This is a superb rant by Chris Hedges whose politics are left of mine but who often, as in this article, spreads the blame evenly across the liberal-conservative spectrum. Ignoring some semantically slanted adjectives, this piece, as a whole, hits the nail on the head as to the decrepit state of "politics" in this country. Unfortunately, neither Chris nor me nor anyone else seems to know exactly what to do about this mess. In the end, I'd say that each of us individually has to push forward and speak out and act in favor of actions that we know in our hearts to be right, just, and of the most benefit to the most people. I applaud Chris Hedges for doing that.
I second your thoughts emphatically. I wonder though in what ways Hedges is to the left you? I don’t mean that as a challenge, just that we’ve gotten to a point in our tragic hegira where left and right seem like quaint, anachronistic, categories. There are so many former cool types among the oligarchs, David Geffen, for example, and so many so called progressives among the dreadful Hollywood elites who are driving us headlong towards true authoritarian rule, I wonder, with respect, whether you aren’t more ‘left’ than you realize.
I think we probably agree Sara, that "left" and "right" are more divisive than helpful in most arguments or discussions of politics and economics. In my teens and twenties, my idealism kept me on the left, but I've come to distrust the big military, corporatocracy, corrupted education, enforced morality, fake medicine, purchased media, the whole realm of big government, etc. that have arisen since the days of my youth. The simple categories of "left" and "right" are too blurred and indistinct to be helpful in my figuring out how to best help the person living in the tent on a sidewalk a few blocks from my home. Do I give him a dollar? Do I tell him to go vote... to go find a job... Do I complain to my city councilman? Sometimes I just want to know the right thing to do at any given moment, regardless of political philosophy. Left" and "right" rarely shed light.
I considered myself slung out of the left/right political division years ago and created my own categories: PP, Political vs Public interests. It has been clear that all of our politicians are mere ventriloquists dummies operating on the voices of unseen interests. I was called a conspiracy advocate in the darkest of terms until it is now clear to a number of public voices such as Hedges in this article.
ALL of our politicians have become corrupt, the once Left, Right and Center. Their allegiances go to those who give them money. Everyone forgets that it was Obama who first declared, "I've got a billion dollars for this campaign." He shocked the Hell out of everyone, public and private. The money race was on and soon the Republicans declared they had more than Obama. The pretense of campaigning and following through on public interest was over. Campaigns were about raising money.
Nomi Prins has exposed how Congress members actually make investments just before and after bills they have worked on are signed into law. She's named names, given dates, amounts, and names of stocks bought. It's insider info of the most unscrupulous nature. Unfortunately, her audience is limited to investors who subscribe to her newsletter., but it has indeed become a subject treated openly in a few other newsletters.
As Chris says, the Politicians politic is unrelated to its purported purpose.
and the Public Interest Politics are hung out like wash forgotten on the line. Andrew Yang proposes an honest third party, but a group capable of giving a new party a Russified name of the Forward Party is not likely to muster a winning number of votes any more than Bernie's one-line interest was (he also had no chance, because Hillary owned the DNC.)
There seem to be only two ways out. One, conceivable for the rightist, Trumpist, White Nationalists is an armed coup d'état. Unfortunately, that would only serve a minority of the public interests.
The other would be a completely new form of making leadership decisions without political parties. I had the basics sketched out in a manuscript on the evolution of human behavior that the Editor-in-Chief of Little Brown bought in 1972. It was never finished due to the assassination of a close member of our family. But there must be other people with the necessary global perspectives who could develop realistic, workable systems of making functionable forms of decision making - which is all that "government" is. It would be complicated, but feasible to do.
And people like Chris Hedges would certainly be in the circle.
Sounds quite interesting. For the information of an ignorant man like myself, could you give us a very brief summary of the manuscript you sketched? I've been voting for third party candidates knowing that is really a blind vote but what you are talking is new for me and seems very promising.
I like what Noam Chomsky says about himself “Anarcho-syndicalist” but few know what that means, so I just say I’m personally an anarchist believing in near total personal freedom, and fiscally conservative; societally I’m a big democratic socialist, b c I believe we are our brothers and sisters keepers, heavily invested in the real Christian principles that too few in our country adhere to or even know. Anarchist/socialist is what I say for short.😌
Jiminy Cricket has the answer “Let the your conscience be your guide” Most of us have a well formed conscience, and can discern right from wrong. Harder than it sounds b c one needs to look inward long and hard and be willing to grapple: “wrestle with devil” so to speak with difficult situations. It ain’t often a lot of fun. Bleh.,But there it is.
I wouldn't consider Hollywood progressive at all. They are neo-liberals, which is very close to fascists. They are the pro-war (and cry about the necessity for war), the distractionist crowd, the pro Pelosi and Biden crowd and the Uber-Zionist crowd.
Sera, you're confusing me about measurements of "the left". I'm just saying that it seems very strange to me when Hedges says it doesn't matter who you vote for for president. Would he say that if Clinton/Harris were running against Mike Pompeo/Marjory Taylor Green and they were close in the polls?
It just seems so egotistical and strange to me when my fellow radical revolutionaries, who are mostly living comfortable lives (easy for them because they are mostly privileged educated people) vote for some useless third-party candidate that most Americans have never heard of and thereby cause a poor working mother to move into her car, a diabetic to ration his insulin, and a family in Japan to feel far more vulnerable every day to dying in a nuclear war (like when Jimmy Dore and Hedges didn't join Chomsky in urging us to vote Biden to stop Trump). Allowing Trump to win in 2016 was the ultimate Ugly American act because it empowered an actual insane person to literally juggle nuclear bombs over the head of every child on Earth.
This weird purist behavior -- making the perfect the enemy of the good -- baffles me because in analyzing situations, every word out of Hedges' mouth is the objective "alien sociologist" truth. And yet then he doesn't mind if we cripple poor disadvantaged people, women who need an abortion, people in prison, people sleeping on the streets, just to prove a point, that we liberals won't give our votes away anymore. Who every heard of CRIPPLING your own troops during a battle so they MIGHT learn to fight harder? That's actually stupid, because they usually just join the right-wing nationalists and cripple themselves AND YOU AND ME! further.
Clinton/Harris Vs. Mike Pompeo/Marjory Taylor Green is ugly but wouldn't make any difference. All of them will continue being puppets of big capital. In my opinion we need to participate in civil disobedience and stop rewarding those political clowns with our votes.
I'm not saying you're selfish, but this statement is simply wrong. More accurately, it wouldn't make any difference to YOU, because you're educated and have time to post from your nice Mac laptop on Chris Hedges' blog. It would make a huge, gigantic, life changing difference to a 17-year-old girl forced to have an abortion and to a 19-year-old boy splattered on a battlefield for Chevron and Raytheon. So even though you're a good person, you are blindly loving your elegant, pure doctrine more than the poor people that make up nearly half of our population, and you are posting something that sounds profoundly selfish to me and Naom C.
I see your despair, we all are. But do you really believe Clinton would have avoided the change in abortion laws? I was once a fan of her until I heard her defending the Israeli apartheid regime, same than Biden and all the other sold-outs. Any one on that fictitious ticket would push the red button if ordered by their bosses. I don't know how old you are. I'm in the tender age of 75 and during my lifetime I have seen political promises broken by the two parties all the time. Contrary to selfishness I believe that opening our eyes and recognizing the facts is the true love for our poor and all of our America.
I'm 69 years old, Julio. I was draftable for Vietnam and I know what the System is. But there are COMPETENT war criminals like Bush1, Obama, and Biden, INCOMPETENT ones (Bush2), and fully INSANE AND STUPID ones like Trump. Your thinking is simply wrong. Trump literally murdered approximately 400,000 mostly elderly Americans, while Hillary would have competently handled the pandemic (as did several other women leaders in the world) and many of those people would still be alive today.
True, Obama is an actual war criminal for failing to imprison Bush and Cheney. Biden is an actual war criminal for co-creating the 2003 invasion of Iraq using Bush's exact blatantly dishonest talking points. But what kind of fighter hobbles his troops MORE rather than LESS?!! WTF?!
I absolutely could not have retired at 62 without Obamacare. Do you think I would have had the equivalent of Obamacare if McCain had won in 2008? With my free time afforded by my early retirement (I was a Silicon Valley tech writer) I wrote political articles on Quora that got 2 million views and woke up thousands of people.
Like Chomsky says, the math is so simple. But like a Trumpster, you've let ego and pride override your logic. We OF COURSE choose the lesser evil and then WE KEEP FIGHTING AND ORGANIZING. Forcing people without your high level of privilege to suffer in order to protect the sanctity of your elegant feelings about your precious vote is so incredibly egotistical.
