The global ruling class is cementing into place a world where they govern without accountability, we are reduced to serfdom, the climate crisis accelerates, and mass death is normalized.
I try to read Chris Hedges’ comments with some degree of skepticism, or at least an educated sense of balance. But the truth is that every word rings true, every thought rings true, and worst of all, historically, the world we live in is the world that people like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and Cornell West, have warned us about four years, decades.
If there is a silver lining it’s that we’re still allowed to say these things in semi-public. Now, everybody, go out and hug a fascist gun nut, a born-again Christian, or a mindless yuppie, and try to share their hopes and pain. Because organizing now is the only hope we’ll ever have, and it’ll take all of us to make a difference. Stratification, atomization, is their strongest weapon. Don’t let them keep splintering, dividing, and marginalizing us.
And Mr. Fish, too, just keeps getting better, doesn’t he? Thank you both.
The headline of this newsletter on Substack "The Triumph of Death: The global ruling class is cementing into place a world where they govern without accountability, we are reduced to serfdom, the climate crisis accelerates, and mass death is normalized."
Do you not see the correlation and conflict between this unaccountable global ruling class and the "climate crisis"?
Do you not see that any and all declared global crises are in fact the catalysts for increasing authoritarian power grabs?
Do you not know that human death from cold weather is 600 times more than is human death from hot weather? What mass death are you agitating against?
Do you know know that all previous alarmist predictions of the dire human consequences of global warming (rebranded to "climate change" for obvious reasons that climate will change again), have failed to materialize, and that climate models are wrong every year and have to be re-calibrated?
Can you not see that the Biden Democrat's policies based on this alarmist view of climate change have caused and are causing more human suffering and misery from the purpose authoritarian rules and policies to make fossil fuel more scarce? We have to ask, who are you and others attempting to save from climate catastrophe, and if you goal is to save them, they why are you harming them?
Do you not know that the US had been making significant progress to reduce C02 emissions without radical attempts to force fossil fuel production, and that most of that progress was due to fracking and natural gas production and use? And while we achieved that benefit in the private sector, people like Elon Musk was also advancing other technology to help improve sustainable energy use options.
Do you know that the US electric grid cannot support over 10% of drivers having electric automobiles?
Do you know that sustainable energy alternatives for many essential industries like farming and trucking are decades away? And do you know that death from starvation is anticipated to increase significantly in the coming years... and mostly due to the over-reaction of policy makers to the "climate crises" where the cost of fertilizer has doubled and will likely quadruple.
I think you both empower the same unaccountable globalist government that you decry, and contribute to the human death that you decry... by decrying "climate crisis".
Lastly, where do you stand on the use of nuclear power? France seems to be fine with it.
Right now there is massive flooding in Montana, major heat waves in the south, major forest fires in Arizona and other parts of the coutry and a major drought in Utah and the southwest so thar Salt Lake City is running out of water all resulting from the pouring of dirty carbon into the environment . The alarmist predictions concerning climate change has materialized! There certainly is a climate crisis!
Your comment shows a lack of respect and that you don’t know what you are taling about. You present no evidence to refute the examples I gave. Also don’t call me son unless you are older than me, which would mean you are eighty plus.
I did not present narrative, i presented evidence of major climate catastrophe. So major flooding, forest fires, droughts, and heat waves, all predicted as a result of burning fossils is nothing and just a figment of my imagination?
So, if you were a Greenlander about 1100 years ago enjoying the warmer temperatures would you have had the same "evidence"?
For your alarmist opinion to be proven you would need to connect the activities of man to these cherry-picked climate events. You would also need to catalogue and calculate the history of climate events in these areas to determine the variable outside the average and mean.
And lastly, you should open up your thinking apparatus to identify the actual problem you are alarmist about, and then consider the consequences of the reactions to solve that alarmist problem... are they really solving the problem, or creating a bigger mess?
Scientists have concluded based on their "theory" of anthropogenic global warming that if the entire world stopped burning fossil fuel today, the earth would still continue to warm for at least 50 years.
So, if you are prone to faithfulness to the Gods of climate science, then you would also have to comply with this part of the scientific climate change scripture.
