As American hegemony transforms into something that will be determined by “the forces of historical contingency,” how can regular people fight back against the increasingly violent Empire?
Really interesting discussion about “the rules based order” and its use as a consolidation of U.S. power. I agree with Mr. Saba about looking outside the Democratic Party to mobilize resistance. I remember people musing several years ago about what had happened to “moderate” Republicans and how they seemed to have disappeared. Well, they didn’t disappear—they became Democrats and took over the party. The Democratic Party is of course controlled now by economic elites. They merely give lip service to economic equality and quite openly look down on the lower middle class, the working poor, and, increasingly, the middle class. The so-called broad coalition cannot be sustained.
Reminds me of the classic documentary, “The Sorrow and the Pity,” about the French Resistance in World War II. When interviewed about what drove them when so many capitulated, one of the members said, “we were the ones with nothing to lose.”
Reminds me of Max Ophul’s classic documentary, “The Sorrow and the Pity,” about the French Resistance in World War II. When asked in an interview what motivated and sustained its members when so many others had collaborated and capitulated, a resistance fighter said, “we were the ones who had nothing to lose.” I’ve forgotten most of the film, but remember that.
I realize my question doesn't address his overall perspective on things, but did he reference Obama as a liberal, or am I mistaken? So many do, and I just don't get it. Here's why:
Obama's role in overthrowing the Assad government, Jeffery Sachs in an article published in Consortium News. "The Israel-U.S. war on Syria escalated in 2011 and 2012, when former U.S. President Barack Obama covertly tasked the C.I.A. with the overthrow of the Syrian Government in Operation Timber Sycamore."
When people think of the overthrow of Libya they think Clinton and they aren't wrong, but who was president, Obama! Of course he also did a lot of droning which did a lot of killing, and didn't they call him the Deporter and chief? Then there was his coup in Ukraine and we all know it's led to a deadly mess, but it did get Biden's son a lucrative job at Burisma, and totally unqualified. Just asking.
Capitalism is an economic system predicated on continuous growth. This is an impossible dimension to achieve and a brutal folly to pursue. It is bio-physically limited by the finite quantities of natural resources of this planet.
It demands expansionism which evolves into the consolidation of power. We live off of, and within a very thin veneer of less than several miles into the earth's crust, perhaps 5 miles of atmosphere, for a total of <10 miles of vertical height.
All life support systems are bending from the sheer weight of our intrusions. Most are in stages of collapse.
Anyone remember those summer time invertebrates that were once so plentiful..the insects? I do.
It's appalling. the disregard we have for what ought to be obvious enough.
I'm 67 and I rode that tide of post WW11 economic growth. A middle class electrician plodding along through life. The house, couple of children, you know the drill.
Unknowingly seduced by the marketing of the cult of the self. Happy American consumers, too occupied to notice what was going down.
The US has been the primary consumer in this globalized nightmare. In Bangladesh a major producer of clothing and textiles, it's slave labor and grinding poverty.
For Christmas, clothing is such a nice gift.
Malaysia? We take their rare earth elements and in compensation they get the majority of our electronic waste.
In Gaza, it's full-blown genocide.
Just a mild sampling of what economic growth looks like in practice.
The machine is running out of places to feed.
It seems inevitable that the US and China's economies are headed for a collision.
Chris. I’ve followed your work since the early 2000s, and what strikes me is not the accuracy of the diagnosis—on that you’ve been devastatingly consistent—but the quiet exhaustion of the solution space.
You’ve chronicled the collapse of class consciousness, the capture of movements, the failure of boutique activism, and the conversion of protest into performance. You’ve also repeatedly returned to militancy, sacrifice, rage, and confrontation as what remains “viable.”
I wonder if that return is itself a symptom.
If every cycle ends by prescribing more intensity, more suffering, more heroic rupture—perhaps what has actually collapsed is not “the left,” but the very grammar through which we imagine collective agency.
Maybe what has to die now is not resistance, but the idea that awakening must always look like fury.
Interesting information but Dylan needs to quite asking "right?" so much. It totally undermines what he is trying to say. It seems he is not confident is what he is saying.
Thanks Chris. Great new source for a “world falling
apart”.
