The wave of global popular protests that erupted in 2010 and lasted a decade were extinguished. This means new tactics and new strategies, as Vincent Bevins explains in his book “If We Burn."
The failure of the progressive movements from 2010 to 2020, as Hedges points out time wise, is/was capped off by the Covid pandemic...where whole countries were shut down, schools and businesses closed, homes foreclosed. All very conveniently manipulating social and economic conditions which made, and make, revolution almost impossible. It imposed controls.
The platform impediments Hedges outlines seem secondary in retrospect, IMO.
This quote. Revolutions always begin, he writes, by making impossible demands that if the government met, would mean the end of the old configurations of power. But most importantly, despotic regimes always first collapse internally.
Very good article, and it opened my mind of the connection between all these protests in all these countries.
Although, I could say I have a different perspective specially on the middle east protests.
I am from Syria, and I was active online with the "uprising".
Although Syrian "uprising" started as social and economical demands from working class struggling people, but the issue in Syria and Egypt, is that the west (USA, Britain mainly, immediately used it specially in Syria to fund fundamentalist groups, using money from Saudi and Qatar, and support from Turkey to send all these jihadists from Europe to Syria, which caused changing the "uprising" from economical change demands to ISIS and Alqaeda.
The "civil uprising", was just first few weeks, but then the money and weapons flooded the scene, and they start to pay people to carry weapons and fight the Assad regime.
From principal, still that article described the situation to some extent correctly. But the forces that killed the "revolution" are not corporations but both the Western allies and the oppressive regime with the help of the Russians to kill any meaningful "real uprising" and smashed into meaningless war that put the whole country in a spiral downgrade of death and chaos.
As a Syrian that opposed the Assad regime from beginning, I found this "uprising" later after few weeks, going into hate sectarian war, that did more damage to the country than the Assad regime.
And I stopped supporting that "uprising" after just few months of its start.
I am neither a scholar nor a Priest. I am 75 autistic and still learning how to communicate with the written word. I have read for almost 75 years but failed kindergarten elementary school and high school.
In 1776 the most important member of the Public Relations firm led by Ben Franklin was Paul Revere who was an illustrator not a writer. He photoshopped the Boston Massacre where a drunken mob attacked the local constabulary. Ben Franklin went to full time work at 10 and never attended public school because Ben needed to invent it along with designing the Tesla. In 1776 only 7% of the population could vote and only 15% were allowed to read and write.
I cannot see the future but I've read Sir John Ralston Saul who Time Magazine called a prophet in the late 1990s. He wrote The Collapse of Globalism and The Re-invention of the world and he is still a prophet. He studied history at Oxford and understands the stupidity that rules our lives.
I lived in Woodlawn Chicago for over a decade and I volunteered for the Wobblies which could have earned me deportation. I am retired North of the border less than an hour from St Johnsbury. When Chris visits his childhood I would give him a hug not a scold.
He has come a long way in an all too short lifetime.
Our misfortunes are not written in the stars but in ourselves.
Incidentally my Covid Guru was the same John Ralston Saul who appears regularly on youtube and Ontario Educational television TVO.
The difference between John Ralston Saul and Chris Hedges is that John Ralston Saul is multicultural and bilingual and learned the difference between English and Newspeak. While Chris studied Theology, Sir John studied economic history.
You're just defending another false indy media celebrity ...
My points are well taken ...
There are one hell of lot of people on this planet who would never tell another person to "walk the plank" if they knew better, but that's exactly what Hedges did in that interview with K&K ... he knew about the explosive FDA FOIA release, he knew about Phizer's abbreviated trial period and he had to have seen the video testimony of the many vax injured victims, but he still pushed the "safe & effective" narrative on us anyway ... and only 2m later in that same interview, he admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly this man did not give a hoot about us or the consequences. BTW, the CDC's VAERS database now reports that a whopping 72% of all reported VACCINE DEATHS are attributed to COVID-19 injections ...
Strategy, not begging for small donations of Money (or violence) will achieve a successful Revolution over “The Quiet American” duopoly Empire.