Truly intelligent and objective people can conclude that chasing this organic energy scarcity reaction is clear indication that the practitioners of the alarmist cult of climate change are a hazard to humanity. If we cannot stop warming in its tracks, then ALL of our efforts should be on adaption to the changing climate and not fake virtue signaling feel-good attempts to eliminate organic energy before we have adequate alternatives to meet the needs of humanity.
With all due respect, you are absolutely wrong about the climate catastrophe. Unfortunately I don't think there's anything anyone can say that will change your position though. You have decided--based not on science but on, well that is the question.
Frank I totally agree with you about the over-reaction of political powers to deal with the climate change. The infrastructure cannot support electrical automobiles at the rate we are going. I really think society is in decline, like Rome before the fall. We need to proceed carefully in dealing with climate issues. Not continue to crash and burn with reactive measures that have not been thought out and are politically driven. The perpetual state of looming crisis we are fed by media, corporations and political powers is keeping us paralyzed by fear and apathy. I must admit I struggle daily with how we can collectively make a difference or if it's even possible at this point.
We have been making a difference without drastic and hazardous policy based on a fanatical view, and that is the trend. I fully believe that the power behind this anthropogenic global warming crisis narrative is the globalist corporatist cabal, and it owns the media and has been spoon feeding the narrative to media consumers and too many have just adopted it as a great tribal acceptance virtue signaling orgasm. Bill Gates buys up a bunch of farmland and then goes on tour to shame us into eating synthetic meat... business that he is also heavily invested in. The billionaires are in the best position to leverage these changes and they are forcing them.
Consider that all reasonable people support reductions in pollution of all types, and they all accept the benefits of alternative energy that meets their needs. But forcing scarcity of our existing organic fuel production is madness as the alternatives do not yet exist in quantity and quality to sustain the population.
Yes exactly. I think we should encourage and politically promote innovation and creativity instead of panic and impulsivity to address the problem. This reactive and as you say "fanatical" hysteria that is currently happening will cost us immensely. I just read a book called False Alarm about this very issue. Emotions dull intelligence. And we are reacting in the most bizarre emotional mind. Bill Gates is one of the biggest hypocrites around. We in Canada have Justin Trudeau and his incompetent cabinet. Corruption incompetency is what I call it.
A few months ago started looking into the man made climate change theory seeing little reason to think it was false. The more and more I dig, it surprisingly looks like just another racket. Things like the IPCC "revising" old numbers down. Or using less accurate temperature measurements. And the associated financial ties are remarkable.
Unfortunately, it seems difficult to find highly objective, unloaded language from either viewpoint. It's difficult to investigate the veracity of evidence as a non-scientist when getting told of your stupidity by both sides. Most people here probably agree that one should be highly skeptical of "debunking" or "fact-checking" articles from places such as Politifact, Snopes, Reuters, etc. Yet that healthy skepticism oddly doesn't seem to extend to the man made climate change hypothesis.
I really don't know what to believe about anything. I am sure there must be some benefit to those in power to keep the underlings in a state of perpetual confusion. For me, I notice a sense of numbness, followed by despair and apathy with the occasional dose of anger at the blatant corruption within the systems of power. This ultimately creates a state of learned helplessness. I find it harder by the day to see much good. That being said, I live in a safe province surrounded by friendly people overlooking a beautiful river. My husband thinks I spend too much time on the internet. He is probably right. I can't seem to let go of the foreboding sense we are on the brink of something where there will be no going back and it won't be due to climate change. The masses are being subverted. Soon there will be no memory of freedom in the generations to come.
Thank you. I appreciate your effort. Unfortunately, these are not reliable sources for technical scientific information, nor do they, themselves, provide citations to any peer-reviewed articles or other publicly reliable sources of science.
If you're feeling adventurous, consider checking out:
Frankly, if you can pull your head out of your navel for a minute, listen up.
I wrote a book in the Seventies where I said that we were in a devolutionary stage with 50 namable way we could go down and it was probably an as yet unconstructed surprise that would do it. And here you are, beaming your light on one that suits you. Well, why not. Most people can't even count up to one, being oblivious and zeroed into zero.
