Listen now | One of Poland’s biggest music venues has canceled a concert by Roger Waters, the co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd, after he was roundly criticized there for his view that Ukraine should pursue p
Roger Waters is a brilliant lyricist who uses his platform to loudly speak truth to power. Thanks, Chris for spending time with a great activist for sane leadership, and sharing that with all of us.
Chris you are the best conversationalist. This is so interesting. Love the talking about the magic that can exist with great writing. Good to know there are good people in the world.
Always great to listen to Roger Waters' fiery and crystal clear reasoning, always walking boldly against the grain and towards truth, all of which is now, as many say, perfectly reflected in his epic tour, giving imaginative space and attention to the most pressing issues of our times, among them the bitter fate of Palestine or the West's endless wars and their consequences, and the question of freedom of speech and freedom of press and intertwined with those the persecution and torture of Julian Assange...
Everything that Roger speaks of or sings about today is brazenly against the established (western) mainstream (political) narratives, and goes way off the course which an artist is "allowed" or "tolerated" to take, because nowadays in the mainstream music entertainment industry it is probably safer to praise and expose let's say genitalia or promote religious or ethnic hatred, than being anti-war... it is just that bad... anything, but questioning the supposed moral and political supremacy of the collective "west".
Now, having his polish tour cancelled by a corpo entity called Live Nation Poland, after he was set to be declared persona non grata by the city council of Kraków - a particular topic that wasn't actually discussed in this podcast, and is only being mentioned in the subtitle, I'd like to throw in my two cents.
It must be stated, that the country of Poland - it's whole mainstream media sphere (on both sides of the political isle - center-right and right [there is no real left in Poland]), has FOR YEARS been literally inundated, soaked and permeated with a rabidly anti-Russian sentiment, a long time before the start of any "Special Military Operation", and before any 2014 "Revolution" in Ukraine, the polish-russian tumultous history notwithstanding...
The key here is that modern political "elites" in Poland, with the help of their state and corpo-media, have long ago completely hi-jacked the public narrative, and totally and cynically sold out to the American deep-state and it's policies, oficially equating American interests and foreign policy with Polish interests and foreign policy, even more aggressively pursuing this "strategy" after entering EU in 2004. This state of affairs was some years ago aptly and surprisingly candidly described by Radosław Sikorski, as Poland's continuous willingness to give head to the Americans...(not officially stated of course - but one of many conversations leaked in a wiretape scandal some 7-8 years ago, I think).
Thus for years Polish ruling elites have been pushing and pressing for conflict with Russia on behalf of US government, presenting a cartoonish image of the power circle at the Kremlin, reducing it to a fearsome image of a dictator-led gang, a kindergarden-level "wisdom" of good-USA / bad-Russia, completely drowning out or misreporting on major US government-led illegal wars, sanctions, invasions, war crimes and coup's of the XXIst century (eg. Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen), using their big-media apparatus (which in Poland is now completely either state / oligarchy-controlled or corpo-American) to properly "feed" the populace with their version of reality, to which the middle and upper-middle classes (aka "woke shit-libs" ?) have been, exceptionally susceptible...
So, maybe after taking all this into account, and adding to it the current incredibly aggressive mass hysteria and propaganda and EU-wide censorship reaching absurd levels, it may come as no real surprise that many people in Poland and among them "fans" of Pink Floyd / Roger Waters are applauding the disgraceful decision to cancel his tour, commenting in the lame "He may play for Putin, and not here" vein, probably not even knowing that the current NATO-Russia conflict over Ukraine started at the least in 2014 if not earlier, not knowing or caring what went on in Donbass for the last 8 years, not knowing of prescient analysis of academics like prof. Mearsheimer, not knowing or caring that among other artists, journalists and academics, Roger Waters is figuring on a Ukrainian NATO-supported kill list, and probably not knowing about his past strong denounciations of the White-Helmet scam artists, the Saudi and Qatari-sponsored medical service of the head-choppers, the "moderate rebels" that were used by the West to completely wreck Syria...
Having being lobotomized by their media, living in a perpetual bubble of "Putin-bad / USA-good" dichotomy, must leave some scars... and what a shock would it be for them (for us!) to see all recent US presidents lined-up as war criminals... lord have mercy...
Anyways, seeing this mass info-zombification of whole societies, it is more important than ever to support and be still able to listen to artists like Roger Waters, and read pieces by journalists the likes of Chris Hedges, John Pilger, Jonathan Cook and others, who are willing to share their invaluable experience, insights and commentary, to preserve and sustain at least a little bit of sanity in these fucked-up times...
Roger Waters is a jewel, and it got me thinking, when I saw him in a World Beyond War webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx1xkxiDPhk), about the power of celebrity. There were 800 people watching that, and I suggested to WBW to do more. They said it was a matter of getting celebrities to do them. How to get that to happen?
I love Roger Waters over my lifetime (70+ yrs) and I love you for sharing this with us.
Roger Waters is a brilliant lyricist who uses his platform to loudly speak truth to power. Thanks, Chris for spending time with a great activist for sane leadership, and sharing that with all of us.
This is such an inspiring article about the most inspiring western musical artists not only of his time, but of the present as well. Thank you!!
Roger Waters and Chris Hedges
Can change the world to be a better place - if people would only listen.
Free Julian Assange, and all political prisoners!
Chris you are the best conversationalist. This is so interesting. Love the talking about the magic that can exist with great writing. Good to know there are good people in the world.