That 17-year-old girl isn't going to suddenly become a revolutionary on our side if Trump wins and makes her life even more hellish. She's just going to SUFFER!
That diabetic who loses his leg because of not having enough insulin isn't going to help our revolution. HE'S JUST GOING TO SUFFER. Same with the 9-year-old girl who goes to school with rotten teeth and an empty stomach. Same with the Black college student who gets beat half to death by police because his license plate light is out, in a political climate were a Republican Trump-like president ENCOURAGES police violence. Read my lips, Julio, on your expensive computer in your warm house!! Get. With. The. Program!
The Democrats and Republicans are ONE party. Hillary and Trump were just the left and right fists of a bully that’s beating the sh*t out of us. But when you have a choice, what kind of fighter allows the stronger fist to hit him AND TO HIT HIS COMRADES?! These people are OUR people, our comrades: The diabetic rationing his insulin, the grandfather having a horrible covid death, the 17-year-old rape victim forced to keep her baby. It's selfish to push a poor single mother into living in her car. Ya think?
You, from your place of lucky, privileged comfort, think it's somehow worth it to push back years of slow progress made by people with less privilege and less luck. You think it's somehow helping these people. Well reality tells you that it's not. And the ugliest thing Americans ever did was to impose Trump on the world, to allow an actual insane imbecile to literally juggle nuclear missiles over the heads of all the children in the world.
I'm not sure who you're addressing this to. I voted for Bernie in the 2016 and 2020 primaries, but after he was squeezed out of the running, of course I chose to vote for the least insane, most competent bureaucrat/war criminal, the only kind of President I've EVER had in my 69 years of American life.
Of course we're choosing between 2 factions of the same party, but there ARE differences, as Trump's murder of approximately 400,000 elderly Americans by intentional criminal negligence during the first 2 months of the pandemic proves.
What kind of fools would waste the only drop of Election Day power they have on a symbolic vote, when in fact, in both of these elections, one candidate was one who would make the hole in our sinking boat bigger for sure, but the other would rip it open as wide as possible. Why would someone make their soldiers fight barefooted?
Why would some bourgeois "radical" write in Jill Stein's name on the ballot and thereby HELP Trump be able to put actual insane people in the Supreme Court and thereby take the freedom away from every woman in the whole United States? Make a single mother move into her car? Make a diabetic ration his insulin to the point of losing his leg? What kind of human being would impose an actual madman on the WORLD, and force every parent on Earth to watch an orange TV clown literally juggle nuclear weapons over THEIR children's heads?
Craziness. It's insanely egotistical to DRAFT vulnerable people into your revolution (by putting in a Trump or a Pompeo who will crush them further but NOT push them into YOUR revolution), while you type on your Mac in comfort and feel good about yourself for the purity of your vote (for Jill Stein) or for not voting at all.
Not only Chomsky but even the holdout of holdouts Ralph Nader are on my side now, because it's gotten that crazy. Like Chomsky says, the math is simple, and OF COURSE we vote for the lesser evil. Who wants to facilitate INSTANTLY increasing the level of evil.
We vote for the lesser evil to buy time so we can continue organizing and waking people up. Don't we trust ourselves to be able to do it? Do we have to derail and crash the train to fix it? Obviously it makes more sense and saves a lot of time to stop the train with mass civil disobedience and general strikes and then fix it while it's still somewhat intact.
In the past, Chris Hedges was unclear about solutions, and therefore he depressed a lot of his readers and even turned them away. But during the past couple of years he has been crystal clear that the only way that we can prevail is through mass civil disobedience and massive general strikes. Clearly the American population is not nearly ready for this, which is why WE have to make 2023 the year that we speak truth to morons (including the 2/3 of doctor's at the large California hospital where my sister works at as an emergency department director who are strong Trump supporters) and do not accept bullshit from anybody. I think it's quite possible that "conservatives" will start to realize that only babies and slaves believe anything other than the objective reality that "extraterrestrial sociologists/wiseman" Hedges shares with the world.
Can I be a pedant? There is nothing to gain by adding uni to partisan they are the same word. You can further fracture a fracture but if you are partisan you are by definition uni.
The USA was a Democracy before the revolution. Samuel Johnson who wrote the dictionary said so in his letter to the American Congress and Dr Johnson was a CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIVE.
We received thousand of refugees after your revolution We didn't ask for them they just flocked over the border and infected our country in the way refugees just change countries.
They still want to control things in Canada and are a pain in the posterior. They are Tories not Whigs you know like in Russia and Texas; Oligarchs.
Thing about American American history is it is alll Merrill Lynch Shit.
It was Bulls and bears when the London Stock Exchange opened in 1698 and the House of Landlords owned all the shares. There was no we the people beyond the Landlords in the house of Lords. The Commons (commoners) had no clout.
Twain said it all a century later.
"Clothes make the man. The naked have no influence."
Chris Hedges has been repeating these warnings for more than a decade, and the rot in the system has only become more intractable. Most of us know something better is possible, but it's organizing ourselves against corporate, legislative and judicial power that is so difficult. Where to begin?
That organizing needed to be done 40-50 years ago. Since it never happened, the oligarchs, plutocrats, kleptocrats & kakistocrats have won. We're their prisoners. The question now is, can we ever manage to break out of their capitalist prison? Given the present state of revolutionary paralysis, which has obtained for those 50 years, there's little reason for optimism.
Wonderfully said Basil Rathbone. I've never read a better description of our problem. It's exactly what an extraterrestrial sociologist would report back to academics on its home planet, the objective truth about the talking apes on Earth living in America and "the West".
It does indeed, so long as We the (muzzled, invisible) People never do a damn thing about it. Instead, we move from one gee-whiz distraction to the next. And those go on about 400 times a day.
Keep in mind that sociopaths are simultaneously the last people who should get any measure of power, and at the same time are the people who will do whatever it takes to get power.
I've had it mind for many years, and yet they seem to be the ONLY people who ever do get any measure of significant power. This system richly rewards sociopaths and basically just kills, or otherwise neutralizes, anyone with even a modicum of power if they don't dance like a sociopath. See "Paul Wellstone," for example. Or Eugene Debs, Assange, Snowden. Or scores of others.
I was born under the Padlock Laws when Orwell wrote his famous/infamous novel. For me his novel takes place in Anaheim California and Orlando Florida not on a dark and dreary EAPoe Midnight.
I will die in Quebec under Bill21 a bill asserting the Laicity of the State of Quebec.
The State of Quebec forbids non empirical belief in its day to day functions.
It is opposed by the Koch Brothers and the ACLU. I try not to give the Kochs more power and it saves us $100 dollars a year giving to the ACLU.
There is no such thing as freedom of religion unless there is freedom from religion
Of course I am autistic and seek interconnection not straight lines.
Eugenia Cheng the great English Philosopher and Abstract Mathematician explains it for a more balanced audience. It is real comedy not tragedy like Seinfeld . It is about something.
THE UNIVERSE is the opposite of metaverses.
Might I suggest the Canadian Philosopher and Western Historian and two time head of PEN International John Ralston Saul.
Chris Hedges wrote the Foreward to the twentieth Anniversay edition of Voltaire's Bastards and thirty years after Voltaire's Bastards John Ralston Saul is explaining non Western Culture to us and Western Culture to those unfamiliar with our insanity.
Lest I forget Sir John Ralston Saul Knight of the Realm and anti Monarchist and partner of our beloved Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson. author of
Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship
Everybody should have a copy of Saul's Doubter's Companion a Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense
Get a copy of Common Sense. Common Sense is about self evident truths.
I am what they call autistic. My reality exists only between my ears. I am a Deist like Voltaire or Franklin or Twain. Perception is reality.
I have lived in many worlds. I don't belong in many worlds. My wife and I live where we live in our own tiny little world and we are content. My wife was an expert in cross cultural education. Ours is an interesting (at least to us) perspective on perceptions.
We are anti matter. My wife's master's degree was science education at Chicago. It matched perfectly with my metaphysics.
I know Aboriginal perceptions rather well. Abrahamic fatalism is a failure to understand balance in the Universe. Judaism before the 18th century was not bipolar.
There will be no solution by electing the next "better" guy/gyal. The incentives system must be overhauled. Any person installed will bring the same garbage. They all ate or get corrupted when in office. Stop pretending we need better people... we need "rules without rulers"
We need an actual socialist and communist party in this country with seats in the legislature. Lots of other countries have socialist and communist parties. That is how we reign in the corrupted oligarchs and the banks. Not by continuing to vote for two corrupted Neoliberal parties who are 100% funded by the oligarchs and the banks. The oligarchs and their Professional Managerial Class lapdogs will not dismantle this system. It is either socialism, or this barbarism will continue until we collapse. We wonder how we got a 40 hour work week, social security, workplace protections. Well, it wasn't Liberals or billionaires that gave it to us out of the goodness of their hearts. It was organized labor and millions of socialists and commie activists. Until we get that again, we'll continue with our current system of Neoliberal police state fascism. Because unfortunately the problem is not just the 1%, there are actually 10's of millions of middle class PMC folks who are very comfortable with what they got and benefit very much from corporate extraction and the war state.