There was a time when societal leaders were cruel and ruthless and rich and rapists and corrupt and devastatingly incompetent, etc. But if we went on and named fifty more sociatal-crushing acts it was rarely ant one that caused the empire or nation or false democracy to return to dust. It was normally an interwoven set of failures as America and many other country have today.
It's not that Biden speaks better than Trump or that he can even read. It's not that the entire Germanic lineage of the Bush family were better educated and perhaps more ruthlessly directed than the Clintons than the Clintons nor even that an ill-equipped little pol from South Chicago flared up like a candle just before it goes out thinking he'd make a difference for the Afro-Americans or that Mrs. Buttageig felt she would cement the rise of her beleagured group by accepting the Peter Principle mantle.
I've lived among tribes that had no written language who were better equipped to survive, better educated for their environments than any of the last 4 or 5 decades of Americans have been. We, collectively were taught by Reagan that the sole leisure of success is ho much money you make. That's true with a painter, a teacher or a broker in Goldman-Sachs.
We of the middle or upper economic class had 30 years of fun after WW II, but we poked one stick after another into the body of our country and the world. They stabbed education, drove every available group away from any other, raised egos beyond usability and competition to the point of deathliness and invented regime change and endless war.
We became a sorry lot and try as you might there's no One person, no One group or condition to blame, but our ignorance for being led by Bushes and Clinton Clintons (she still owns the DNC and bears the responsibility for destroying Assange.)
Furthermore, it's probably too late to do anything about it, so keep smoking dope so you can forget you peed on the floor, pooed on the couch or mistook a girl for a guy.
There's not even the energy for a revolution. Enjoy a butterfly- if you can find one.
"Can you not see that the Biden Democrat's policies based on this alarmist view of climate change have caused and are causing more human suffering and misery from the purpose authoritarian rules and policies to make fossil fuel more scarce?"
Can you give a specific example of a Biden policy that is making fossil fuel more scarce? For instance: restrictions on pipelines; restrictions on drilling in public land; restrictions on permits; restrictions on drilling geographically?
Really? Why would I do the work for you that is easy enough for you to do yourself?
He just denied a permit for a refinery expansion. He said during his campaign that he would eliminate fossil fuels. He has denied permits in the gulf and on millions of acres of federal land. He has increased regulations on franking and other related activities related to exploration and production. He canceled the Keystone Pipeline. The denial here is fantastic. It is really the crux of the Democrat problem that will get them pummeled in upcoming elections. The MSM ignores certain reporting and amplifies other reporting and good Democrats run around believing that this tells them all they need to know. And they push the absurd and ignore the truth and facts... like they put their heads in the sand. Meanwhile everyone else sees it clearly and their anger is boiling over... not only at the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress, but the Democrats in general that keep denying the train wreck happening.
I don't disagree. Hedges is right. But what exactly is advocated by "... unless those who control us are wrenched from power"? We all know that working through the System is a farce and a laugh. The System is just a red-and-blue-colored mummer's show for the United Corporations of America. So what, then? A passive resistance? A revolution? Of what type? Assuming you could wake people up and get them off the couch long enough to storm the streets, violent revolutions have very uncertain outcomes; they routinely devolve into pure chaos that guarantees nothing except a whole lot of death and atrocity (not that things are super-duper now, but you get my point; people are either complacent or feel powerless). And those revolutions almost always get stomped into the ground by the military anyway. So what, then? Massive resistance? A unified front of labor workers and a real Labor Party? That seems unlikely too. How do you combat a unified front of multi-billionaires who control the media, the police, the government, and probably the military? Is it any wonder people are either dialed-out or flailing for ideas?
Hedges has repeatedly written to oppose violence and violent revolutions. He has written many times of non-violent civil disobedience and massive direct action - protests, boycotts, strikes, etc to shut the system down until it concedes. There's no lack of ideas, but a lack of organizing for mobilization. Many progressive and left and "activist" groups are either overtly corrupted by corporate money or they are sheep of the Democratic Party and limited to electoral politics (or consumed by identity politics or what Hedges calls "boutique politics").
You categorize protests as "no lack of ideas," but what we lack for, even most, are good ideas. All the talk is about what's wrong, but there is a paucity of thinking about what else could be done -- by we-the-people, us. Its a topic that would be good for CH to open for us, setting his intelligent audience to being creative together and not just reacting to the ills he writes so well about. Let's see if we have ideas for how to do some "organizing for mobilization!"