Linda
Really interesting discussion about “the rules based order” and its use as a consolidation of U.S. power. I agree with Mr. Saba about looking outside the Democratic Party to mobilize resistance. I remember people musing several years ago about what had happened to “moderate” Republicans and how they seemed to have disappeared. Well, they didn’t disappear—they became Democrats and took over the party. The Democratic Party is of course controlled now by economic elites. They merely give lip service to economic equality and quite openly look down on the lower middle class, the working poor, and, increasingly, the middle class. The so-called broad coalition cannot be sustained.
What the Houthis, the Taliban have is nothing to lose.
Exactly and that is our problem and the ones in power know it!
Reminds me of the classic documentary, “The Sorrow and the Pity,” about the French Resistance in World War II. When interviewed about what drove them when so many capitulated, one of the members said, “we were the ones with nothing to lose.”
Reminds me of Max Ophul’s classic documentary, “The Sorrow and the Pity,” about the French Resistance in World War II. When asked in an interview what motivated and sustained its members when so many others had collaborated and capitulated, a resistance fighter said, “we were the ones who had nothing to lose.” I’ve forgotten most of the film, but remember that.
I realize my question doesn't address his overall perspective on things, but did he reference Obama as a liberal, or am I mistaken? So many do, and I just don't get it. Here's why:
Obama's role in overthrowing the Assad government, Jeffery Sachs in an article published in Consortium News. "The Israel-U.S. war on Syria escalated in 2011 and 2012, when former U.S. President Barack Obama covertly tasked the C.I.A. with the overthrow of the Syrian Government in Operation Timber Sycamore."
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/13/us-israel-destroyed-syria-called-it-peace/
When people think of the overthrow of Libya they think Clinton and they aren't wrong, but who was president, Obama! Of course he also did a lot of droning which did a lot of killing, and didn't they call him the Deporter and chief? Then there was his coup in Ukraine and we all know it's led to a deadly mess, but it did get Biden's son a lucrative job at Burisma, and totally unqualified. Just asking.
my view
Obama was a warmonger - using drones alot let him escape criticism
Overall perspective on something we seldom see as issues are generally specific for a particular event which allows politicizing
I don't disagree with his his overall perspective, but both he and Hedges get so depressing about the impending end times..
Capitalism is an economic system predicated on continuous growth. This is an impossible dimension to achieve and a brutal folly to pursue. It is bio-physically limited by the finite quantities of natural resources of this planet.
It demands expansionism which evolves into the consolidation of power. We live off of, and within a very thin veneer of less than several miles into the earth's crust, perhaps 5 miles of atmosphere, for a total of <10 miles of vertical height.
All life support systems are bending from the sheer weight of our intrusions. Most are in stages of collapse.
Anyone remember those summer time invertebrates that were once so plentiful..the insects? I do.
It's appalling. the disregard we have for what ought to be obvious enough.
I'm 67 and I rode that tide of post WW11 economic growth. A middle class electrician plodding along through life. The house, couple of children, you know the drill.
Unknowingly seduced by the marketing of the cult of the self. Happy American consumers, too occupied to notice what was going down.
The US has been the primary consumer in this globalized nightmare. In Bangladesh a major producer of clothing and textiles, it's slave labor and grinding poverty.
For Christmas, clothing is such a nice gift.
Malaysia? We take their rare earth elements and in compensation they get the majority of our electronic waste.
In Gaza, it's full-blown genocide.
Just a mild sampling of what economic growth looks like in practice.
The machine is running out of places to feed.
It seems inevitable that the US and China's economies are headed for a collision.
We are in planetery overshoot.
Chris. I’ve followed your work since the early 2000s, and what strikes me is not the accuracy of the diagnosis—on that you’ve been devastatingly consistent—but the quiet exhaustion of the solution space.
You’ve chronicled the collapse of class consciousness, the capture of movements, the failure of boutique activism, and the conversion of protest into performance. You’ve also repeatedly returned to militancy, sacrifice, rage, and confrontation as what remains “viable.”
I wonder if that return is itself a symptom.
If every cycle ends by prescribing more intensity, more suffering, more heroic rupture—perhaps what has actually collapsed is not “the left,” but the very grammar through which we imagine collective agency.
Maybe what has to die now is not resistance, but the idea that awakening must always look like fury.
Interesting information but Dylan needs to quite asking "right?" so much. It totally undermines what he is trying to say. It seems he is not confident is what he is saying.
I see no problems with his "Right", or "Right?". They're quite rhetorical.