"We had the rebellion or as we call it "The Quiet revolution" and democracy requires constant care and weeding. I Quebec institiutons have only privileges and business is always a public private partnership and the people hold all the deeds but it ain't easy.
We have CONSORSHIP! Not the censorship of people loving each other and themselves but of the ability of corporations to sell Snake Oil like Fantasyland, miraculous drugs and "Gaming" systems.
In Quebec ABORTION IS A MORAL DECISION AND IS LEFT TO THE PREGNANT, RELIGION IS BANNED IN OUR PUBLIC PLACES AND EVERYONE IS CREATED EQUAL. We will never get anywhere near perfection because our leaders are ethical philosophers and this debate has gone on since we left the sea.
We are living next to America and we still have Traitors/Loyalists among us but we sleep with one eye open.
This is a great forum. I get to realize how lucky we were.
Diapers and politicians need to be changed regularly---for exactly the same reason. Mark Twain
"For as we have said, the art of the sophist is a money-making art which trades on apparent wisdom, and so sophists aim at apparent proof, for sophistry is an appearance of wisdom without reality."
(Quoted from Aristotle's On Sophistical Refutations, 171b32-7. Tr. E. S. Forster. Loeb Classical Library Vol. 400 (Harvard, 1955. P. 63)
Sophistry fills our radios, TV's, computers, podcasts, newspapers, Courts and almost all daily life.
We have celebrity journalists now who work assiduously as sophists as well.
The modern sophist is the 'paid journalist', the anchor 'man', the talk show host and of course the coin operated politician --- the political Machiavellian.
There are a small group of people who are skilled in the art of manipulation and control and they use this skill to threaten the survival of the planet and its occupants. These are the Machiavellians, their name taken from the philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, who understood what the ruling elite needed to maintain domination over the mind and thus the material control of the world (https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1943/machiavellians.htm)."
These sophists play on our irrationality.
"In fact, perhaps the most accurate and useful definition of humans is that of 'the self-deceiving mammal'. For deception, duplicity, sophistry, delusion and hypocrisy are the foundational products of human nature in its 'natural', primal and untutored state; but it is not instinctive and subjected to fate. But, rather than reducing these negative tendencies, most 'schooling' and socio-cultural influences redirect them, rendering them more sophisticated, more artful, more obscure and more inclined to deception and illusion.
"One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun." ----- Niebuhr Reinhold
To exacerbate this problem, not only are humans socially constructed to be self-deceptive, they are, in their primal state, unsurprisingly socio-centric as well. Every culture and society sees itself as special and as justified in all of its basic beliefs and practices -- in all its values and taboos. The arbitrary nature of its folkways is known to its anthropologists (if it has any) but not to its overwhelming majority. Take the notion of 'American Exceptionalism' as one example."
Yes, "American Exceptionalism", the sophists tool.
Taught by professional sophists like Karl Rove, James Carville and his hideous wife or language specialists (the other big name escapes me) and professional corporations, the 'art of the frame' is what the sophist seeks to master.
For the art of the frame is the art of the deal, as Trump can tell you.
And the art of the deal is the art of profit seeking.
And in a hustler society sophistic thinking is rewarded while fair-minded critical thinking is punished.
In fact, you can take out the sub-prime student loans that you will never be able to repay to become a Language Framer for the one tenth of one percent.
You will need that phony college degree to become what they now call "A Framing Consultant", right out of the sophist cookbook.
Trump was a buffoon. The establishment need not fear him, but they should fear a competent populist, a Huey P. Long for example.
Say what you want about his goals, and his methods were, by his own admission often unsavory, but he was A Man Who Got Things Done. In fact, he got so much done, as in concrete material benefits to the citizenry, not "hope'n'change" or "owning the libs" that for generations to come, people named their children after him, and the Long name alone was enough to get a man elected in Louisiana.
And this, in the face of a corrupt political establishment that was not shy about using bribery, blackmail and, when necessary, outright fraud and violence to get what it wanted.
You say, "The Squad and the Progressive Caucus have no more intention of fighting for universal health care, workers’ rights or defying the war machine than the Freedom Caucus fights for freedom." That statement is unexpected and a bit concerning coming from someone as consistent, insightful, and logical as you are. What's your thinking behind it?
I have the same concern about an essay like this that begins by impugning Progressives while, in fact, its points refer ultimately to Christian fascists. Isn't it true that the Progressive caucus attempted to call for ceasefire and negotiation in the Ukraine war, but they were quickly shut down by the liberals and neoliberals--including the now much-revered Pelosi. It's so difficult these days to be a Progressive or social democrat especially in the House, which has just elevated centrists, yet again. And Sanders seems the only voice of reason in the Senate. At the very least, we must support these folks, however much they are in the minority in what Hedges claims is a thoroughly debased congress. I agree with so much of this article, but the nihilism that must result from it -- that is, the hopelessness he projects about anything the Dems can accomplish now -- is also dangerous. Younger generations need to get involved and keep moving politics to the left. What's the alternative? Revolution is impossible; we'd all be mowed down and/or imprisoned for life.
There are no 'progressives' in Congress and no 'leftists'. Please, let us dispense with the vacuity of weaponized words that convey nothing but rather conceal more than they reveal.
If you've ever served in a governance body as I have, you might recognize that the real leftists and Progressives, the true socialists, have been a very slim minority in our era. But to give up on that minority is to surrender to nihilism, to hopelessness. What "actions" do you require of our politicians? Or of ourselves?
No one called for giving up on a sim minority of socialists. Where did that come from? An inference?
I have drafted major legislation in California, back in the 70's and have worked with all types of people in the fifty years I have been at this battle.
What actions do I require of our politicians?
None. They are coin operated.
They are crooks, liars and many fascists.
Of ourselves I already offered suggestions.
How do you think that Norquist, Rove, Abramoff, the Christian right takes over the country?
Go back in history.
They begin with the levers of power on a local level and worked up.
They held meetings in homes, schools, Veteran buildings etc.
And while they were organizing the masses in the late 70's, most Americans delved right into Reaganism, leaving their local communities without radical representation.
This is the rhetoric of cant, too easily said. What does it consist of? Most revolutions or rebellions weren't ever led by the poor, who are made too busy eking out a survival to even pay much attention to politics. The real challenge is how to get people of means to give up their comforts, to stop supporting the very capitalism that has made their lives easier.
People of means will not give up their comforts. I've had enough arguments with engineers and IT professionals to understand this implicitly. Politics for them is a moral exercise. They have not known the hunger, the homelessness, the exploitation, and the needless suffering the rest of us experience.
I have colleagues now living in their cars, waiting for the temperatures to rise so that they can go risk their lives to protect the second home of a tech executive. The most insulting thing is that that bastard captain of industry will mouth some polite and empty rhetoric. He's your ally, you see? He'd help if only he could.
Economic power can only be met with economic power. As inconceivable as that is, it is not unprecedented in history. They want to control the economy? Then embrace your neighbors like the brothers and sisters they are, stop the economy, and demand your share. The US has a whole history of union movements that have demonstrated this. It doesn't make it easy, but if it's been done before it can be done again.
I am open to all criticism. Can you please tell me why my comments are nihilistic? Can you define 'progressive' so to cure my error? Can you tell me why I mistake cowardice with posturing? Please provide evidence for your assumptions.
Maybe progressives trapped on the Congressional hamster wheel do need support …(?)
Support to WALK ( or run ! ) out of the place , I’d say.
Not only to self-rescue, but maybe to make an announcement at the exit… to say in so many words…’ That ( going to Washington …) was a mistake… It’s not 1958 anymore & the institution simply smothers people like me . I no longer want to encourage young people to think this is a useful career path.’
-JJ ( IBEW electrical worker @ Detroit near Canada…)
As soon as Ocasio-Cortez called Nancy Pelosi “Mama Bear,” I knew she’d been neutralized. Add to that, attending upscale social events, mingling with the elites in NY. At first, she seemed like she was ready to take on the establishment, right before she became part of them and votes for every bill that increases money sent to the Pentagon.
