In addition to the racist and racial aspects of this story, I think there were many possibly more important lessons about spirit and resistance and love.
I was absolutely blown away by the discussion of joining the dead, resisting any notion of defeat, and the love of a father and son expressed through language.
These are eternal values we all must get back in touch with.
What a stunning interview! Of course, I must quickly get a couple of copies of ‘America Made Me a Black Man’.
It is shocking to realize how little we actually know of our own lives until sheer luck happens to set an alert visitor inside the delusional ‘bubble’ we blithely took for bedrock reality !
I am autistic. I speak in parables, words have no meaning in America. They are words of Alice's Humpty Dumpty on the other side of The Looking Glass. Democracy only means non autocratic.
George Orwell warned us about Newspeak. I understand Newspeak. I know what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land. I look and sound like a Harvard PhD but I am just the Village Idiot and don't know how to lie.
Your guest nails it. We all live in tiny fishbowls.
Chris: Thanks for this interview of a courageous young man in the US - not of his dreams but of his nightmares. (And he could in some senses have been writing about the Somali refugee experience here in Australia - fostered in some of its ugliness by politicians of the right such as Peter Dutton - now heading the rump of the LNP here in Australia - but a dog-whistler of some accomplishment whom I hold as personally responsible for some of the tragedies which have resulted. I shall purchase his book. At the same time Chris - late last night - I finished your book The Class. So impressive. I wrote a review for Amazon - as I do for all books I read and which I have purchased via that company, on line. Shocked therefore this morning (Saturday, January 14th) to find that Amazon has rejected my review. I will send you below the bit they have sent back - and add only that I finished up by saying something along the lines of my thinking that you are a saint which you would with reason reject - but that you are a saint within a class/classes of saints - your students/your teachers. Did I use a Latin phrase in my review - the criteria sent by the Amazon people make no sense.
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Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison 5-*
from Jim KABLE on 13 January 2023
"with tears in my eyes and hurrahs in my heart" (my heading for the review)
Chris Hedges makes one glad to be a human being for his capacity to paint with words some of the most extraordinarily moving scenes of his students (at the same time his teachers) being taught within New Jersey State Penitentiaries. So proud of their steps along the...
I do not know how to talk to Americans. America is a democracy but not a liberal democracy. I live in a Liberal Democracy. We the people all of the people rule. America is an oligarchy but it is a democratic oligarchy where some rule and some serve.
My wife and I and my Father In Law have donated to the ACLU for five decades and they will not see another sous till they celebrate rather than vilify Bill 21. Regent University is one strange ally in the fight for Civil Liberties.
;Politicians have a job to do.
The must serve we the people not Flying Spaghetti Monsters.
I don't know if America will submit to its Holy Rollers but religion and politic don't mix.
"This nation is like all the others that have been spewed upon this Earth--ready to shout for any cause that will tickle its vanity or fill its pockets. What a hell of a heaven it will be when they get all these hypocrites assemble there."
Mark Twain letter to JH Twitchell 1901.
The only Freedom of Religion is Freedom from religion.
I'm not sure that our racist are afraid of black's revenge for their injustices of the past (many of those whites don't even know the history). Rather, I suspect that they are afraid that black people without the privileges of the whites could be better than themselves.
It is hard being a stranger in a strange land. I am autistic and have always been a stranger. I am always from away and always strange.
When I think of strangers in a strange land I think of strange strangers like Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx and Kinky Freidman, Frederick Douglas and Vlodomyr Zelenskiy. I think of Socrates, Jesus and Diogenes.
Somalia is rather mundane. i've talked to Somalis.
Lol, I am well aware of the definition(s) of mundane. There are multiple, and maybe that is the misunderstanding. I have also read Mark Twain extensively. But still there is nothing within my own knowledge of Somalia and Somali culture which would lead me to consider it mundane, regardless of which definition you use. Consider it then a deep difference of opinion.
Why is Somalia mundane? Refugees that rather than going from the proverbial "frying pan to the fire" are escaping the "fire to the American frying pan", With the flames licking at the edges in the ghetto projects of racist America. The first police were slave patrols. After the civil war slaves were turned from loyal and hard working "darkies" into thieves and rapists using vagrancy charges to incarcerate and used in chain gangs! He pointed out that White tribalism and fear of their brutal past treatment is driving it. For example Shaq was doing home security commercials and they would put a tiny old white woman beside him. Need I say more?