There are many similar radical solutions to housing, food, transportation, education, healthcare, peace, land preservation, et cetera. We don't lack ideas, we lack power, courage, solidarity, integrity, organizing, etc.
What I was characterizing was how we don't have ideas for how to implement life-giving solutions. It's akin to how to get global warming taken seriously. The question I lead with is, "If you ran the country (or the world), what would you do?" People talk about what's wrong and how we need to fix things, but they don't have ideas for how to make changes happen.
A US or world dictator is not a desirable solution, as you imply with that silly question.
Obviously, you missed my point and didn't even take the time to read the link I posted about a real world solution, using existing technology and governing institutions.
Now, now. Don't take lessons from e. pierce. Stay nice. You don't know me so I'll at least tell you I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from NYU. I'm saying that to get your attention to dealing with what we the people could actually make happen. Maybe read it again, bearing in mind it comes from a super intelligent source.
You seem to be attracted to me since you are following me around. However this seems to be a cut and paste of what you've said before, which is no way to woo me. Please stay original in your responses. Would you like an invite to my cult? The entry fee is very reasonable.
Any type of violence, or even traditional protest plays right into the hands of the owner-rulers, who thrive on conflict and violence. I think the only thing that could be effective would be something like mass refusal to participate, over an extended period of time; and in a very quiet, stoic and resolute fashion. Take the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and apply it to everything, including refusal to use any corporate-controlled media or other services. Painful, disruptive, unthinkable; and so, unlikely. And that's why the empire continues on; and our childrens' lives continue into futher dystopia.
I agree that mass refusal to participate is likely to work, though, as you said, unlikely to happen. I live in Appalachia among some of the poorest in the nation, and one of the last things they can ill afford to do is engage in a "mass refusal to participate, over an extended period of time" -- as much as I wish we could. So many people live paycheck to paycheck, and with children to feed and rent to pay, civil disobedience over an extended period is a plan they just can't do -- as you said, its cost is too "painful." The elites can afford to wait all of us out.
Sera's comment says it all about the truth contained in this report, and yes, "organizing now is the only hope humanity will ever have, and it'll take all of us to make a difference." That's the only pathway to survival and the time to begin is NOW! The ruling class will kill us all, including themselves, with their greedy, mad design of forever wars, mendacious plutocratic government structures and predatory capitalist exploitation of the planet's finite resources. It's like an alcoholic's compulsion to drink, a consumptive quest for fulfillment that can only end in insanity and death. It's an ugly, tragic diagnosis, but at least with journalists of integrity like Hedges and Fish presenting the evidence, we'll know the causes of our catastrophic demise.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
Those who possess the emotional and intellectual fortitude to face what lies before them will always be in the minority. There is a numbing comfort that comes with surrendering moral autonomy for abject servility and obedience, and this comfort is especially attractive in a crisis.
Because of the disproportionate amount spent on the military, Americans must endure the neglect of environmental needs, the financial insolvency and decay of our cities, the deterioration of our transportation, education, and health care systems, and the devastating effects of unemployment and underemployment upon millions of households and hundreds of communities. In addition, there are the frightful social and psychological costs, the discouragement and decline of public morale, (anomie) the anger and suffering of the poor and the not-so-poor, the militarization and violence of popular culture, ubiquitous presence of the protean security and surveillance apparatus, and the application of increasingly authoritarian solutions to our social ills….
If we are to mobilize resistance to the empire, we must appeal not only to people’s moral values but to their self-interest (and I do not mean their selfishness). People may rally around the banners of empire when convinced that their security and survival are at stake. They will not choose morality if they think it brings endangerment to them and their loved ones. Nor will they choose disarmament and peaceful conversions if they think it will show weakness and invite aggression against themselves and their families.