Tell the American women in many states that there is no difference between the Dems and the Republicans in power when the truth of the matter is that Republicans have now owned the Supreme Court and much of the judiciary. So what has followed are the reproductive freedoms guaranteed for the last 50 years and for which many of us fought destroyed. This will be life-changing for women, especially poor women. Trump himself guaranteed those last 3 anti-abortion votes sent down by these Uber-Catholic justices--Gorsuch, Kavanagh, Barrett. As much as you might have hated Hillary Clinton, (and I was no fan), this would not have happened during another Clinton's presidency. There are significant reasons now not to give up on the Dems--however they have been reliant upon their ability to raise money to stay in power. That's one of the first things changed by the Supreme Court's right-wing agenda to enable more big money through the Court's Citizens United ruling. If we keep losing sight of the endgame here by being purist about our Left agenda, we will lose it all. And soon.
I hear you. This is the ONE thing about Chris Hedges (my hero!) I don't get. My friend said about him,
"Hedges is brilliant at analyzing and assessing an issue or crisis, but has an absolute problem synthesizing it into realistic solutions because he has one small blind spot--and I would say this about his views on international relations as well as domestic: he absolutely cannot see that small, yet all important millimeter where the rubber actually meets the road."
We cannot say we are a democracy. I came to this realization too late in life. I spent all of my working life with my nose to the grindstone. Now I am retired and can no longer do more than learn what I can and try and speak up. Just take one issue—the issue of mass incarceration—just one problem among many. Not too long ago I wrote a letter addressed together to my U.S. senators, my U.S. representative, my WI state Senator and Assembly-person and the director of Corrections for the State of WI about the fact we have 38 prisons in our state. The people I addressed are on the right and left of issues. I wanted each of them to see their name among the others. Too many people in cages. I am not a researcher but I put together stats to illustrate the absurdity of it and challenged them to end the mass caging. If they think of it at all, if they have any compassion left, they must dismantle this system! It employs so many people now and is a self-generating economy of commerce and profit. It is a machine scooping up humans like a natural resource—any thinking person can see it is an inhumane system. The fact is all of the people I wrote to will most likely go to their graves without having taken one step in the direction of ending it. I knew I was whistling in the wind as they say. It is not an issue I will see on a ballot (although it should be) but I recorded my vote anyway. Issues like this must be addressed for us to call the U.S. a democracy.
The U.S. empire is definitely unravelling which is not unwelcome.
The only question is whether it will die peaceably or take billions of innocent souls, if not the whole planet, down with it.
Although, it's amazing that so many people seem utterly oblivious to it all as they cheerfully talk about the future while making choices that only serve to exacerbate the problems.
You really out did yourself in this article. Please find a couple of friends and go out and "do the town". Get reconnected with those around you. Stop reading and start experience the now. Please stop living the depressed/realist war correspondent of yesterday. You got to lighten up. That said. You be right on. But I'm getting worried about you, my man.
American Exception: Empire and the Deep State by Aaron Good. You need to read it. You will come to understand why we vote and spend a fortune on elections and we are dissatisfied with the way things are going but they never change.
Americans have become so wrapped up in ideology that we have become like the Communist zealots of the last century – forever arguing about ideological purity and never asking if their ideology had a practical solution to problems. Worse becoming so interested in what others are doing that we never examine we are doing.
Great article summarizing the current state of our political system. I lay awake with the same thoughts and angst. I would however take issue with the assertion that that the so-called squad are just a bunch "political hacks" like all the rest. I am not going to defend all their positions or actions and certainly do not see them as saviors or heros.,But for example, AOC has at least opposed the NDAA every year she has been in congress. She has called for a reduction of at least 10% in military spending. No need to write back to me that 10% is a joke. I know that (as I suspect does she) but it's a beginning. She has also called for Medicare for all but this of course has been shut down by Pelosi and Co.
Finally in respect for her support for military aid to Ukraine. My wife has relatives in Germany that have taken in and helped settle dozens of Ukranian refugees. They are all of course traumatized and frightened for family that remained. They all desperately want the war to end. None of them to a person trust Putin to engage in good faith negotiations nor are they interested in simply surrending to an army of rapists and murderers (not of course a uniquely Russian military attribute). So the question remains what should they do. To a person they believe the only course is to resist the invaders. Discussions about the war being a proxy war against Russia are academic to them. Nor are they interested in retrospectivec debates about the wisdom of NATO expansion which I fully agree was stupid and provocative. They are not naive, and even though they know US intentions are far from pure, it is of little concern to them. They just want help to defend themselves and will take it from anyone. That AOC voted to provide that aid does not make her a warmongering hypocrit. I say this as someone who has protested against, been arrested, and spent time in jail because of my opposition to the US war machine.
Anyone who recognizes these condition of the US expects full out civil war to breakout at any moment. For that to NOT happen would be a miracle.. one that has not a single sign of potential to clench onto faith with. Many of my friends (unfortunately) arr either so ignorant to the actual state of western culture that they seem to sleep well at night, happy to have a job that covers they're pointless personal ambitions and habits of wastefulness and where 50% of earnings gets consumed by the most idiotic government policies through a slew of tyrannical taxes that siphon off ultimately into the war machine. The handful who seem to be opening up to the idea that neither side of the political spectrum has any intention to make changes to the system that maintains the status quo. Even less have come around to the idea that a broken monetary system that requires time theft in order to work (fractional reserve banking) is what causes inflation.. the symptom of monetary debasement through endless printing that is stealing our time to the tune of about 2% per month. Without a base layer monetary system founded on an immutable transparent and distributed ledger fornall to see and that forces the government to spend only what comes in, we can never hope to see the slightest changes made in military spending. By continuing to accept fiat currency as a standard, we have no right to demand better policies. We all enable the maniacs to steal from us continuously... and we deserve what we get. Adopt bitcoin... accept the inevitable drastic deflation that is required (like an addict coming off of a 50 year high), and wake up from the dream that you have any hope until the government gravy train is haulted by the mathematical force of natural law. Nothing is free... we have been living with free currency circulating for far too long.
Also on the same note as Hedges... pure ineffectiveness by our elected "leaders"...but its by design. They don't work for the ppl..they work for themselves. Until a critical mass realizes its not about electing "better" people... there will never be better people... we need a system that can noo be manipulated by the pull of easy money. Rules without rulers is the only hope we will ever have at sustainable long lasting change.
If in 1903, you told the average frustrated Russian peasant that in the next fifteen years, the Russian Empire would fight and lose two wars (including losing one war to Japan) and that Russia would undergo three revolutions, as a result of which there would no longer be a Tsar in St. Petersburg, or in Russia at all, the peasant would think you were possessed by an unclean spirit.
But it's not just the Great Unwashed. If you told the average frustrated London investment banker the same thing in 1903, he would pronounce you to be quite mad and possibly even to be not altogether our sort.
There is a lesson here. I am not saying that anything in particular is happening in the next fifteen, but there is a lesson.
This is a superb rant by Chris Hedges whose politics are left of mine but who often, as in this article, spreads the blame evenly across the liberal-conservative spectrum. Ignoring some semantically slanted adjectives, this piece, as a whole, hits the nail on the head as to the decrepit state of "politics" in this country. Unfortunately, neither Chris nor me nor anyone else seems to know exactly what to do about this mess. In the end, I'd say that each of us individually has to push forward and speak out and act in favor of actions that we know in our hearts to be right, just, and of the most benefit to the most people. I applaud Chris Hedges for doing that.
I second your thoughts emphatically. I wonder though in what ways Hedges is to the left you? I don’t mean that as a challenge, just that we’ve gotten to a point in our tragic hegira where left and right seem like quaint, anachronistic, categories. There are so many former cool types among the oligarchs, David Geffen, for example, and so many so called progressives among the dreadful Hollywood elites who are driving us headlong towards true authoritarian rule, I wonder, with respect, whether you aren’t more ‘left’ than you realize.
I think we probably agree Sara, that "left" and "right" are more divisive than helpful in most arguments or discussions of politics and economics. In my teens and twenties, my idealism kept me on the left, but I've come to distrust the big military, corporatocracy, corrupted education, enforced morality, fake medicine, purchased media, the whole realm of big government, etc. that have arisen since the days of my youth. The simple categories of "left" and "right" are too blurred and indistinct to be helpful in my figuring out how to best help the person living in the tent on a sidewalk a few blocks from my home. Do I give him a dollar? Do I tell him to go vote... to go find a job... Do I complain to my city councilman? Sometimes I just want to know the right thing to do at any given moment, regardless of political philosophy. Left" and "right" rarely shed light.
I considered myself slung out of the left/right political division years ago and created my own categories: PP, Political vs Public interests. It has been clear that all of our politicians are mere ventriloquists dummies operating on the voices of unseen interests. I was called a conspiracy advocate in the darkest of terms until it is now clear to a number of public voices such as Hedges in this article.
