It seems most of us here have diagnosed the problem correctly: the global corporate power has permeated not only the entire world's economy, but also our democracy, all countries' politics, as well as society and culture. It's Caligula 2.0.
The system is not broken. We can't wait for it to fall under its own unsustainable weight.
The system as it currently functions is working way too robustly. It is like a train heading full speed to the end of the tracks at a cliff edge. At the end of the tracks, the resulting crash will make The Great Depression and the French Revolution look like utopias. The power wielded by the corporate overlords is that of addiction. They have themselves become addicts of power and money and have become the world's biggest pushers of anything and everything that makes the little people dazzled.
Every day decisions by everyday people are the only location of recovering that power from the corporatocracy. The alternatives we need to invent are those that people would choose on a daily basis instead of pressing the lever to deliver more addictive stimulation to their brains. The system (the corporate behemoth) has got most people addicted to the glitz and glamor of shopping malls. Even our food supply has been supplanted by synthetic food-like substances with lots of fat, salt and sugar to light up the chemicals in our brains and make us crave more more more. And people blithely "choose" those tasty treats in spite of the fact that they are getting sicker and fatter. Even the people at the top of the finance world are totally addicted to the rush of the gambling market. Like rats pushing the cocaine lever until death.
If we can't figure out how to convince people that there is a much more satisfying life truly available than continuing to select the things that produce those brain chemicals that feel so good momentarily, we will never stop the train.
I understand that meditation might help people overcome the need for repeated brain over-stimulation, however, it won't wrest the reins of power from the 0.1% if we just sit in our homes meditating ourselves into feeling so peaceful while the children in (fill in the blank) are still starving. Meditation will only be helpful if it serves as the re-calibration of our thoughts and choices such that we go back out into the world and connect with other people.
Religion has historically been somewhat of a motivator away from worldly delights, however, it has become so corrupted and co-opted that I don't see a healthy role for it now. It, too, can simply become another addiction. And another place for authoritarianism to flourish. Plus so many of the religions have a strong impetus to subjugate women which I find really annoying. Pope Francis has started espousing some populist ideas, a most welcome phenomenon, but I'm not holding my breath for the Catholic Church to lead the way.
We need alternatives. We need to show people that a long slow contented life of moderation is much more satisfying than rushing from thrill to thrill with deepening despondency as the unrelenting lull between highs. This will be about as easy as getting a meth head off meth. However, if we don't recognize our species as one that has a vulnerability to addiction, we are not going to stop the pushers.
Education and global transmission of ideas are paramount. I love reason and data, however those methods of idea transmission are pretty dry to many people and their eyes glaze over. Stories are a time tested (like over eons) way to reach people's minds. The fact that "Hunger Games" is so popular is kinda scary to me since it seems that is exactly where we are headed. Music is also very powerful. I actually do remember the 60's and how the counterculture memes were spread on the radio thru music.
Of utmost importance is the "coolness factor". The way the civil rights movement and the women's rights movement and the gay rights movement have made progress is that all of them became cool. Culture changes because the definition of what is cool changes. Now,unfortunately, it is cool to be rich and look and behave like Kim Kardashian. Long hair and protest songs were cool in the 60's and so were on the TV and radio. But of course, the TV and radio had not been totally co-opted by the corporatocracy in the 60's. Occupy was cool for a while but since the media is owned, the exposure of the movement was snuffed out.
So we're going to have to use the Internet. We're going to have to face Facebook. And we have to tell our stories and present our data in cool ways.