I saw him in phoenix about 6-7 years ago... got tickets for his Glendale (Phoenix) concert October 3rd
Pink Floyd has been my favorite band since I was in high school... I’m 67
I was an anti-war (Vietnam) protester is high school . The band was and is (split or not) amazing and relevant
My RV license tag is: USTHEM
ROCK ON ROGER!
See you soon-on the Dark Side of the Moon
💖🌑
Roger Waters is a great artist, humanitarian and fighter for social justice. He is a great role model. An excellent interview.
Always great to listen to Roger Waters' fiery and crystal clear reasoning, always walking boldly against the grain and towards truth, all of which is now, as many say, perfectly reflected in his epic tour, giving imaginative space and attention to the most pressing issues of our times, among them the bitter fate of Palestine or the West's endless wars and their consequences, and the question of freedom of speech and freedom of press and intertwined with those the persecution and torture of Julian Assange...
Everything that Roger speaks of or sings about today is brazenly against the established (western) mainstream (political) narratives, and goes way off the course which an artist is "allowed" or "tolerated" to take, because nowadays in the mainstream music entertainment industry it is probably safer to praise and expose let's say genitalia or promote religious or ethnic hatred, than being anti-war... it is just that bad... anything, but questioning the supposed moral and political supremacy of the collective "west".
Now, having his polish tour cancelled by a corpo entity called Live Nation Poland, after he was set to be declared persona non grata by the city council of Kraków - a particular topic that wasn't actually discussed in this podcast, and is only being mentioned in the subtitle, I'd like to throw in my two cents.
It must be stated, that the country of Poland - it's whole mainstream media sphere (on both sides of the political isle - center-right and right [there is no real left in Poland]), has FOR YEARS been literally inundated, soaked and permeated with a rabidly anti-Russian sentiment, a long time before the start of any "Special Military Operation", and before any 2014 "Revolution" in Ukraine, the polish-russian tumultous history notwithstanding...
The key here is that modern political "elites" in Poland, with the help of their state and corpo-media, have long ago completely hi-jacked the public narrative, and totally and cynically sold out to the American deep-state and it's policies, oficially equating American interests and foreign policy with Polish interests and foreign policy, even more aggressively pursuing this "strategy" after entering EU in 2004. This state of affairs was some years ago aptly and surprisingly candidly described by Radosław Sikorski, as Poland's continuous willingness to give head to the Americans...(not officially stated of course - but one of many conversations leaked in a wiretape scandal some 7-8 years ago, I think).
Thus for years Polish ruling elites have been pushing and pressing for conflict with Russia on behalf of US government, presenting a cartoonish image of the power circle at the Kremlin, reducing it to a fearsome image of a dictator-led gang, a kindergarden-level "wisdom" of good-USA / bad-Russia, completely drowning out or misreporting on major US government-led illegal wars, sanctions, invasions, war crimes and coup's of the XXIst century (eg. Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen), using their big-media apparatus (which in Poland is now completely either state / oligarchy-controlled or corpo-American) to properly "feed" the populace with their version of reality, to which the middle and upper-middle classes (aka "woke shit-libs" ?) have been, exceptionally susceptible...
So, maybe after taking all this into account, and adding to it the current incredibly aggressive mass hysteria and propaganda and EU-wide censorship reaching absurd levels, it may come as no real surprise that many people in Poland and among them "fans" of Pink Floyd / Roger Waters are applauding the disgraceful decision to cancel his tour, commenting in the lame "He may play for Putin, and not here" vein, probably not even knowing that the current NATO-Russia conflict over Ukraine started at the least in 2014 if not earlier, not knowing or caring what went on in Donbass for the last 8 years, not knowing of prescient analysis of academics like prof. Mearsheimer, not knowing or caring that among other artists, journalists and academics, Roger Waters is figuring on a Ukrainian NATO-supported kill list, and probably not knowing about his past strong denounciations of the White-Helmet scam artists, the Saudi and Qatari-sponsored medical service of the head-choppers, the "moderate rebels" that were used by the West to completely wreck Syria...
Having being lobotomized by their media, living in a perpetual bubble of "Putin-bad / USA-good" dichotomy, must leave some scars... and what a shock would it be for them (for us!) to see all recent US presidents lined-up as war criminals... lord have mercy...
Anyways, seeing this mass info-zombification of whole societies, it is more important than ever to support and be still able to listen to artists like Roger Waters, and read pieces by journalists the likes of Chris Hedges, John Pilger, Jonathan Cook and others, who are willing to share their invaluable experience, insights and commentary, to preserve and sustain at least a little bit of sanity in these fucked-up times...
Roger Waters is a jewel, and it got me thinking, when I saw him in a World Beyond War webinar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx1xkxiDPhk), about the power of celebrity. There were 800 people watching that, and I suggested to WBW to do more. They said it was a matter of getting celebrities to do them. How to get that to happen?
Yay! I so admire Roger Waters. I saw he is going to be where I will be and I'm going to see him!! Thanks for the interview, Chris.
Word Waters Hedges & ideas grow
I'd wanna hear what he thinks of Joe Strummer, the outspoken Socialist Clash front man. Joe straightens me head out, Roger is like kool-aid to me.
The earth will take care of its self that's why there's climate change,mother nature is just telling us,get the fuck off me,lol
Roger waters needs to collab with John Cale
Is this podcast available to the public? I just sent the link to some friends.