ALL of our politicians have become corrupt, the once Left, Right and Center. Their allegiances go to those who give them money. Everyone forgets that it was Obama who first declared, "I've got a billion dollars for this campaign." He shocked the Hell out of everyone, public and private. The money race was on and soon the Republicans declared they had more than Obama. The pretense of campaigning and following through on public interest was over. Campaigns were about raising money.
Nomi Prins has exposed how Congress members actually make investments just before and after bills they have worked on are signed into law. She's named names, given dates, amounts, and names of stocks bought. It's insider info of the most unscrupulous nature. Unfortunately, her audience is limited to investors who subscribe to her newsletter., but it has indeed become a subject treated openly in a few other newsletters.
As Chris says, the Politicians politic is unrelated to its purported purpose.
and the Public Interest Politics are hung out like wash forgotten on the line. Andrew Yang proposes an honest third party, but a group capable of giving a new party a Russified name of the Forward Party is not likely to muster a winning number of votes any more than Bernie's one-line interest was (he also had no chance, because Hillary owned the DNC.)
There seem to be only two ways out. One, conceivable for the rightist, Trumpist, White Nationalists is an armed coup d'état. Unfortunately, that would only serve a minority of the public interests.
The other would be a completely new form of making leadership decisions without political parties. I had the basics sketched out in a manuscript on the evolution of human behavior that the Editor-in-Chief of Little Brown bought in 1972. It was never finished due to the assassination of a close member of our family. But there must be other people with the necessary global perspectives who could develop realistic, workable systems of making functionable forms of decision making - which is all that "government" is. It would be complicated, but feasible to do.
And people like Chris Hedges would certainly be in the circle.
Sounds quite interesting. For the information of an ignorant man like myself, could you give us a very brief summary of the manuscript you sketched? I've been voting for third party candidates knowing that is really a blind vote but what you are talking is new for me and seems very promising.
I like what Noam Chomsky says about himself “Anarcho-syndicalist” but few know what that means, so I just say I’m personally an anarchist believing in near total personal freedom, and fiscally conservative; societally I’m a big democratic socialist, b c I believe we are our brothers and sisters keepers, heavily invested in the real Christian principles that too few in our country adhere to or even know. Anarchist/socialist is what I say for short.😌
Jiminy Cricket has the answer “Let the your conscience be your guide” Most of us have a well formed conscience, and can discern right from wrong. Harder than it sounds b c one needs to look inward long and hard and be willing to grapple: “wrestle with devil” so to speak with difficult situations. It ain’t often a lot of fun. Bleh.,But there it is.
I wouldn't consider Hollywood progressive at all. They are neo-liberals, which is very close to fascists. They are the pro-war (and cry about the necessity for war), the distractionist crowd, the pro Pelosi and Biden crowd and the Uber-Zionist crowd.
Sera, you're confusing me about measurements of "the left". I'm just saying that it seems very strange to me when Hedges says it doesn't matter who you vote for for president. Would he say that if Clinton/Harris were running against Mike Pompeo/Marjory Taylor Green and they were close in the polls?
It just seems so egotistical and strange to me when my fellow radical revolutionaries, who are mostly living comfortable lives (easy for them because they are mostly privileged educated people) vote for some useless third-party candidate that most Americans have never heard of and thereby cause a poor working mother to move into her car, a diabetic to ration his insulin, and a family in Japan to feel far more vulnerable every day to dying in a nuclear war (like when Jimmy Dore and Hedges didn't join Chomsky in urging us to vote Biden to stop Trump). Allowing Trump to win in 2016 was the ultimate Ugly American act because it empowered an actual insane person to literally juggle nuclear bombs over the head of every child on Earth.
This weird purist behavior -- making the perfect the enemy of the good -- baffles me because in analyzing situations, every word out of Hedges' mouth is the objective "alien sociologist" truth. And yet then he doesn't mind if we cripple poor disadvantaged people, women who need an abortion, people in prison, people sleeping on the streets, just to prove a point, that we liberals won't give our votes away anymore. Who every heard of CRIPPLING your own troops during a battle so they MIGHT learn to fight harder? That's actually stupid, because they usually just join the right-wing nationalists and cripple themselves AND YOU AND ME! further.
Clinton/Harris Vs. Mike Pompeo/Marjory Taylor Green is ugly but wouldn't make any difference. All of them will continue being puppets of big capital. In my opinion we need to participate in civil disobedience and stop rewarding those political clowns with our votes.
I'm not saying you're selfish, but this statement is simply wrong. More accurately, it wouldn't make any difference to YOU, because you're educated and have time to post from your nice Mac laptop on Chris Hedges' blog. It would make a huge, gigantic, life changing difference to a 17-year-old girl forced to have an abortion and to a 19-year-old boy splattered on a battlefield for Chevron and Raytheon. So even though you're a good person, you are blindly loving your elegant, pure doctrine more than the poor people that make up nearly half of our population, and you are posting something that sounds profoundly selfish to me and Naom C.
I see your despair, we all are. But do you really believe Clinton would have avoided the change in abortion laws? I was once a fan of her until I heard her defending the Israeli apartheid regime, same than Biden and all the other sold-outs. Any one on that fictitious ticket would push the red button if ordered by their bosses. I don't know how old you are. I'm in the tender age of 75 and during my lifetime I have seen political promises broken by the two parties all the time. Contrary to selfishness I believe that opening our eyes and recognizing the facts is the true love for our poor and all of our America.
HRC would change her abortion stance in a second if it helped her politically or her bank account
I'm 69 years old, Julio. I was draftable for Vietnam and I know what the System is. But there are COMPETENT war criminals like Bush1, Obama, and Biden, INCOMPETENT ones (Bush2), and fully INSANE AND STUPID ones like Trump. Your thinking is simply wrong. Trump literally murdered approximately 400,000 mostly elderly Americans, while Hillary would have competently handled the pandemic (as did several other women leaders in the world) and many of those people would still be alive today.
True, Obama is an actual war criminal for failing to imprison Bush and Cheney. Biden is an actual war criminal for co-creating the 2003 invasion of Iraq using Bush's exact blatantly dishonest talking points. But what kind of fighter hobbles his troops MORE rather than LESS?!! WTF?!
I absolutely could not have retired at 62 without Obamacare. Do you think I would have had the equivalent of Obamacare if McCain had won in 2008? With my free time afforded by my early retirement (I was a Silicon Valley tech writer) I wrote political articles on Quora that got 2 million views and woke up thousands of people.
Like Chomsky says, the math is so simple. But like a Trumpster, you've let ego and pride override your logic. We OF COURSE choose the lesser evil and then WE KEEP FIGHTING AND ORGANIZING. Forcing people without your high level of privilege to suffer in order to protect the sanctity of your elegant feelings about your precious vote is so incredibly egotistical.
That 17-year-old girl isn't going to suddenly become a revolutionary on our side if Trump wins and makes her life even more hellish. She's just going to SUFFER!
That diabetic who loses his leg because of not having enough insulin isn't going to help our revolution. HE'S JUST GOING TO SUFFER. Same with the 9-year-old girl who goes to school with rotten teeth and an empty stomach. Same with the Black college student who gets beat half to death by police because his license plate light is out, in a political climate were a Republican Trump-like president ENCOURAGES police violence. Read my lips, Julio, on your expensive computer in your warm house!! Get. With. The. Program!
The Democrats and Republicans are ONE party. Hillary and Trump were just the left and right fists of a bully that’s beating the sh*t out of us. But when you have a choice, what kind of fighter allows the stronger fist to hit him AND TO HIT HIS COMRADES?! These people are OUR people, our comrades: The diabetic rationing his insulin, the grandfather having a horrible covid death, the 17-year-old rape victim forced to keep her baby. It's selfish to push a poor single mother into living in her car. Ya think?
You, from your place of lucky, privileged comfort, think it's somehow worth it to push back years of slow progress made by people with less privilege and less luck. You think it's somehow helping these people. Well reality tells you that it's not. And the ugliest thing Americans ever did was to impose Trump on the world, to allow an actual insane imbecile to literally juggle nuclear missiles over the heads of all the children in the world.
I'm not sure who you're addressing this to. I voted for Bernie in the 2016 and 2020 primaries, but after he was squeezed out of the running, of course I chose to vote for the least insane, most competent bureaucrat/war criminal, the only kind of President I've EVER had in my 69 years of American life.
Of course we're choosing between 2 factions of the same party, but there ARE differences, as Trump's murder of approximately 400,000 elderly Americans by intentional criminal negligence during the first 2 months of the pandemic proves.
