1) I share and agree with the essence of Bacevitch's criticism of the 1619 Project. I would hope that Hedges, who was clearly uncomfortable with discussing that perspective, does a future show on this set of issues.
2_ Bacevitch seems to understand the key US moral and imperial failings the delivered the Vietnam atrocity. Yet, when analyzing our current similar atrocity in Ukraine, can't seem to get go there or get there. He merely implies a lost US opportunity to avoid the war and seems oblivious to the US driven NATO expansion, US driven coup, and long term US planning, funding and "democracy promotion" for and provocation of that war. I guess I'll have to read his book to understand his arguments here.
THANK you for this outstanding interview !!! My only objection is that Bacevich apparently ignores that US provoked Ukraine invasion and that war started 8 years before the invasion.
“…..the GOP national brand is worthless….” GOP “strategy” represented by war-mongering village idiots a la Glenn Beck. Yet – we are now close to US, Poland and Romanian soldiers entering Ukraine “if Russia escalates”… as expected.
The Chris Hedges Report with Andrew Bacevich on his book "After the Apocalypse" and the folly of endless war - Nov 9, 2022 (outstanding)
When I was 8 years old, my older brother was wounded in Vietnam. He lay in an army hospital waiting to find out if the doctors would remove his legs. And I was dispatch to the St. Fortunata's Church to light a candle. But when I arrived, the church was locked. I knocked and knocked, and then sat on the stone steps and cried and begged God to let my brother come home to us. I didn't know why we were in Vietnam. Why do we keep fighting these wars? Is it to line the pockets of defense contractors? Is it for oil or resources or global dominance, central bankers, or just to give politicians a chance to pontificate and sound noble? I don't know. But I knew even as an eight year old boy that it was wrong. And I have remained an antiwar activist in on-street protests. So it's Veteran's Day again. I don't blame the dumb kids who enlist and carry out the agendas of the Pentagon and the CIA. But I also don't celebrate their victories. I support negotiation and trade, not bullets, bombs and massive death.
After publicly promoting the event, and changing the venue due to "high demand," peace activists withdraw their invitation to Scott Ritter -- 11/11/2022
(Note – the article includes more – it is about Scott’s incredible persecution by “American Justice”)
Scott Ritter has been my hero for a long time -- because of his demonstrated high integrity, courage and patriotism. Until now I was unaware of the suffering and horror inflicted on him by the “American Justice”.
Thanks to Scott and by now famous video we know that the corrupt criminal monster, Joe Biden, knew with 100% certainty that Iraq had no WMD but Biden brazenly denigrated Scott’s testimony calling him “Scotty boy” and led us into Iraq war.
Let’s hope that he stays well and safe although Scott is on Nazi-Ukraine’s Kill list (with full knowledge of Biden and the US War party). Total censorship and oppression are now mandatory in the US so that bipartisan War party can conduct its proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia and support the Nazi-dominated puppet government of Ukraine.
Let’s stand with Russia -- it fights for all of us. In regard of US proxy war against Russia, as Scott stated: “Russia is on the right side of history.”
And in the Age of Dominance the inequalities do not just find their way into the malevolent actions of elites out of touch with reality, but like an arrow to the heart, the inequalities become internalized and menticide is often the result.
The death of the public commons drove a stake into the heart of understanding history beyond ones' own mirror.
The private commons commodifies empathy.
The the unraveling of the Enlightenment now being witnessed, and the descent into the Digital Dark Ages seems to testify that we are at an interregnum.
The pain and suffering of being a caged bird who thinks that birds that fly are insane hemorrhages on the killing floor of dominance, and in our epoch, capitalism.
We have lost notions of the common good and with it we have lost all memories of public consciousness. Colonized consciousness straightjackets critical thinking.
Insanity, sadism, masochism and alienation are just some of the results.
"“Nevertheless, it is true that in our time the term “insanity” tends to refer to a private malady. We lack an appropriate term for disorders of the public mind for the fundamental reason that we lack any notion of the “public mind” itself.