So they must be shown that the republic is being bled for the empire’s profits, not for their well-being. That real national security means secure jobs, safe homes, healthcare for all, access to higher education without incurring debt peonage, and a clean environment. They must be informed that this empire, which is paid for by their blood, sweat, and taxes, has little to do with protecting them or people abroad and everything to do with victimizing them in order to feed the power and profits of the few. The global military apparatus they grudgingly support at such immense costs to the national treasury, does not serve their interests. To cut it drastically will not leave us prey to some foreign adversaries. On the contrary, to lay down the sword and use our labor and national treasure for the peaceful reconstruction so desperately needed at home and abroad is not to become a weak nation but a truly great one.
Mainstream pundits and propagandists label our desire to move away from corporate militarism and imperial domination as weakness, folly, isolationism, or self-defeating pacifism and yes, even treasonous. But there is another name for the course of action that aims to wrest the wealth and power out of the hands of the military-industrial complex, the protean security and surveillance apparatus, and the Davos jetting World Economic Forum players, and give it back to the people so that they become the agents of their own lives and social conditions: it is called democracy, the victory of the republic, the consent of the governed over the empire.
In this series, I've criticized Chris Hedges because I've read the same sort of thing for quite some time now. One cannot change a corrupt civilization strictly through moralizing. There is plenty of information out their which helps to provide evidence of corruption and malfeasance. Bring that to light.
To imagine that the US will abandon its so-called Empire is at this moment a pipe dream. Too much has been invested in Europe, Japan, and South Korea to imagine that much will change in the near term. What can change is where money is spent. New aircraft carriers? Why, that is technology from 100 years ago. More tanks? Why, they are easy targets for missiles and drones.
None of us can do much about this except to challenge those running for office on why their agenda's meet the needs of the people of the US. This nation through its policies immiserated millions as entire industries were sent off shore. Rather than investing in the best tools and processes it was infinitely easier to import goods from lower cost countries. As Americans we were all complicit in this. mers since alternatives were few and far between. How does one change this dynamic?
How does one change the revolving door in Washington? I never heard this before this past Friday but apparently, one Curtis Wright of the FDA left the Agency for a job at Purdue Pharma. He was very involved in the review and approval process of Oxycontin back in the 1990s.
We don't need anymore evidence that Congress is corrupt. That is a given. I think everyone knows that. They never pass bills concerning the issues Americans have clearly favored. Providing more evidence of ruling class crimes is unnecessary and a waste of time.
Likewise, 'voting out the bums' just gets new bums like the squad elected. They say progressive things, then become Nancy Pelosi's lap dogs within a year. I think it's pretty obvious that electoral politics is now a dead-end. Corporations have it all locked up.
Look at the revolutionary literature for the way forward. It's out there. Don't make the mistake of thinking what happens in Washington, D.C., is real. It's just more meaningless spectacle. Court intrigues that are the political equivalent of Kardashian reality TV.
Without revolution, the way forward is the continued atomization of American society. Large areas of large cities are already de facto open air prisons, just with virtual walls. Private, militarized police forces will enforce boundaries in the system of internal colonization that corporate America and fascists inflict. I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, and by comparison, today's U.S. is already a dystopian nightmare for anyone without private means.
Cowards who continue to think that the way to deal with America's problems is to elect a new set of thieves to Congress, or who think revolution will bring the military on them simply haven't been paying attention. When is Joe Biden going to be "pulled left?" And the military is always is used by the ruling class against protestors and strikers.
Once you become desperate enough you will see how little of what passes as "politics" in the U.S. has meaning for your life. The solutions are elsewhere.
"They never pass bills concerning the issues Americans have clearly favored. Providing more evidence of ruling class crimes is unnecessary and a waste of time."
Only if you are lazy and sit on your ass. Decision making needs data, apart from sitting around in mutual misery, how else does one tease out the true sociopaths? Label all as enemies is an extremely ineffective means of shifting power. It also is nihilistic and cynical.
"Once you become desperate enough you will see how little of what passes as "politics" in the U.S. has meaning for your life. The solutions are elsewhere." "Elsewhere", where? No one outside of your civilization will save you. Exploit you most definitely but save you, forget it.
"I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, and by comparison, today's U.S. is already a dystopian nightmare for anyone without private means." I agree completely. I'm lucky and wish that people had the opportunities that existed in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Look at the revolutionary literature for the way forward..."
No thank you, I've had my fill of revolutionary zeal and nonsense. The so-called revolution of the 1960s and 1970s in the US quickly slipped into oblivion as the "radicals" switched to Armani suits and Wall Street.