What kind of fools would waste the only drop of Election Day power they have on a symbolic vote, when in fact, in both of these elections, one candidate was one who would make the hole in our sinking boat bigger for sure, but the other would rip it open as wide as possible. Why would someone make their soldiers fight barefooted?
Why would some bourgeois "radical" write in Jill Stein's name on the ballot and thereby HELP Trump be able to put actual insane people in the Supreme Court and thereby take the freedom away from every woman in the whole United States? Make a single mother move into her car? Make a diabetic ration his insulin to the point of losing his leg? What kind of human being would impose an actual madman on the WORLD, and force every parent on Earth to watch an orange TV clown literally juggle nuclear weapons over THEIR children's heads?
Craziness. It's insanely egotistical to DRAFT vulnerable people into your revolution (by putting in a Trump or a Pompeo who will crush them further but NOT push them into YOUR revolution), while you type on your Mac in comfort and feel good about yourself for the purity of your vote (for Jill Stein) or for not voting at all.
Not only Chomsky but even the holdout of holdouts Ralph Nader are on my side now, because it's gotten that crazy. Like Chomsky says, the math is simple, and OF COURSE we vote for the lesser evil. Who wants to facilitate INSTANTLY increasing the level of evil.
We vote for the lesser evil to buy time so we can continue organizing and waking people up. Don't we trust ourselves to be able to do it? Do we have to derail and crash the train to fix it? Obviously it makes more sense and saves a lot of time to stop the train with mass civil disobedience and general strikes and then fix it while it's still somewhat intact.
In the past, Chris Hedges was unclear about solutions, and therefore he depressed a lot of his readers and even turned them away. But during the past couple of years he has been crystal clear that the only way that we can prevail is through mass civil disobedience and massive general strikes. Clearly the American population is not nearly ready for this, which is why WE have to make 2023 the year that we speak truth to morons (including the 2/3 of doctor's at the large California hospital where my sister works at as an emergency department director who are strong Trump supporters) and do not accept bullshit from anybody. I think it's quite possible that "conservatives" will start to realize that only babies and slaves believe anything other than the objective reality that "extraterrestrial sociologists/wiseman" Hedges shares with the world.
One thing we can do to help end the dangers of political polarization is to join Braver Angels,
a n;ational group working to remedy this with civil red/blue conversation and debate.
"Trump may be finished politically, but the political and social decay that created Trump remains."
Trump is the symptom, not the disease.
Also, don't be so sure that Trump is done.
15 rounds of voting was very productive and an example of democracy at work in our otherwise bipartisan fascist country
The Speakership Drama is Not a Threat to Democracy—It’s Democracy Itself
https://rumble.com/v24gla6-the-speakership-drama-is-not-a-threat-to-democracyits-democracy-itself-syst.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GGreenwald&ep=2 -- The Speakership Drama is Not a Threat to Democracy—It’s Democracy Itself
Don't you mean unipartisan?
Can I be a pedant? There is nothing to gain by adding uni to partisan they are the same word. You can further fracture a fracture but if you are partisan you are by definition uni.
By the way I just woke up and had a pot shot.
Thank you Boris.
The USA was a Democracy before the revolution. Samuel Johnson who wrote the dictionary said so in his letter to the American Congress and Dr Johnson was a CONSERVATIVE CONSERVATIVE.
We received thousand of refugees after your revolution We didn't ask for them they just flocked over the border and infected our country in the way refugees just change countries.
They still want to control things in Canada and are a pain in the posterior. They are Tories not Whigs you know like in Russia and Texas; Oligarchs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_no_Tyranny
Thing about American American history is it is alll Merrill Lynch Shit.
It was Bulls and bears when the London Stock Exchange opened in 1698 and the House of Landlords owned all the shares. There was no we the people beyond the Landlords in the house of Lords. The Commons (commoners) had no clout.
Twain said it all a century later.
"Clothes make the man. The naked have no influence."
Chris Hedges has been repeating these warnings for more than a decade, and the rot in the system has only become more intractable. Most of us know something better is possible, but it's organizing ourselves against corporate, legislative and judicial power that is so difficult. Where to begin?
That organizing needed to be done 40-50 years ago. Since it never happened, the oligarchs, plutocrats, kleptocrats & kakistocrats have won. We're their prisoners. The question now is, can we ever manage to break out of their capitalist prison? Given the present state of revolutionary paralysis, which has obtained for those 50 years, there's little reason for optimism.
Wonderfully said Basil Rathbone. I've never read a better description of our problem. It's exactly what an extraterrestrial sociologist would report back to academics on its home planet, the objective truth about the talking apes on Earth living in America and "the West".
The Iron Law of Oligarchy always wins in the end.
It does indeed, so long as We the (muzzled, invisible) People never do a damn thing about it. Instead, we move from one gee-whiz distraction to the next. And those go on about 400 times a day.
Keep in mind that sociopaths are simultaneously the last people who should get any measure of power, and at the same time are the people who will do whatever it takes to get power.
I've had it mind for many years, and yet they seem to be the ONLY people who ever do get any measure of significant power. This system richly rewards sociopaths and basically just kills, or otherwise neutralizes, anyone with even a modicum of power if they don't dance like a sociopath. See "Paul Wellstone," for example. Or Eugene Debs, Assange, Snowden. Or scores of others.
Hi Basil, I know Quebec is a faulty tower but it collapsed.
It collapsed during my lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padlock_Law
I was born under the Padlock Laws when Orwell wrote his famous/infamous novel. For me his novel takes place in Anaheim California and Orlando Florida not on a dark and dreary EAPoe Midnight.
I will die in Quebec under Bill21 a bill asserting the Laicity of the State of Quebec.
The State of Quebec forbids non empirical belief in its day to day functions.
It is opposed by the Koch Brothers and the ACLU. I try not to give the Kochs more power and it saves us $100 dollars a year giving to the ACLU.
There is no such thing as freedom of religion unless there is freedom from religion
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bill-21
Basil,
Take it from Sherlock's older brother. It should have been done 70,000 years ago but now is a good time to start.
It may be too late but not trying will certainly be fatal.
Zelenskiy is a leader but he is not alone.
I live near the US border but we fly the maize and blue with the Fleur de lys, The Maple Leaf and sometimes the red, white and blue.
Nothing will change with persuading. To get their attention will cost 50,000 bodies in the streets. To win we have to be ready to die.
The Iron Law of Oligarchy always wins in the end.
Please tell me thst was sarcasm.
It wasn't sarcasm. It fits my own epistemology.
Of course I am autistic and seek interconnection not straight lines.
Eugenia Cheng the great English Philosopher and Abstract Mathematician explains it for a more balanced audience. It is real comedy not tragedy like Seinfeld . It is about something.
THE UNIVERSE is the opposite of metaverses.
Might I suggest the Canadian Philosopher and Western Historian and two time head of PEN International John Ralston Saul.
Chris Hedges wrote the Foreward to the twentieth Anniversay edition of Voltaire's Bastards and thirty years after Voltaire's Bastards John Ralston Saul is explaining non Western Culture to us and Western Culture to those unfamiliar with our insanity.
Lest I forget Sir John Ralston Saul Knight of the Realm and anti Monarchist and partner of our beloved Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson. author of
Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship
Everybody should have a copy of Saul's Doubter's Companion a Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense
Get a copy of Common Sense. Common Sense is about self evident truths.
Neither
I am what they call autistic. My reality exists only between my ears. I am a Deist like Voltaire or Franklin or Twain. Perception is reality.
I have lived in many worlds. I don't belong in many worlds. My wife and I live where we live in our own tiny little world and we are content. My wife was an expert in cross cultural education. Ours is an interesting (at least to us) perspective on perceptions.
We are anti matter. My wife's master's degree was science education at Chicago. It matched perfectly with my metaphysics.
I know Aboriginal perceptions rather well. Abrahamic fatalism is a failure to understand balance in the Universe. Judaism before the 18th century was not bipolar.
Funny, I recall traditional Indigenous people having "chiefs" or "headmen" or whatever you want to call them.
Our next door neighbour was the chief of chiefs. There are hierarchies. There are casts and there is meritocracy. It is just no Western perceptions.
There will be no solution by electing the next "better" guy/gyal. The incentives system must be overhauled. Any person installed will bring the same garbage. They all ate or get corrupted when in office. Stop pretending we need better people... we need "rules without rulers"
We need an actual socialist and communist party in this country with seats in the legislature. Lots of other countries have socialist and communist parties. That is how we reign in the corrupted oligarchs and the banks. Not by continuing to vote for two corrupted Neoliberal parties who are 100% funded by the oligarchs and the banks. The oligarchs and their Professional Managerial Class lapdogs will not dismantle this system. It is either socialism, or this barbarism will continue until we collapse. We wonder how we got a 40 hour work week, social security, workplace protections. Well, it wasn't Liberals or billionaires that gave it to us out of the goodness of their hearts. It was organized labor and millions of socialists and commie activists. Until we get that again, we'll continue with our current system of Neoliberal police state fascism. Because unfortunately the problem is not just the 1%, there are actually 10's of millions of middle class PMC folks who are very comfortable with what they got and benefit very much from corporate extraction and the war state.