IMHO, the 2017/18 database ‘Resistandprotest’ -- which supported the power of being able to engage in ‘on the ground’ Anti-Empire Demonstrations by: State & City location, Date &Time, Issue, and Focused on an Anti-Empire EMPIRE overall -- will be ignited like a Krytron.
I agree with you 100% what in Heaven's name did you not understand?
I never attribute to malice that which can most easily be explained by ignorance.
I have both American and Canadian media. Health Canada and Quebec's health department told us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth every single day and archived every single day. That is why in Canada libraries are sacred and books are never banned.
# In Canada the Province's domains include health, education and welfare and some provinces are fascist like the Texas territories and others like Manitoba (as of Tuesday, BC and Quebec are social democracies others are corporate oligarchies.
Was I wrong to assume that you watched John Ralston Saul in many conversations with Chris Hedges? Chris wrote the foreword to the 20th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards 10 years ago.
Chris got it ALL wrong.
He should have read The Doubters Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense. Viking Press 1994 JR Saul
It has definitions like
CNN A privately owned reincarnation of the Voice of America, except that government funding and an official foreign policy commitment have been replaced by a brilliantly simple financing system........
DEBT, UNSUSTAINABLE LEVELS OF National debts are treated today as if they were unforgiving gods with the power to control , alter and if necessary destroy a country.............
You were in fact wrong to assume that I watched those conversations ...
And if they were somehow relevant to Hedges' reckless and insensitive decision to take sides with big pharma, then please enlighten me ... this man has thousands of SUBS here on Substack alone ... I've dwelled in their midst of his flock for the past decade and I not only wonder if Hedges realizes the power his words have over these people, but also that livelihoods and sometimes even lives hang in the balance ...
The failure of the progressive movements from 2010 to 2020, as Hedges points out time wise, is/was capped off by the Covid pandemic...where whole countries were shut down, schools and businesses closed, homes foreclosed. All very conveniently manipulating social and economic conditions which made, and make, revolution almost impossible. It imposed controls.
The platform impediments Hedges outlines seem secondary in retrospect, IMO.
Fascinating read and I look forward to reading this book. Thank you for sharing this.
This quote. Revolutions always begin, he writes, by making impossible demands that if the government met, would mean the end of the old configurations of power. But most importantly, despotic regimes always first collapse internally.
It's hard dismantle the apparatus.
Would appreciate transcription of the video and audio pieces if possible due to a disability.
Very good article, and it opened my mind of the connection between all these protests in all these countries.
Although, I could say I have a different perspective specially on the middle east protests.
I am from Syria, and I was active online with the "uprising".
Although Syrian "uprising" started as social and economical demands from working class struggling people, but the issue in Syria and Egypt, is that the west (USA, Britain mainly, immediately used it specially in Syria to fund fundamentalist groups, using money from Saudi and Qatar, and support from Turkey to send all these jihadists from Europe to Syria, which caused changing the "uprising" from economical change demands to ISIS and Alqaeda.
The "civil uprising", was just first few weeks, but then the money and weapons flooded the scene, and they start to pay people to carry weapons and fight the Assad regime.
From principal, still that article described the situation to some extent correctly. But the forces that killed the "revolution" are not corporations but both the Western allies and the oppressive regime with the help of the Russians to kill any meaningful "real uprising" and smashed into meaningless war that put the whole country in a spiral downgrade of death and chaos.
As a Syrian that opposed the Assad regime from beginning, I found this "uprising" later after few weeks, going into hate sectarian war, that did more damage to the country than the Assad regime.
And I stopped supporting that "uprising" after just few months of its start.
I am neither a scholar nor a Priest. I am 75 autistic and still learning how to communicate with the written word. I have read for almost 75 years but failed kindergarten elementary school and high school.
In 1776 the most important member of the Public Relations firm led by Ben Franklin was Paul Revere who was an illustrator not a writer. He photoshopped the Boston Massacre where a drunken mob attacked the local constabulary. Ben Franklin went to full time work at 10 and never attended public school because Ben needed to invent it along with designing the Tesla. In 1776 only 7% of the population could vote and only 15% were allowed to read and write.