And the reason for this disappearance is not that the phenomenon itself has ceased to exist but that public consciousness has become so fragmented and atomic that this collective form of consciousness tends to lack self-awareness.
But this dissolution is itself the very form of public consciousness that is so important for us to grasp.
When we use terms like “masochism” we usually take for granted that we are speaking of individual pathology.
However, consider that every social system is obviously inseparable from the channeled energies of its participants.
In fact, each system is the embodiment of these energies, so organized as to form a larger and more persistent whole.
So it is that the failure of our society, the harm it imposes on us, is in unavoidable measure the effort and product of our own lives.
It is because we act out the forms of personhood required by our society that it is able to accumulate its power to force us into acting against ourselves.
So masochism is not an individual occurrence but the basic imposition by which we construct the processes that deconstruct us.
Constructing the powers of a destructive society, we deconstruct the ideal possibilities inherent in ourselves.
Of course, we are not self-consciously aware of this fact, but it occurs as it does regardless of our self-conscious ignorance.
We make the social world that is our undoing. We produce the institutions and structures that maintain our very subordination.
Our energies, which we define in terms of self-aggrandizement and rational self-interest, are beyond our understanding, the very opposite of what they initially claim.
Our vaunted self-interest is self-denial, our cherished self-realization, the destruction of what we hold most dear.”
As to the notion of common interests, besides being defined as the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, family, meaningful work, love), it is difficult to imagine what common interests we might have other than class conscious interests, unless one believes in an essential 'human nature'.
But as Heraclitus noted regarding the Logos, or 'reason':
“We should let ourselves be guided by what is common to all.
Yet, although the Logos is common to all, most men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of his own.”
--- Heraclitus
Like Libertarians, to take one putrid example, whoever thinks that they are a separate mind, and manage themselves as if they are an isolated kingdom, is fooling themselves. They believe their own opinions instead of seeing things in their true light.
“Thinking”, Heraclitus says, “is shared by all”.
Ultimately, we are all of the same mind. However, we stay blind to this fact.
“Although intimately connected with the Logos, men keep setting themselves against it”.
And this is the cause of our suffering.”
We lack the playing field for the development of fair-minded critical thinking and thought and thus are too often low-hanging fruit for the Dominators.
I have spent much of the past 18 months reading and listening to interviews with the late Chalmers Johnson. Many of his ideas seem to be reflected in and validated by both of these brilliant writers' works. I would very much like to hear a follow-up discussion of Johnson's insights. His trilogy is a comprehensive treatment of where the US went off course after the collapse of the USSR, and the missteps and hubris that underlie our present crises.
"the complications" of our history and origin story — some of us are still living the "complications". History lives in the present, and the decisions we make today create our future. Therein lies the problem. Ask the state-owned vessels what it means to live in a constitutional republic; ask those stomped out in the street by militarized police what a representative democracy feels like. (And for the record, this is no criticism of Hedges or Bacevich, for whom I have great respect. Thank you, gentlemen.)
What put Trump beyond the bounds of respectability from the outset, other than his personal degeneracy, was the advent of an American Presidency in which the occupant’s only hero and role model in international affairs was a KGB colonel turned dictator. He lost me at hello.
Superb interview - 2 thoughts for followup:
1) I share and agree with the essence of Bacevitch's criticism of the 1619 Project. I would hope that Hedges, who was clearly uncomfortable with discussing that perspective, does a future show on this set of issues.
2_ Bacevitch seems to understand the key US moral and imperial failings the delivered the Vietnam atrocity. Yet, when analyzing our current similar atrocity in Ukraine, can't seem to get go there or get there. He merely implies a lost US opportunity to avoid the war and seems oblivious to the US driven NATO expansion, US driven coup, and long term US planning, funding and "democracy promotion" for and provocation of that war. I guess I'll have to read his book to understand his arguments here.
Once again, it is mportant to note that it is the false narrative that has shaped the impact of the post 911 theater drama.