"We had the rebellion or as we call it "The Quiet revolution" and democracy requires constant care and weeding. I Quebec institiutons have only privileges and business is always a public private partnership and the people hold all the deeds but it ain't easy.
We have CONSORSHIP! Not the censorship of people loving each other and themselves but of the ability of corporations to sell Snake Oil like Fantasyland, miraculous drugs and "Gaming" systems.
In Quebec ABORTION IS A MORAL DECISION AND IS LEFT TO THE PREGNANT, RELIGION IS BANNED IN OUR PUBLIC PLACES AND EVERYONE IS CREATED EQUAL. We will never get anywhere near perfection because our leaders are ethical philosophers and this debate has gone on since we left the sea.
We are living next to America and we still have Traitors/Loyalists among us but we sleep with one eye open.
This is a great forum. I get to realize how lucky we were.
Diapers and politicians need to be changed regularly---for exactly the same reason. Mark Twain
"For as we have said, the art of the sophist is a money-making art which trades on apparent wisdom, and so sophists aim at apparent proof, for sophistry is an appearance of wisdom without reality."
(Quoted from Aristotle's On Sophistical Refutations, 171b32-7. Tr. E. S. Forster. Loeb Classical Library Vol. 400 (Harvard, 1955. P. 63)
Sophistry fills our radios, TV's, computers, podcasts, newspapers, Courts and almost all daily life.
We have celebrity journalists now who work assiduously as sophists as well.
The modern sophist is the 'paid journalist', the anchor 'man', the talk show host and of course the coin operated politician --- the political Machiavellian.
There are a small group of people who are skilled in the art of manipulation and control and they use this skill to threaten the survival of the planet and its occupants. These are the Machiavellians, their name taken from the philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, who understood what the ruling elite needed to maintain domination over the mind and thus the material control of the world (https://www.marxists.org/archive/mattick-paul/1943/machiavellians.htm)."
These sophists play on our irrationality.
"In fact, perhaps the most accurate and useful definition of humans is that of 'the self-deceiving mammal'. For deception, duplicity, sophistry, delusion and hypocrisy are the foundational products of human nature in its 'natural', primal and untutored state; but it is not instinctive and subjected to fate. But, rather than reducing these negative tendencies, most 'schooling' and socio-cultural influences redirect them, rendering them more sophisticated, more artful, more obscure and more inclined to deception and illusion.
"One of the most pathetic aspects of human history is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun." ----- Niebuhr Reinhold
To exacerbate this problem, not only are humans socially constructed to be self-deceptive, they are, in their primal state, unsurprisingly socio-centric as well. Every culture and society sees itself as special and as justified in all of its basic beliefs and practices -- in all its values and taboos. The arbitrary nature of its folkways is known to its anthropologists (if it has any) but not to its overwhelming majority. Take the notion of 'American Exceptionalism' as one example."
https://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Social-and-Psychologic-by-Danny-Weil-Belief_Beliefs_Deception_Delusion-141231-996.html
Yes, "American Exceptionalism", the sophists tool.
Taught by professional sophists like Karl Rove, James Carville and his hideous wife or language specialists (the other big name escapes me) and professional corporations, the 'art of the frame' is what the sophist seeks to master.
For the art of the frame is the art of the deal, as Trump can tell you.
And the art of the deal is the art of profit seeking.
And in a hustler society sophistic thinking is rewarded while fair-minded critical thinking is punished.
In fact, you can take out the sub-prime student loans that you will never be able to repay to become a Language Framer for the one tenth of one percent.
You will need that phony college degree to become what they now call "A Framing Consultant", right out of the sophist cookbook.
https://www.zippia.com/framing-consultant-jobs/
With the death of the written word in favor of the image, critical thinking is dying along with the Enlightenment.
The sophists are now fully in charge, as they were in Ancient Greece some 2,500 years ago.
We are moving rapidly into a form of de-prehensilization.
We have lost our grip.
Trump was a buffoon. The establishment need not fear him, but they should fear a competent populist, a Huey P. Long for example.
Say what you want about his goals, and his methods were, by his own admission often unsavory, but he was A Man Who Got Things Done. In fact, he got so much done, as in concrete material benefits to the citizenry, not "hope'n'change" or "owning the libs" that for generations to come, people named their children after him, and the Long name alone was enough to get a man elected in Louisiana.
And this, in the face of a corrupt political establishment that was not shy about using bribery, blackmail and, when necessary, outright fraud and violence to get what it wanted.
When presented with such a man as Long, the most prudent question may be, “How does he get things done?”.
You say, "The Squad and the Progressive Caucus have no more intention of fighting for universal health care, workers’ rights or defying the war machine than the Freedom Caucus fights for freedom." That statement is unexpected and a bit concerning coming from someone as consistent, insightful, and logical as you are. What's your thinking behind it?
Actions speak louder than words. Look at their votes, look at what they have done compared to what they say and you will know you are being duped.
Simplistic and dangerous thinking.
What is simplistic and why? What is dangerous and why? Please provide a bit of evidence for your claims
I have the same concern about an essay like this that begins by impugning Progressives while, in fact, its points refer ultimately to Christian fascists. Isn't it true that the Progressive caucus attempted to call for ceasefire and negotiation in the Ukraine war, but they were quickly shut down by the liberals and neoliberals--including the now much-revered Pelosi. It's so difficult these days to be a Progressive or social democrat especially in the House, which has just elevated centrists, yet again. And Sanders seems the only voice of reason in the Senate. At the very least, we must support these folks, however much they are in the minority in what Hedges claims is a thoroughly debased congress. I agree with so much of this article, but the nihilism that must result from it -- that is, the hopelessness he projects about anything the Dems can accomplish now -- is also dangerous. Younger generations need to get involved and keep moving politics to the left. What's the alternative? Revolution is impossible; we'd all be mowed down and/or imprisoned for life.
There are no 'progressives' in Congress and no 'leftists'. Please, let us dispense with the vacuity of weaponized words that convey nothing but rather conceal more than they reveal.
If you've ever served in a governance body as I have, you might recognize that the real leftists and Progressives, the true socialists, have been a very slim minority in our era. But to give up on that minority is to surrender to nihilism, to hopelessness. What "actions" do you require of our politicians? Or of ourselves?
No one called for giving up on a sim minority of socialists. Where did that come from? An inference?
I have drafted major legislation in California, back in the 70's and have worked with all types of people in the fifty years I have been at this battle.
What actions do I require of our politicians?
None. They are coin operated.
They are crooks, liars and many fascists.
Of ourselves I already offered suggestions.
How do you think that Norquist, Rove, Abramoff, the Christian right takes over the country?
Go back in history.
They begin with the levers of power on a local level and worked up.
They held meetings in homes, schools, Veteran buildings etc.
And while they were organizing the masses in the late 70's, most Americans delved right into Reaganism, leaving their local communities without radical representation.
This is the rhetoric of cant, too easily said. What does it consist of? Most revolutions or rebellions weren't ever led by the poor, who are made too busy eking out a survival to even pay much attention to politics. The real challenge is how to get people of means to give up their comforts, to stop supporting the very capitalism that has made their lives easier.
People of means will not give up their comforts. I've had enough arguments with engineers and IT professionals to understand this implicitly. Politics for them is a moral exercise. They have not known the hunger, the homelessness, the exploitation, and the needless suffering the rest of us experience.
I have colleagues now living in their cars, waiting for the temperatures to rise so that they can go risk their lives to protect the second home of a tech executive. The most insulting thing is that that bastard captain of industry will mouth some polite and empty rhetoric. He's your ally, you see? He'd help if only he could.
Economic power can only be met with economic power. As inconceivable as that is, it is not unprecedented in history. They want to control the economy? Then embrace your neighbors like the brothers and sisters they are, stop the economy, and demand your share. The US has a whole history of union movements that have demonstrated this. It doesn't make it easy, but if it's been done before it can be done again.
You mistake Hedges' principled criticism for nihilism.
You mistake "progressive" and Dem's rhetoric for reality.
You mistake cowardice and posturing with courage and leadership (i.e. Ukraine, Pentagon budget, et al).
If you want to encourage young people to engage in politics, then truth is essential. Lies are poison.
I am open to all criticism. Can you please tell me why my comments are nihilistic? Can you define 'progressive' so to cure my error? Can you tell me why I mistake cowardice with posturing? Please provide evidence for your assumptions.