I cannot see the future but I've read Sir John Ralston Saul who Time Magazine called a prophet in the late 1990s. He wrote The Collapse of Globalism and The Re-invention of the world and he is still a prophet. He studied history at Oxford and understands the stupidity that rules our lives.
I lived in Woodlawn Chicago for over a decade and I volunteered for the Wobblies which could have earned me deportation. I am retired North of the border less than an hour from St Johnsbury. When Chris visits his childhood I would give him a hug not a scold.
He has come a long way in an all too short lifetime.
Our misfortunes are not written in the stars but in ourselves.
Incidentally my Covid Guru was the same John Ralston Saul who appears regularly on youtube and Ontario Educational television TVO.
The difference between John Ralston Saul and Chris Hedges is that John Ralston Saul is multicultural and bilingual and learned the difference between English and Newspeak. While Chris studied Theology, Sir John studied economic history.
You're just defending another false indy media celebrity ...
My points are well taken ...
There are one hell of lot of people on this planet who would never tell another person to "walk the plank" if they knew better, but that's exactly what Hedges did in that interview with K&K ... he knew about the explosive FDA FOIA release, he knew about Phizer's abbreviated trial period and he had to have seen the video testimony of the many vax injured victims, but he still pushed the "safe & effective" narrative on us anyway ... and only 2m later in that same interview, he admitted that he "does not trust Moderna or Phizer" ... clearly this man did not give a hoot about us or the consequences. BTW, the CDC's VAERS database now reports that a whopping 72% of all reported VACCINE DEATHS are attributed to COVID-19 injections ...
https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-08-11-vaers-72-percent-vaccine-deaths-covid-injections.html
CHRIS HEDGES KNEW!
Strategy, not begging for small donations of Money (or violence) will achieve a successful Revolution over “The Quiet American” duopoly Empire.
IMHO, the 2017/18 database ‘Resistandprotest’ -- which supported the power of being able to engage in ‘on the ground’ Anti-Empire Demonstrations by: State & City location, Date &Time, Issue, and Focused on an Anti-Empire EMPIRE overall -- will be ignited like a Krytron.
POSITIVE
EXTERNALITY
PROFITS
FOR PEOPLE
vs.
NEGATIVE
EXTERNALITY
COST
LOOTING
I agree with you 100% what in Heaven's name did you not understand?
I never attribute to malice that which can most easily be explained by ignorance.
I have both American and Canadian media. Health Canada and Quebec's health department told us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth every single day and archived every single day. That is why in Canada libraries are sacred and books are never banned.
# In Canada the Province's domains include health, education and welfare and some provinces are fascist like the Texas territories and others like Manitoba (as of Tuesday, BC and Quebec are social democracies others are corporate oligarchies.
Read your comment a second time Moe ...
And I stick to my words ... I call 'em the way I see 'em ...
Was I wrong to assume that you watched John Ralston Saul in many conversations with Chris Hedges? Chris wrote the foreword to the 20th anniversary edition of Voltaire's Bastards 10 years ago.
Chris got it ALL wrong.
He should have read The Doubters Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense. Viking Press 1994 JR Saul
It has definitions like
CNN A privately owned reincarnation of the Voice of America, except that government funding and an official foreign policy commitment have been replaced by a brilliantly simple financing system........
DEBT, UNSUSTAINABLE LEVELS OF National debts are treated today as if they were unforgiving gods with the power to control , alter and if necessary destroy a country.............
that was 1994 John Ralston Saul
Yes Moe,
You were in fact wrong to assume that I watched those conversations ...
And if they were somehow relevant to Hedges' reckless and insensitive decision to take sides with big pharma, then please enlighten me ... this man has thousands of SUBS here on Substack alone ... I've dwelled in their midst of his flock for the past decade and I not only wonder if Hedges realizes the power his words have over these people, but also that livelihoods and sometimes even lives hang in the balance ...