Chris Hedges speaks with Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, about his new book, "Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Frontlines Battling Abusive Governments."
While Kenneth Roth has a commendable outlook on "Righting the Wrongs", in my opinion he and Human Rights Watch have done very little, if anything to change the course of ever growing (in quantity and level of egregiousness) violations of international laws by governments around the globe--not least of which is the U.S. and Israel. He points to public shaming that he believes has led to the curbing of illegal behavior of the leaders of these cabals. Bullshit. There is no evidence of this whatsoever. If it has happened, you can chalk it up just as much to Karma or coincidence as to any direct actions of HRW.
What Roth doesn't talk about is that the leaders of these cabals who are elected or appointed as dictatorial administrators of various global regimes (which we have been well conditioned to call "countries") are not really calling the shots. Individual & sovereign "countries" are just a myth played out regularly as the joke called The U.N. ---in order to make the general population feel they have actual freedom, or control over their limited and collective destinies. They don't. As George W. Bush said back in March of 2003 before the U.S. illegally imposed "shock and awe" upon Iraq:, "The U.N. is irrelevant". How sad, but how true. Just look at the statements coming out of Tel aviv today; they don't even hide their illegal intentions or behavior any longer. But folks like Netanyahu or Galant are just the face of the real folks who are driving human right abuses, genocide, and oppressive martial law--that is the oligarchical ruling class. They have no shame because they are not visibly present to the public to even be shamed. The only audience for their potential shame (yes, virtually all humans --except maybe sociopaths--are susceptible to it) would be their limited group of peers that are practicing the same crimes. That limited group has no cause or intention of casting blame or shame on one another. Thus, I don't buy that Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and the such are affected by public shame to any meaningful degree. They are mere placeholders that gladly do the bidding of oligarchs because they are reaping a fair share of reward for signing up for such a job. They feel no shame, but rather joy as they laugh their way to the bank throughout their relatively brief tenures. The real generational wealth control is beyond their functional capacity IMO.
I believe this is why Kenneth Roth (and Hedges by entertaining this notion of shame being a tool of morality in order to "Right the Wrongs") is barking up the wrong tree. Why? I don't know. Maybe it makes him feel better about his lot in life...and hopeful about the lot of others who be even more
oppressed than he. But attempting to steer the morality of the globe through shame? Noble, yes. But futile at this point in human evolution IMO. I fear the governing rule of law today back to where it has been for most of the history of humanity: Might Makes Right.
This was a very difficult interview to listen to because so much of the focus is on the typical villains, Xi Jinping, Putin, Assad, Kagame, US backed regimes in South America etc. Is he intentionally overlooking the failure to affect the crimes, death and destruction facilitated by the leaders/oligarchs of the so-called Global North democracies?
Does this indicate the weakness or limitations of the "pressure campaign"? Is HRW biased? Does it bend to government pressure?
Chris, you're our beacon in the night! I'm learning so much from you and your guests. 🙏🏽
Thank you, Chris Hedges and Kenneth Roth, for this discussion of Human Rights and governments that pretend to honor our rights.
Thank you so much for this interview. I am enormously grateful for the work that Chris and Kenneth do!
While Kenneth Roth has a commendable outlook on "Righting the Wrongs", in my opinion he and Human Rights Watch have done very little, if anything to change the course of ever growing (in quantity and level of egregiousness) violations of international laws by governments around the globe--not least of which is the U.S. and Israel. He points to public shaming that he believes has led to the curbing of illegal behavior of the leaders of these cabals. Bullshit. There is no evidence of this whatsoever. If it has happened, you can chalk it up just as much to Karma or coincidence as to any direct actions of HRW.
What Roth doesn't talk about is that the leaders of these cabals who are elected or appointed as dictatorial administrators of various global regimes (which we have been well conditioned to call "countries") are not really calling the shots. Individual & sovereign "countries" are just a myth played out regularly as the joke called The U.N. ---in order to make the general population feel they have actual freedom, or control over their limited and collective destinies. They don't. As George W. Bush said back in March of 2003 before the U.S. illegally imposed "shock and awe" upon Iraq:, "The U.N. is irrelevant". How sad, but how true. Just look at the statements coming out of Tel aviv today; they don't even hide their illegal intentions or behavior any longer. But folks like Netanyahu or Galant are just the face of the real folks who are driving human right abuses, genocide, and oppressive martial law--that is the oligarchical ruling class. They have no shame because they are not visibly present to the public to even be shamed. The only audience for their potential shame (yes, virtually all humans --except maybe sociopaths--are susceptible to it) would be their limited group of peers that are practicing the same crimes. That limited group has no cause or intention of casting blame or shame on one another. Thus, I don't buy that Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and the such are affected by public shame to any meaningful degree. They are mere placeholders that gladly do the bidding of oligarchs because they are reaping a fair share of reward for signing up for such a job. They feel no shame, but rather joy as they laugh their way to the bank throughout their relatively brief tenures. The real generational wealth control is beyond their functional capacity IMO.
I believe this is why Kenneth Roth (and Hedges by entertaining this notion of shame being a tool of morality in order to "Right the Wrongs") is barking up the wrong tree. Why? I don't know. Maybe it makes him feel better about his lot in life...and hopeful about the lot of others who be even more
oppressed than he. But attempting to steer the morality of the globe through shame? Noble, yes. But futile at this point in human evolution IMO. I fear the governing rule of law today back to where it has been for most of the history of humanity: Might Makes Right.
This was a very difficult interview to listen to because so much of the focus is on the typical villains, Xi Jinping, Putin, Assad, Kagame, US backed regimes in South America etc. Is he intentionally overlooking the failure to affect the crimes, death and destruction facilitated by the leaders/oligarchs of the so-called Global North democracies?
Does this indicate the weakness or limitations of the "pressure campaign"? Is HRW biased? Does it bend to government pressure?