these concepts are free to do so to some extent. But the big system also needs to change or our little drops in the bucket will do no more than slow down the eventual bad result.

TPTB like to use personal behavior as an alternative to societal change. It is a false choice. There will always be a very large percentage of people willing to exploit the system as it exists, and everyone must do so to some extent.