If we could compare the number of people reading Chris's post with the number of people who tuned into MSN and Fox News today we could have the answer to what is wrong with this country. The corporate lying media have turned the vast majority of Americans into Stepford people who have no idea what's really going on.; they blame Trump or Biden but it's actually corporate tyranny (as Crhis wisely points out) that is destroying us.
I am ready to put my head in the oven after reading this. It is an electric oven so that would only f. up my hair. I read this, and it all makes sense to me except, once again - I am left with feeling hopeless and helpless; which is not going to help me or anyone around me. I am wanting Mr. Hedges to talk about the reality of dealing with this reality, personally, without becoming self-destructive. I feel talked at but not talked to. We may be in a failing democracy, but it could also be called a democracy trying to find itself, to bring itself to full maturity. Finding ourselves is messy and there is always the possibility that we will stay forever lost. One thing that immature people, or in this case, democracies do is they fail to look in the mirror and acknowledge their own short comings, their own darker side. I think in one of Mr. Hedges more hopeful earlier pieces he suggests that; for all of us to do that - that these times are calling us to come back to ourselves personally and collectively. In some ways the people in this hopeful, self-absorbed, ignorant at times, brutal at times, generous at times, narcissistic at times (all adolecent traits) country are naive to their own selves and certainly, politicians and the populace, are naive about the vacuousness and danger of a man like Trump. And yes, I agree - he moved in to a situation ripe for his taking. But that does not negate the need to speak up to him; skillfully. Not giving him more ammunition.
I don't know what the corrective is, (thank God I know that) but I will keep on trucking on. I am an artist and poet. I refuse to give in to hopelessness, or at least I refuse to stay there for a long time. It's not good for my health and commitment to moderate my drinking. I have a cockeyed belief maybe that it is up to each and everyone of us to make changes, however small.. And while I don't agree with all of what Joseph Campbell has to say, this quote always struck me as a truth "And so everyone of us share the supreme ordeal - carries the cross of the redeemer - not in the bright moments of his tribe's great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair." Not sure what the "bright moments" would translate into, but what I take from this is - it is up to each of us; our tribe, the government is not going to do it for us. So do what you can. Bridge the gap with the"other side." Speak up to your own tribe when they are self-righteous. Plant a wildflower lawn. Volunteer at a food bank. Listen to others, beyond their opinion; but also don't allow viciousness to come at you either. Grownups have boundaries. Look at your own darkness before you point it out in others. All of these things are important personally and nationally. And the nation is made up of the personal.
I want to hear from Mr. Hedges how he deals with his own despair, personally.
We the people must turn our backs on the very system that has failed us and has supported the rich for over 200 years. That is long enough to be taken to the cleaners with nothing to show for it except the false Federal Debt. Eliminate the FED and out the window goes the debt. ELIMINATE THE SYSTEM AND THE CRONIES, AND WE GET WHAT WE MAKE....HOPEFULLY A PEACEFUL, CONSIDERATE, COMPASSIONATE SOCIETY. Nothing short of this will amount to much.
What’s the difference in Americans watching “Top Gun Maverick” and the Soviet father letting his kids play on the tank?
As Neil Postman wrote in “Amusing ourselves to death” and as FCC Chairman, Newton Minow, said of the entertainment propaganda of this "Wasteland of TV" --- keeping the people distracted from vast wars, economic inequality, and the reality of "the disease of Rupublics being Empire" are an element of the "Tropic of Cancer" --- which are so easily covered over by this dual-party duopoly of EMPIRE.
Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
BTW, and I'll research this to be sure, but I'll bet that since the end of the Second World War of Empires, that the American cheer, "We're #1", "We're #1", "We're #1" --- is equally true in terms of the millions of people killed in wars, along with America, when the final figures are in, that America will also be #1 in GINI Coefficient of Wealth INEQUALITY and overtaking Russia.
You may be the disdainer-in-chief. You are perceptive, eloquent, and definitive. So now what?