In addition to the racist and racial aspects of this story, I think there were many possibly more important lessons about spirit and resistance and love.
I was absolutely blown away by the discussion of joining the dead, resisting any notion of defeat, and the love of a father and son expressed through language.
These are eternal values we all must get back in touch with.
There is a direct connection
- between brazen DNC + Deep State immense Russia-gate hoax
- and the "unprovoked” US proxy war against CAPITALIST Russia
- and the insane and total support for Nazi-dominated US-puppet government of Ukraine
- while just in CA there are100,000+ homeless citizens living in miles long cardboard and tent shantytowns...
We live in an "Empire of Lies" and are witnessing an orgy of 1%-er thieves
What a stunning interview! Of course, I must quickly get a couple of copies of ‘America Made Me a Black Man’.
It is shocking to realize how little we actually know of our own lives until sheer luck happens to set an alert visitor inside the delusional ‘bubble’ we blithely took for bedrock reality !
Boyah & Chris… helluva’ combination !
-JJ ( electrician @ Detroit near Canada…)
I am autistic. I speak in parables, words have no meaning in America. They are words of Alice's Humpty Dumpty on the other side of The Looking Glass. Democracy only means non autocratic.
George Orwell warned us about Newspeak. I understand Newspeak. I know what it is like to be a stranger in a strange land. I look and sound like a Harvard PhD but I am just the Village Idiot and don't know how to lie.
Your guest nails it. We all live in tiny fishbowls.
When you destroy another's life, you destroy your own. Yes, it comes back massively. Aman.
Chris: Thanks for this interview of a courageous young man in the US - not of his dreams but of his nightmares. (And he could in some senses have been writing about the Somali refugee experience here in Australia - fostered in some of its ugliness by politicians of the right such as Peter Dutton - now heading the rump of the LNP here in Australia - but a dog-whistler of some accomplishment whom I hold as personally responsible for some of the tragedies which have resulted. I shall purchase his book. At the same time Chris - late last night - I finished your book The Class. So impressive. I wrote a review for Amazon - as I do for all books I read and which I have purchased via that company, on line. Shocked therefore this morning (Saturday, January 14th) to find that Amazon has rejected my review. I will send you below the bit they have sent back - and add only that I finished up by saying something along the lines of my thinking that you are a saint which you would with reason reject - but that you are a saint within a class/classes of saints - your students/your teachers. Did I use a Latin phrase in my review - the criteria sent by the Amazon people make no sense.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thank you for submitting a customer review.
Thank you for submitting a customer review on Amazon. After carefully reviewing your submission, your review could not be posted to the website. It appears your review had mixed or foreign languages.
While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines
Amazon Community Guidelines
Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison 5-*
from Jim KABLE on 13 January 2023
"with tears in my eyes and hurrahs in my heart" (my heading for the review)
Chris Hedges makes one glad to be a human being for his capacity to paint with words some of the most extraordinarily moving scenes of his students (at the same time his teachers) being taught within New Jersey State Penitentiaries. So proud of their steps along the...
Stunning interview. Love the humility that he shows himself to possess. Thank you.
Great interview,
Can I change the subject and get to the metaphysics.
There are awards and there are earnings.
America is a land of awards where nothing can be earned.
Those are not my words they belong to everyone that is what Mark Twain said of this world over a century ago.
American just doesn't translate into human.
Twain wrote my Bible.
I do not know how to talk to Americans. America is a democracy but not a liberal democracy. I live in a Liberal Democracy. We the people all of the people rule. America is an oligarchy but it is a democratic oligarchy where some rule and some serve.
Bill21 says politics and religion don't mix
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bill-21
My wife and I and my Father In Law have donated to the ACLU for five decades and they will not see another sous till they celebrate rather than vilify Bill 21. Regent University is one strange ally in the fight for Civil Liberties.
;Politicians have a job to do.
The must serve we the people not Flying Spaghetti Monsters.
I don't know if America will submit to its Holy Rollers but religion and politic don't mix.
"This nation is like all the others that have been spewed upon this Earth--ready to shout for any cause that will tickle its vanity or fill its pockets. What a hell of a heaven it will be when they get all these hypocrites assemble there."
Mark Twain letter to JH Twitchell 1901.