And you mistake pompous posturing and performative commentary for actual debate and engagement.
Sorry, this was a response to the commentary by Bill Wolfe, not yours.
I understand and hopefully Bill will have the evidence for his claims.
Maybe progressives trapped on the Congressional hamster wheel do need support …(?)
Support to WALK ( or run ! ) out of the place , I’d say.
Not only to self-rescue, but maybe to make an announcement at the exit… to say in so many words…’ That ( going to Washington …) was a mistake… It’s not 1958 anymore & the institution simply smothers people like me . I no longer want to encourage young people to think this is a useful career path.’
-JJ ( IBEW electrical worker @ Detroit near Canada…)
You make an excellent point: The Empire ate the Republic long ago.
The thinking by Mr. Hedges is linked in the article: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/05/13/the-squad-doesnt-exist-outside-of-social-media/
Caitlin Johnstone's rant is not enlightening or informative. It certainly isn't up to Chris Hedges' journalistic standards.
As soon as Ocasio-Cortez called Nancy Pelosi “Mama Bear,” I knew she’d been neutralized. Add to that, attending upscale social events, mingling with the elites in NY. At first, she seemed like she was ready to take on the establishment, right before she became part of them and votes for every bill that increases money sent to the Pentagon.
Tell the American women in many states that there is no difference between the Dems and the Republicans in power when the truth of the matter is that Republicans have now owned the Supreme Court and much of the judiciary. So what has followed are the reproductive freedoms guaranteed for the last 50 years and for which many of us fought destroyed. This will be life-changing for women, especially poor women. Trump himself guaranteed those last 3 anti-abortion votes sent down by these Uber-Catholic justices--Gorsuch, Kavanagh, Barrett. As much as you might have hated Hillary Clinton, (and I was no fan), this would not have happened during another Clinton's presidency. There are significant reasons now not to give up on the Dems--however they have been reliant upon their ability to raise money to stay in power. That's one of the first things changed by the Supreme Court's right-wing agenda to enable more big money through the Court's Citizens United ruling. If we keep losing sight of the endgame here by being purist about our Left agenda, we will lose it all. And soon.
I hear you. This is the ONE thing about Chris Hedges (my hero!) I don't get. My friend said about him,
"Hedges is brilliant at analyzing and assessing an issue or crisis, but has an absolute problem synthesizing it into realistic solutions because he has one small blind spot--and I would say this about his views on international relations as well as domestic: he absolutely cannot see that small, yet all important millimeter where the rubber actually meets the road."
We cannot say we are a democracy. I came to this realization too late in life. I spent all of my working life with my nose to the grindstone. Now I am retired and can no longer do more than learn what I can and try and speak up. Just take one issue—the issue of mass incarceration—just one problem among many. Not too long ago I wrote a letter addressed together to my U.S. senators, my U.S. representative, my WI state Senator and Assembly-person and the director of Corrections for the State of WI about the fact we have 38 prisons in our state. The people I addressed are on the right and left of issues. I wanted each of them to see their name among the others. Too many people in cages. I am not a researcher but I put together stats to illustrate the absurdity of it and challenged them to end the mass caging. If they think of it at all, if they have any compassion left, they must dismantle this system! It employs so many people now and is a self-generating economy of commerce and profit. It is a machine scooping up humans like a natural resource—any thinking person can see it is an inhumane system. The fact is all of the people I wrote to will most likely go to their graves without having taken one step in the direction of ending it. I knew I was whistling in the wind as they say. It is not an issue I will see on a ballot (although it should be) but I recorded my vote anyway. Issues like this must be addressed for us to call the U.S. a democracy.
The U.S. empire is definitely unravelling which is not unwelcome.
The only question is whether it will die peaceably or take billions of innocent souls, if not the whole planet, down with it.
Although, it's amazing that so many people seem utterly oblivious to it all as they cheerfully talk about the future while making choices that only serve to exacerbate the problems.
Chris
You really out did yourself in this article. Please find a couple of friends and go out and "do the town". Get reconnected with those around you. Stop reading and start experience the now. Please stop living the depressed/realist war correspondent of yesterday. You got to lighten up. That said. You be right on. But I'm getting worried about you, my man.
America has become a shitty country that is a blight on the world. 
American Exception: Empire and the Deep State by Aaron Good. You need to read it. You will come to understand why we vote and spend a fortune on elections and we are dissatisfied with the way things are going but they never change.
Americans have become so wrapped up in ideology that we have become like the Communist zealots of the last century – forever arguing about ideological purity and never asking if their ideology had a practical solution to problems. Worse becoming so interested in what others are doing that we never examine we are doing.
https://censorednews.substack.com/p/biden-admin-told-facebook-to-censor
BRAVO “Censored News” – for using correct term for a photo of Biden's Digital Director Rob Flaherty:
“ This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a modern fascist looks like: Rob Flaherty. “
Great article summarizing the current state of our political system. I lay awake with the same thoughts and angst. I would however take issue with the assertion that that the so-called squad are just a bunch "political hacks" like all the rest. I am not going to defend all their positions or actions and certainly do not see them as saviors or heros.,But for example, AOC has at least opposed the NDAA every year she has been in congress. She has called for a reduction of at least 10% in military spending. No need to write back to me that 10% is a joke. I know that (as I suspect does she) but it's a beginning. She has also called for Medicare for all but this of course has been shut down by Pelosi and Co.
Finally in respect for her support for military aid to Ukraine. My wife has relatives in Germany that have taken in and helped settle dozens of Ukranian refugees. They are all of course traumatized and frightened for family that remained. They all desperately want the war to end. None of them to a person trust Putin to engage in good faith negotiations nor are they interested in simply surrending to an army of rapists and murderers (not of course a uniquely Russian military attribute). So the question remains what should they do. To a person they believe the only course is to resist the invaders. Discussions about the war being a proxy war against Russia are academic to them. Nor are they interested in retrospectivec debates about the wisdom of NATO expansion which I fully agree was stupid and provocative. They are not naive, and even though they know US intentions are far from pure, it is of little concern to them. They just want help to defend themselves and will take it from anyone. That AOC voted to provide that aid does not make her a warmongering hypocrit. I say this as someone who has protested against, been arrested, and spent time in jail because of my opposition to the US war machine.
Anyone who recognizes these condition of the US expects full out civil war to breakout at any moment. For that to NOT happen would be a miracle.. one that has not a single sign of potential to clench onto faith with. Many of my friends (unfortunately) arr either so ignorant to the actual state of western culture that they seem to sleep well at night, happy to have a job that covers they're pointless personal ambitions and habits of wastefulness and where 50% of earnings gets consumed by the most idiotic government policies through a slew of tyrannical taxes that siphon off ultimately into the war machine. The handful who seem to be opening up to the idea that neither side of the political spectrum has any intention to make changes to the system that maintains the status quo. Even less have come around to the idea that a broken monetary system that requires time theft in order to work (fractional reserve banking) is what causes inflation.. the symptom of monetary debasement through endless printing that is stealing our time to the tune of about 2% per month. Without a base layer monetary system founded on an immutable transparent and distributed ledger fornall to see and that forces the government to spend only what comes in, we can never hope to see the slightest changes made in military spending. By continuing to accept fiat currency as a standard, we have no right to demand better policies. We all enable the maniacs to steal from us continuously... and we deserve what we get. Adopt bitcoin... accept the inevitable drastic deflation that is required (like an addict coming off of a 50 year high), and wake up from the dream that you have any hope until the government gravy train is haulted by the mathematical force of natural law. Nothing is free... we have been living with free currency circulating for far too long.
https://rumble.com/v2429yi-congress-closes-third-day-with-no-speaker-who-holds-power-in-washington-sys.html
Also on the same note as Hedges... pure ineffectiveness by our elected "leaders"...but its by design. They don't work for the ppl..they work for themselves. Until a critical mass realizes its not about electing "better" people... there will never be better people... we need a system that can noo be manipulated by the pull of easy money. Rules without rulers is the only hope we will ever have at sustainable long lasting change.
I stick with my loonies and toonies.
If in 1903, you told the average frustrated Russian peasant that in the next fifteen years, the Russian Empire would fight and lose two wars (including losing one war to Japan) and that Russia would undergo three revolutions, as a result of which there would no longer be a Tsar in St. Petersburg, or in Russia at all, the peasant would think you were possessed by an unclean spirit.
But it's not just the Great Unwashed. If you told the average frustrated London investment banker the same thing in 1903, he would pronounce you to be quite mad and possibly even to be not altogether our sort.
There is a lesson here. I am not saying that anything in particular is happening in the next fifteen, but there is a lesson.