I've put out my plea that you open that question for us, but I want to say something else here, which is how disaster contains the seed of renewal. The Hegelian dialectic describes a cyclical pattern where, when the current situation, the thesis, has so much going on that's contrary to its elemental nature (non-fitting elements are the antithesis), the center cannot hold and the system reconfigures into a synthesis (that becomes the new thesis) that accounts for all those contradictions.
It's a widely accepted dictum that change happens when the going gets bad enough, like what global warming could do. Get half the population under water and we won't cling to business as usual. This isn't pie in the sky; it's how systems work. But omg, even the pandemic didn't do it for us, where we would have gotten a gift from that curse. We are insane, knowing we are headed for a cliff we keep on running. Chris, what will stop us? How about you?
By the by, Thom Hartmann tweeted this: "In this speech by President Biden, I’m hearing the echoes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. It was absolutely brilliant!." I'd like to hear you thrash that out with him. In fact, you could convene fellow gadflies, like Chomsky and Reich and Moore and Hartmann. None of them are offering ideas, either, and that meeting, where you'd get coherent on positions and become a responsible journalist force, would be good for all of us,.
Again... attempting to swim in the deep water of the pool while hanging onto the shallow end unwilling to let go.
I see progress though. I see the internal conflicts boiling and leading to the epiphanies of needed understanding to break out of the previous ideological identity programming that stands in the way.
The situation we are in is both complex and simple to understand. On the simple side it is the failure of globalism... that we have allowed The Elect to gut middle-class work opportunity for the benefit of the profit and earnings of the 1%. We saw similar problems during the Gilded Age but the 1% was focused mostly on domestic economic consolidation. The Great Depression and the wars, combined with labor and anti-trust acts, returned a share of the economic benefits back to the middle-class. And because of that the middle-class rocketed forward and put the economy on hyper-drive.
We are in a new gilded age, but this time we are more screwed. We are more screwed because the 1% were allowed to consolidate and grow their wealth by exporting our earned industrial knowhow to China and other countries... lifting their middle class at the expense of ours. At the same time The Elect kept the borders open and millions of new poor and uneducated people came to compete with the shrinking supply of career paths available. We have also spent ourselves into massive debt and deficits and there is no more room for FDR-type "solutions".
So what do we do to start to fix this mess?
We elect new leaders with the ideas of DJT. Understanding this is the letting go of the shallow end and effectively swimming in the deep water.
That was very good. I'm glad that someone with a voice is saying this.
On thing that would help the situation drastically is that if people would stop believing the mass media. It is pure PSYOP and has people living in total delusion. The opinion management skills of the PR industry and government agencies have grown tremendously over the last century, since the day of Edward Bernays (The Father of Spin).
Few people have any concept of just how completely inaccurate and deceptive the information being fed to us is, or how psychologically sophisticated it is.
I love your work Chris, hearing the truth and to where we are headed, but what do we do? What do you tell your kids? Do we just watch the republic be destroyed completely?
Phew. I am weighing in again. Was glad to see other comments that echoed my own feelings of - "okay - I hear you , a brilliant assessment, but what do we do now? " It might be good to open this up to a discussion . I live alone and find it dangerous to read these dire things without folks to process it, take it to the next step... Thank you all.
That was very good. I'm glad that someone with a voice is saying this.
On thing that would help the situation drastically is that if people would stop believing the mass media. It is pure PSYOP and has people living in total delusion. The opinion management skills of the PR industry and government agencies have grown tremendously over the last century, since the day of Edward Bernays (The Father of Spin).
Few people have any concept of just how completely inaccurate and deceptive the information being fed to us is, or how psychologically sophisticated it is.
So, I totally agree with your incredibly intelligent analysis. What I want to know is what should we do as a result? I have four grandchildren. I worry that there will be no planet for them to live on. In addition, there is currently no way, as you have pointed out, to influence the current system. Voting third party is my choice, but it means nothing. Mass movements that face a
If we could compare the number of people reading Chris's post with the number of people who tuned into MSN and Fox News today we could have the answer to what is wrong with this country. The corporate lying media have turned the vast majority of Americans into Stepford people who have no idea what's really going on.; they blame Trump or Biden but it's actually corporate tyranny (as Crhis wisely points out) that is destroying us.
