Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Bernie Sanders speaking to a crowd of nearly 1,600 students at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, IA on Thursday, January 28, 2016.

Every generation has choices to make. Choices about right and wrong. Choices about how to live their lives. We have before us a once-in-a-lifetime choice, and the stakes couldn’t possibly be higher; the very fate of the world hangs on it.

But I bring good news. When you examine the facts, there’s really no choice at all. Only one candidate meets the criteria necessary: Bernie Sanders.

Why Bernie Sanders? Because he’s the only candidate of either party who’s come close to identifying the fundamental issues at work: namely the systemic failure of the technocratic elite. Where other candidates offer minor fixes — or worse — a return to the old social democratic welfare states, Bernie works towards the real solution: empowering everyday people to control their own lives.

To explain what I mean we’ll need to look at some of the underlying myths of our age. We’ll start with the fall of the USSR, an event that was mistaken as the supposed triumph of liberal capitalism. In truth, both sides of the iron curtain suffered from the same technocratic disease.

What emerged was a new kind of society, global and ubiquitous. Every bit big brother but disguised as the candy man. Based on the ideas of the experimental psychologist B.F. Skinner, the neoliberal world order was a new way of controlling society. The old regimes had been based on systems of punishment. The new one would be based on systems of rewards.

Skinner and his pigeons.

Radical and influential, Skinner argued that it was no longer possible to control the masses through vast, authoritarian systems of punishment. Instead, the market could be used to control social behavior.

He set out to prove his hypothesis by performing a series of experiments on pigeons. He gave them pellets of food in exchange for their good social behavior and for performing basic tasks like pushing buttons.

He later performed this experiment on the patients of a mental hospital in San Bernadino, California. The patients were given plastic money as a reward for performing as the doctors and nurses wished. They were able to exchange the money for better meal conditions.

What emerged was a model that Skinner suggested be applied to society at large, where behavior was assumed to be little more than the consequence of one’s surroundings. The pigeons and the patients both exhibited the desired behavior when positively awarded.

What was assumed to be the triumph of the market during the 1980’s could instead be read as the emergence of this new form of social control, where human beings are kept docile by giving them rewards for routine work and obedience.

But problems appeared in the system. Underlying capitalism’s idealism had always been brutal conquest and the acquisition of new territory. This came to the forefront during the war on terror. The result was a jarring contrast with the new message of passivity. Many saw the brutality seeping through the carefully constructed fake world. And in response world leaders encourage people to seek comfort in their system of rewards.

As we work with Congress in the coming year to chart a new course in Iraq and strengthen our military to meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must also work together to achieve important goals for the American people here at home. This work begins with keeping our economy growing. … And I encourage you all to go shopping more. — George W. Bush, 2007

Despite George W. Bush’s suggestion that people go shopping, many were unable to plug themselves back into the matrix.

Then the crash of 2007–2008 wiped out much of the wealth of the 99%, leaving millions angry and confused. The reward system was sent into shock as it scrambled to maintain itself while handing billions of dollars to the wealthy elite.

The technocratics had learned to manage society, but they’d neglected to manage themselves. The shift to corporate power and perception management wreaked havoc across the globe, but they ignored the doom on the horizon to focus on juggling the increasingly complex present.

Climate change, rising inequality, terrorism, and a runaway financial system all threaten their increasingly unstable systems of control.

Today, everyone has a sense that something is wrong, but no clear alternative has arrived.

Or has it?

I say all this to lay the foundation for my claim that Bernie Sanders is the only possible choice for president in 2020. His vision is the only path to walk. No one else even comes close to addressing the real issues.

The success of his campaign represents the culmination of the work of millions of his supporters who have woken up to fundamental issue underlining our world: a lack of democratic control over the means of production. They are begging you to join them.

Bernie Sanders is set to visit Chicago Sunday for a speech at the city’s Navy Pier to continue kicking off his 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign.

Fixing the system — even with tough regulations and high tax rates — will only keep the technocrats in charge, and they’ve proven themselves to be not only ineffective leaders, but dangerously irresponsible ones. Our only hope is to fundamentally change the system and give power back to the people.

Bernie has spent his life fighting to empower workers. His fight for single-payer healthcare has become a rallying cry for Americans from all walks of life. But more importantly have been Bernie’s calls for revolution; our only chance is to take on the powerful interests that control our world.

There is temptation to turn our back on responsibility. We would like to believe that some simple tweaks of the knobs, some waving of the magic wand of government, will relieve of us from this crisis. It is not going to happen. Only we the people have that power.

This is about so much more than defeating Donald Trump. Don’t believe Democrats who promise you they have this election in the bag. Trump spoke to the deep-seated anger that has built up under neoliberalism. As that anger festers, it will be unleashed in more and more terrible ways.

We have a chance to avoid all that. When it comes to choosing the next president of the United States, we must reconcile the fact that our future is at stake.

We can’t afford to consume our way into the apocalypse like Skinner’s doomed pigeons. Unlike them, we have a choice.