The only Freedom of Religion is Freedom from religion.
I'm not sure that our racist are afraid of black's revenge for their injustices of the past (many of those whites don't even know the history). Rather, I suspect that they are afraid that black people without the privileges of the whites could be better than themselves.
BRAVO !!
We live in a fascist "Empire of Lies".
Jan. 11 – Ep. 20 -- Dems Rush to Protect FBI/CIA + Buttigieg’s Latest Airline Fiasco w/ David Sirota -- https://rumble.com/v24xze6-dems-rush-to-protect-fbicia-buttigiegs-latest-airline-fiasco-w-david-sirota.html -- Dems Leap to Shield FBI & CIA
Boris.
Help an old man explain Leonard Cohen's Anthem.
I grew up in Leonard's Montreal.
Help me explain the Killers in High Places shout your name out loud.
Anthem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8-BT6y_wYg
"That's how the light gets in. That's how the light gets in."
It is hard being a stranger in a strange land. I am autistic and have always been a stranger. I am always from away and always strange.
When I think of strangers in a strange land I think of strange strangers like Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx and Kinky Freidman, Frederick Douglas and Vlodomyr Zelenskiy. I think of Socrates, Jesus and Diogenes.
Somalia is rather mundane. i've talked to Somalis.
What a curious response, to write away an entire culture and all its inherent complexity as mundane.
Mundane: Of this Earthly World rather than a Heavenly or Spiritual One.
"The boundaries of the mundane world"
America is Fantasyland. I live in the Mundane world where religion and politics are confined to their own place in reality.
Read Mark Twain.
Lol, I am well aware of the definition(s) of mundane. There are multiple, and maybe that is the misunderstanding. I have also read Mark Twain extensively. But still there is nothing within my own knowledge of Somalia and Somali culture which would lead me to consider it mundane, regardless of which definition you use. Consider it then a deep difference of opinion.
You can't have studied Twain.
Twain wrote of devolution.
We are the lowest of the low.
We are the only animal that blushes or needs to blush.
I can't imagine a worse Messiah than Hailie Selassie.
I visited a Jamaican Rastafarian retreat in Jamaica.
I love the Rastafarians but what a poor excuse for a Messiah.
Jesus is a Great Messiah but what a poor excuse for Christians are his followers.
We'll leave it at "you can't have studied Twain." That is enough for me.
Thank you
Hebrews II verse one
Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Why is Somalia mundane? Refugees that rather than going from the proverbial "frying pan to the fire" are escaping the "fire to the American frying pan", With the flames licking at the edges in the ghetto projects of racist America. The first police were slave patrols. After the civil war slaves were turned from loyal and hard working "darkies" into thieves and rapists using vagrancy charges to incarcerate and used in chain gangs! He pointed out that White tribalism and fear of their brutal past treatment is driving it. For example Shaq was doing home security commercials and they would put a tiny old white woman beside him. Need I say more?
Jim,
Mundane is not pejorative it is human.
I agree entirely with what you say.
Somalians desreve to live the life they choose it is calleed liberal democracy.
That is the same liberal democracy America promises but doesn't deliver.
My take on Ukraine is tempered by my life experiences.
I remember when most Quebecers were uneducated and poor.
We had a revolution.
The Churches lost all power and the corporations left for greener pastures.
Without the yoke of Pax America we area dynamic , wealthy and vibrant diverse society with the right to live the way we choose.
We have affordable healthcare, the right to all the education we want and we are Democratic and socialist.
We own the land and we the people make ALL the decisions.
Sometime the people make mistakes but we have real governments and constitutions written in 18th century English need to evolve in an evolving World.
Ethiopia, Somalia Biafra or whatever we call it deserve a shot to be run for THEIR people not coupon clippers in Texas or Toronto.
America is not liberal democratic it is oligarchic but it isn't a colony.
The war in Ukraine is between two Empires and Ukraine wants only to be Ukrainian.
Somalia, Eygpt and Haiti want only what Quebec has achieved.
American defense spending protects America only against the will of the people.
We cannot fight the American military and neither can you.
Anarchy however is worse than assimilation with the BORG.
Let us talk about Wounded Knee or Sharpsville or Biafra.
Let us talk about what is the matter with Kansas and The John Birch Society, The "Right to work" and the first family of Wichita.