The equation is very simple, Capitalism=WAR+Climate Change+Wealth Inequality
THANK you for this outstanding interview !!! My only objection is that Bacevich apparently ignores that US provoked Ukraine invasion and that war started 8 years before the invasion.
https://youtu.be/ry7j-DaabpQ US/Ukraine Russia war - Col Doug Macgregor (Nov. 8, 2022)
(Col. Macgregor is OUTSTANDING -- if you can still stand hearing/seeing Napolitano)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfXIJd5J_VA Prof. Jeffrey Sachs – Nov. 7, 2022
“THIS Is How The US Have LIED About Ukraine War” - Outstanding Russell Brand interview
Why GOP “Lost” -- https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/11/09/why-gop-lost/
“…..the GOP national brand is worthless….” GOP “strategy” represented by war-mongering village idiots a la Glenn Beck. Yet – we are now close to US, Poland and Romanian soldiers entering Ukraine “if Russia escalates”… as expected.
The Chris Hedges Report with Andrew Bacevich on his book "After the Apocalypse" and the folly of endless war - Nov 9, 2022 (outstanding)
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-andrew?r=byea&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
It is THESE men who have always, and are still, handicapping and misleading all of humanity: www.nomoreinsanity.org
For the last few decades, we have been able to identify them using Dr. Hare's test. Why do we keep allowing them total life and death control over us?
What Veteran's Day means to me:
When I was 8 years old, my older brother was wounded in Vietnam. He lay in an army hospital waiting to find out if the doctors would remove his legs. And I was dispatch to the St. Fortunata's Church to light a candle. But when I arrived, the church was locked. I knocked and knocked, and then sat on the stone steps and cried and begged God to let my brother come home to us. I didn't know why we were in Vietnam. Why do we keep fighting these wars? Is it to line the pockets of defense contractors? Is it for oil or resources or global dominance, central bankers, or just to give politicians a chance to pontificate and sound noble? I don't know. But I knew even as an eight year old boy that it was wrong. And I have remained an antiwar activist in on-street protests. So it's Veteran's Day again. I don't blame the dumb kids who enlist and carry out the agendas of the Pentagon and the CIA. But I also don't celebrate their victories. I support negotiation and trade, not bullets, bombs and massive death.
Thanks for another great show, Chris.
Cancel Culture --- https://substack.com/inbox/post/83954106
After publicly promoting the event, and changing the venue due to "high demand," peace activists withdraw their invitation to Scott Ritter -- 11/11/2022
(Note – the article includes more – it is about Scott’s incredible persecution by “American Justice”)
Scott Ritter has been my hero for a long time -- because of his demonstrated high integrity, courage and patriotism. Until now I was unaware of the suffering and horror inflicted on him by the “American Justice”.
Thanks to Scott and by now famous video we know that the corrupt criminal monster, Joe Biden, knew with 100% certainty that Iraq had no WMD but Biden brazenly denigrated Scott’s testimony calling him “Scotty boy” and led us into Iraq war.
Let’s hope that he stays well and safe although Scott is on Nazi-Ukraine’s Kill list (with full knowledge of Biden and the US War party). Total censorship and oppression are now mandatory in the US so that bipartisan War party can conduct its proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia and support the Nazi-dominated puppet government of Ukraine.
Let’s stand with Russia -- it fights for all of us. In regard of US proxy war against Russia, as Scott stated: “Russia is on the right side of history.”
We live in the Age of Dominance.
the Master - slave
the Lord - serf, peasant
the employer - employee
And in the Age of Dominance the inequalities do not just find their way into the malevolent actions of elites out of touch with reality, but like an arrow to the heart, the inequalities become internalized and menticide is often the result.
The death of the public commons drove a stake into the heart of understanding history beyond ones' own mirror.
The private commons commodifies empathy.
The the unraveling of the Enlightenment now being witnessed, and the descent into the Digital Dark Ages seems to testify that we are at an interregnum.
The pain and suffering of being a caged bird who thinks that birds that fly are insane hemorrhages on the killing floor of dominance, and in our epoch, capitalism.