I am ready to put my head in the oven after reading this. It is an electric oven so that would only f. up my hair. I read this, and it all makes sense to me except, once again - I am left with feeling hopeless and helpless; which is not going to help me or anyone around me. I am wanting Mr. Hedges to talk about the reality of dealing with this reality, personally, without becoming self-destructive. I feel talked at but not talked to. We may be in a failing democracy, but it could also be called a democracy trying to find itself, to bring itself to full maturity. Finding ourselves is messy and there is always the possibility that we will stay forever lost. One thing that immature people, or in this case, democracies do is they fail to look in the mirror and acknowledge their own short comings, their own darker side. I think in one of Mr. Hedges more hopeful earlier pieces he suggests that; for all of us to do that - that these times are calling us to come back to ourselves personally and collectively. In some ways the people in this hopeful, self-absorbed, ignorant at times, brutal at times, generous at times, narcissistic at times (all adolecent traits) country are naive to their own selves and certainly, politicians and the populace, are naive about the vacuousness and danger of a man like Trump. And yes, I agree - he moved in to a situation ripe for his taking. But that does not negate the need to speak up to him; skillfully. Not giving him more ammunition.
I don't know what the corrective is, (thank God I know that) but I will keep on trucking on. I am an artist and poet. I refuse to give in to hopelessness, or at least I refuse to stay there for a long time. It's not good for my health and commitment to moderate my drinking. I have a cockeyed belief maybe that it is up to each and everyone of us to make changes, however small.. And while I don't agree with all of what Joseph Campbell has to say, this quote always struck me as a truth "And so everyone of us share the supreme ordeal - carries the cross of the redeemer - not in the bright moments of his tribe's great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair." Not sure what the "bright moments" would translate into, but what I take from this is - it is up to each of us; our tribe, the government is not going to do it for us. So do what you can. Bridge the gap with the"other side." Speak up to your own tribe when they are self-righteous. Plant a wildflower lawn. Volunteer at a food bank. Listen to others, beyond their opinion; but also don't allow viciousness to come at you either. Grownups have boundaries. Look at your own darkness before you point it out in others. All of these things are important personally and nationally. And the nation is made up of the personal.
I want to hear from Mr. Hedges how he deals with his own despair, personally.
We the people must turn our backs on the very system that has failed us and has supported the rich for over 200 years. That is long enough to be taken to the cleaners with nothing to show for it except the false Federal Debt. Eliminate the FED and out the window goes the debt. ELIMINATE THE SYSTEM AND THE CRONIES, AND WE GET WHAT WE MAKE....HOPEFULLY A PEACEFUL, CONSIDERATE, COMPASSIONATE SOCIETY. Nothing short of this will amount to much.
What’s the difference in Americans watching “Top Gun Maverick” and the Soviet father letting his kids play on the tank?
As Neil Postman wrote in “Amusing ourselves to death” and as FCC Chairman, Newton Minow, said of the entertainment propaganda of this "Wasteland of TV" --- keeping the people distracted from vast wars, economic inequality, and the reality of "the disease of Rupublics being Empire" are an element of the "Tropic of Cancer" --- which are so easily covered over by this dual-party duopoly of EMPIRE.
Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
BTW, and I'll research this to be sure, but I'll bet that since the end of the Second World War of Empires, that the American cheer, "We're #1", "We're #1", "We're #1" --- is equally true in terms of the millions of people killed in wars, along with America, when the final figures are in, that America will also be #1 in GINI Coefficient of Wealth INEQUALITY and overtaking Russia.
You may be the disdainer-in-chief. You are perceptive, eloquent, and definitive. So now what?
I've put out my plea that you open that question for us, but I want to say something else here, which is how disaster contains the seed of renewal. The Hegelian dialectic describes a cyclical pattern where, when the current situation, the thesis, has so much going on that's contrary to its elemental nature (non-fitting elements are the antithesis), the center cannot hold and the system reconfigures into a synthesis (that becomes the new thesis) that accounts for all those contradictions.
