"To Kill a People" was a talk I gave at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) at an event organized by the Green Party vice presidential nominee, Butch Ware, titled "End of Empire."
Deeply moved by the ways in which you taught us that if we do nothing , we become the crucifiers, if we don’t face and assume the costs of peacemaking - that are no less than the costs of war - we doom ourselves as actors and participants in radical evil. To act from truth and justice and care at whatever the cost is the soulful imperative. What do I stand for? Comfort? Or taking risks for what most matters? Will I choose the way of the narrow gate? Let go of outcome and choose what I am most made of? Because that is what I truly love the most and choose to serve? Am I not that which is the sum of what I choose? The way of soul blighting or soul deepening? Give me the strength and courage to be true.
Fran, I agree with you, yet I think it’s incredibly easy to move in and out of metaphorical slumber, especially in this neoliberal world. How far are most of us truly willing to go to be disruptors of the many oppressive systems in place? This is what I wrestle with on a daily basis.
When I was 16 I spent the summer reading Darwin's Origin of Species and a whole lot about our closest living relatives, the chimps, who are very territorial, often violent toward other groups of chimps, and even within their own groups. I kind of hung on to this perspective as the source of human behavior, and see people like Cheney, or Netanyahu as alpha chimps on steroids, as are many others, and history really bears that out. Of course I believe that we have evolved over time, but the behavior of some remind us who our true ancestors were. During our Middle Eastern wars I was as active as I could be in the anti-war movement, and there were many that were, including people in other countries. What happened? Nothing. When Obama got in many thought he was a die hard liberal that would end the Bush/Cheney wars. No, he was no liberal, and continued their agenda. The voices against our Middle Eastern wars became very silent in the US during his tenure and the anti-war movement died rather quickly. Well, to sum up, we know that our outrage is too quickly silenced, squashed, but I don't believe in giving up.
Yossi Eeilin former Israeli Justice Minister of Israel challenges the decisions of the ICC and relies on Israel's forever claim of victim-hood to justify every horror it has inflicted on the Palestinians, including it's genocide in Gaza.
Thank you Chris for posting this. To me a real person of faith would not support Israel. I am sickened by these evangelical churches that make excuses for what Israel does. One Protestant church I drive by on occasion, has several miniature size Israeli flags on the front lawn of the church. It’s just despicable. I’m also sickened by this government siding with a genocidal maniac ethno state that acts with impunity and continues to murder, torture, rape and maim a people who just want to live in dignity, peace and freedom and btw had nothing whatsoever to do with the Holocaust in Europe during WW2. Why do the Palestinians have to pay for what the Nazis did to Jewish people during WW2?! 😢☮️🇵🇸
Deeply moved by the ways in which you taught us that if we do nothing , we become the crucifiers, if we don’t face and assume the costs of peacemaking - that are no less than the costs of war - we doom ourselves as actors and participants in radical evil. To act from truth and justice and care at whatever the cost is the soulful imperative. What do I stand for? Comfort? Or taking risks for what most matters? Will I choose the way of the narrow gate? Let go of outcome and choose what I am most made of? Because that is what I truly love the most and choose to serve? Am I not that which is the sum of what I choose? The way of soul blighting or soul deepening? Give me the strength and courage to be true.
Mr. Hedges, you have a diamond mind and heart. Thank you for your unswerving commitment to rouse us from our comfortable, self-serving slumber.
Sorry Karen, but the ones listening to Hedges aren't the one's who are sleeping.
Fran, I agree with you, yet I think it’s incredibly easy to move in and out of metaphorical slumber, especially in this neoliberal world. How far are most of us truly willing to go to be disruptors of the many oppressive systems in place? This is what I wrestle with on a daily basis.
When I was 16 I spent the summer reading Darwin's Origin of Species and a whole lot about our closest living relatives, the chimps, who are very territorial, often violent toward other groups of chimps, and even within their own groups. I kind of hung on to this perspective as the source of human behavior, and see people like Cheney, or Netanyahu as alpha chimps on steroids, as are many others, and history really bears that out. Of course I believe that we have evolved over time, but the behavior of some remind us who our true ancestors were. During our Middle Eastern wars I was as active as I could be in the anti-war movement, and there were many that were, including people in other countries. What happened? Nothing. When Obama got in many thought he was a die hard liberal that would end the Bush/Cheney wars. No, he was no liberal, and continued their agenda. The voices against our Middle Eastern wars became very silent in the US during his tenure and the anti-war movement died rather quickly. Well, to sum up, we know that our outrage is too quickly silenced, squashed, but I don't believe in giving up.
thanks Chris. yeah. there are no more powerful words than yours.
and still, nothing is done.
I'm losing all faith in humanity and my country.
I'm happy to be a Christian man because Christian values matter to me.
so I'm appalled by the behavior of churches who support Israel
It's a shy stupid indifference dusted with a thick layer of hate
Not all Christian faiths send the same message.
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/11/21/netanyahu-gallant-wanted-for-arrest-by-international-criminal-court
Yossi Eeilin former Israeli Justice Minister of Israel challenges the decisions of the ICC and relies on Israel's forever claim of victim-hood to justify every horror it has inflicted on the Palestinians, including it's genocide in Gaza.
Thank you Chris for posting this. To me a real person of faith would not support Israel. I am sickened by these evangelical churches that make excuses for what Israel does. One Protestant church I drive by on occasion, has several miniature size Israeli flags on the front lawn of the church. It’s just despicable. I’m also sickened by this government siding with a genocidal maniac ethno state that acts with impunity and continues to murder, torture, rape and maim a people who just want to live in dignity, peace and freedom and btw had nothing whatsoever to do with the Holocaust in Europe during WW2. Why do the Palestinians have to pay for what the Nazis did to Jewish people during WW2?! 😢☮️🇵🇸
I tried to find this on regular YouTube on my television. It's not there.
https://braveneweurope.com/chris-hedges-to-kill-a-people