We have lost notions of the common good and with it we have lost all memories of public consciousness. Colonized consciousness straightjackets critical thinking.
Insanity, sadism, masochism and alienation are just some of the results.
"“Nevertheless, it is true that in our time the term “insanity” tends to refer to a private malady. We lack an appropriate term for disorders of the public mind for the fundamental reason that we lack any notion of the “public mind” itself.
And the reason for this disappearance is not that the phenomenon itself has ceased to exist but that public consciousness has become so fragmented and atomic that this collective form of consciousness tends to lack self-awareness.
But this dissolution is itself the very form of public consciousness that is so important for us to grasp.
When we use terms like “masochism” we usually take for granted that we are speaking of individual pathology.
However, consider that every social system is obviously inseparable from the channeled energies of its participants.
In fact, each system is the embodiment of these energies, so organized as to form a larger and more persistent whole.
So it is that the failure of our society, the harm it imposes on us, is in unavoidable measure the effort and product of our own lives.
It is because we act out the forms of personhood required by our society that it is able to accumulate its power to force us into acting against ourselves.
So masochism is not an individual occurrence but the basic imposition by which we construct the processes that deconstruct us.
Constructing the powers of a destructive society, we deconstruct the ideal possibilities inherent in ourselves.
Of course, we are not self-consciously aware of this fact, but it occurs as it does regardless of our self-conscious ignorance.
We make the social world that is our undoing. We produce the institutions and structures that maintain our very subordination.
Our energies, which we define in terms of self-aggrandizement and rational self-interest, are beyond our understanding, the very opposite of what they initially claim.
Our vaunted self-interest is self-denial, our cherished self-realization, the destruction of what we hold most dear.”
Richard Lichtman, RIP
https://truthout.org/articles/the-violent-disorder-of-our-public-mind/
As to the notion of common interests, besides being defined as the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, family, meaningful work, love), it is difficult to imagine what common interests we might have other than class conscious interests, unless one believes in an essential 'human nature'.
But as Heraclitus noted regarding the Logos, or 'reason':
“We should let ourselves be guided by what is common to all.
Yet, although the Logos is common to all, most men live as if each of them had a private intelligence of his own.”
--- Heraclitus
Like Libertarians, to take one putrid example, whoever thinks that they are a separate mind, and manage themselves as if they are an isolated kingdom, is fooling themselves. They believe their own opinions instead of seeing things in their true light.
“Thinking”, Heraclitus says, “is shared by all”.
Ultimately, we are all of the same mind. However, we stay blind to this fact.
“Although intimately connected with the Logos, men keep setting themselves against it”.
And this is the cause of our suffering.”
We lack the playing field for the development of fair-minded critical thinking and thought and thus are too often low-hanging fruit for the Dominators.
http://www.butler-bowdon.com/heraclitus---fragments.html
For a more comprehensive view on the origins of the White Settler country called the US, Gerald Horne is essential.
Chris has interviewed Horne many times.
Horne's point of view is essential for critically understanding history.
I have spent much of the past 18 months reading and listening to interviews with the late Chalmers Johnson. Many of his ideas seem to be reflected in and validated by both of these brilliant writers' works. I would very much like to hear a follow-up discussion of Johnson's insights. His trilogy is a comprehensive treatment of where the US went off course after the collapse of the USSR, and the missteps and hubris that underlie our present crises.
"the complications" of our history and origin story — some of us are still living the "complications". History lives in the present, and the decisions we make today create our future. Therein lies the problem. Ask the state-owned vessels what it means to live in a constitutional republic; ask those stomped out in the street by militarized police what a representative democracy feels like. (And for the record, this is no criticism of Hedges or Bacevich, for whom I have great respect. Thank you, gentlemen.)
What put Trump beyond the bounds of respectability from the outset, other than his personal degeneracy, was the advent of an American Presidency in which the occupant’s only hero and role model in international affairs was a KGB colonel turned dictator. He lost me at hello.
Must listen Dr Robert Malone
https://gettr.com/post/pqnseu2b95