It's a widely accepted dictum that change happens when the going gets bad enough, like what global warming could do. Get half the population under water and we won't cling to business as usual. This isn't pie in the sky; it's how systems work. But omg, even the pandemic didn't do it for us, where we would have gotten a gift from that curse. We are insane, knowing we are headed for a cliff we keep on running. Chris, what will stop us? How about you?
By the by, Thom Hartmann tweeted this: "In this speech by President Biden, I’m hearing the echoes of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. It was absolutely brilliant!." I'd like to hear you thrash that out with him. In fact, you could convene fellow gadflies, like Chomsky and Reich and Moore and Hartmann. None of them are offering ideas, either, and that meeting, where you'd get coherent on positions and become a responsible journalist force, would be good for all of us,.
Again... attempting to swim in the deep water of the pool while hanging onto the shallow end unwilling to let go.
I see progress though. I see the internal conflicts boiling and leading to the epiphanies of needed understanding to break out of the previous ideological identity programming that stands in the way.
The situation we are in is both complex and simple to understand. On the simple side it is the failure of globalism... that we have allowed The Elect to gut middle-class work opportunity for the benefit of the profit and earnings of the 1%. We saw similar problems during the Gilded Age but the 1% was focused mostly on domestic economic consolidation. The Great Depression and the wars, combined with labor and anti-trust acts, returned a share of the economic benefits back to the middle-class. And because of that the middle-class rocketed forward and put the economy on hyper-drive.
We are in a new gilded age, but this time we are more screwed. We are more screwed because the 1% were allowed to consolidate and grow their wealth by exporting our earned industrial knowhow to China and other countries... lifting their middle class at the expense of ours. At the same time The Elect kept the borders open and millions of new poor and uneducated people came to compete with the shrinking supply of career paths available. We have also spent ourselves into massive debt and deficits and there is no more room for FDR-type "solutions".
So what do we do to start to fix this mess?
We elect new leaders with the ideas of DJT. Understanding this is the letting go of the shallow end and effectively swimming in the deep water.
That was very good. I'm glad that someone with a voice is saying this.
On thing that would help the situation drastically is that if people would stop believing the mass media. It is pure PSYOP and has people living in total delusion. The opinion management skills of the PR industry and government agencies have grown tremendously over the last century, since the day of Edward Bernays (The Father of Spin).
Few people have any concept of just how completely inaccurate and deceptive the information being fed to us is, or how psychologically sophisticated it is.
Drake
Drake Chamberlin
Media & Communication Action Project
https://m-cap.org/
I love your work Chris, hearing the truth and to where we are headed, but what do we do? What do you tell your kids? Do we just watch the republic be destroyed completely?
Phew. I am weighing in again. Was glad to see other comments that echoed my own feelings of - "okay - I hear you , a brilliant assessment, but what do we do now? " It might be good to open this up to a discussion . I live alone and find it dangerous to read these dire things without folks to process it, take it to the next step... Thank you all.
I never know what to say. I am 74 and simple minded, I lack formal education and I am just learning to write.
My father told me 70 years ago America was an oligarchy and nothing has changed but the names of the witches. My father was a wandering Aramean.
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. It was about the founding of Harvard.
That was very good. I'm glad that someone with a voice is saying this.
On thing that would help the situation drastically is that if people would stop believing the mass media. It is pure PSYOP and has people living in total delusion. The opinion management skills of the PR industry and government agencies have grown tremendously over the last century, since the day of Edward Bernays (The Father of Spin).
Few people have any concept of just how completely inaccurate and deceptive the information being fed to us is, or how psychologically sophisticated it is.
Drake
Drake Chamberlin
Media & Communication Action Project
https://m-cap.org/
So, I totally agree with your incredibly intelligent analysis. What I want to know is what should we do as a result? I have four grandchildren. I worry that there will be no planet for them to live on. In addition, there is currently no way, as you have pointed out, to influence the current system. Voting third party is my choice, but it means nothing. Mass movements that face a
militarized police force are suicidal. Help!!!