I don't need a different group of closet aristocrats and sociopaths with words about "freedom" and "the people" on their lips. The chaos created in France with the Reign of Terror and the Russian Civil War are evidence enough that some revolutions create immense destruction in their wake.
- The people have been turned into "hosts" (a food source - rent payers) for the 1% parasites (leeches - rent collectors) by the re-establishment of the "West Virginia Coal Mine Experience"™ (circa 1900). See Earned Vs. Unearned income
by incrementally monopolizing (privatizing)necessities (food, water, shelter, utilities, even information), by debt expansion, and by wage suppression: we now work in their company "mines" (cube farms, whatever), live in their company housing (mortgage, rent) shop in their company store (credit card debt), and pay MONOPOLY prices for basic necessities.
Literally, cradle to grave slavery to a small collection of "Nanny" Transnational Corporations (all owned at the top by a handful of the Davos jetting World Economic Forum, transnational investor class.)
Rick, From your query I can only conclude you did not read my second post. In it there is a paragraph that begins with, “If we are to mobilize resistance to the empire, we must…
I live in a rural community in Texas & the poverty I see here has been accelerating. The local school needs repairs but it’s impossible to pass a bond issue because it would raise taxes on the farms & ranches. What I do see as a hopeful sign is volunteering & grassroots fundraising to mitigate the shortfall.
The Four Horsemen illustration by Mr Fish is perfect for this article.
In my opinion, a functional human society is any group of self-organized human beings that can survive; and the nature of empire is control, through the imposition of force. Within the empire that controls the geographies in which we exist, all human societies are, to varying degrees, dysfunctional; but I don't believe this dysfunction to be because they have, somehow, developed erroneous ways of behavior that have caused the dysfunction. I think the dysfunction is an inherent design feature; because within this empire, no functional society can ever be allowed to exist, as any functional society is, by definition, self-organized and capable of survival; and this will always, and correctly, be considered a threat to imperial control.
Any functional society threatens the empire; so it must be destroyed. Any functional society threatens the empire; so it will be destroyed. Orwell was spot on.
I think Chris is absolutely right in his observations here about the world. I can’t imagine why anyone who agrees would ever want to bring a child into this world because of it. But I also believe the mainstream media’s corruption has been exposed sufficiently enough that if there is enough work put in, an actual honest politician can succeed without the need of mass media coverage, which so far appeared impossible for a presidential candidate to have a chance without it.Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Sanders, and Tulsi Gabbard are the candidates who suffered from this come to mind. And obviously, the majority of professional politicians aren’t trustworthy. The ideal candidate for the job of U.S. president to me would be one who would be vocal about and actively participate in class struggles and protests such as protesting the military industrial complex, fight for free health care, etc. One such person considering running is someone Chris knows well who may be a good choice. Unfortunately, this person has said on camera that they have a weakness for big money and that the job appeals to their ego, reasons that make me suspicious of them. Otherwise, I would immediately support this person. I agree with Chris that change in the world should come from the grassroots. At the same time, it’s important to at least try to elect honest and moral people in government. I wonder if Chris knows who I’m describing. Anyway, I think the devastation of the world in all the ways Chris described here is apparent enough to most people by now that an honest candidate has a chance despite what looks to many like an impossible accomplishment without the support of Oligarchy owned media.
The winner-take-all, zero sum capitalism that America and Western Europe have devolved in to, has a hard time understanding the Eastern philosophical perspective on capitalism that works to mutually benefit countries, companies, workers and citizens. You may call the Chinese working conditions as 'sweatshops' but as an American worker, I am jealous that they do not have to fear being unhoused or hungry and can retire with dignity. American work conditions may include air conditioning, but the sweat of fear cannot be discounted. In it's relations with sovereign nations, China recognizes differences, strengths and ways to benefit all stakeholders. American capitalism only works to benefit shareholders.
I hold out hope that after a period of deep depression/recession the US and Western Europe will be forced to join the new world order and the WEF, World Bank, Wall Street and MIC are mere memories of a time past, as the iceman and telegraph operators have become.
That is a very naive view of the "Eastern philosophical perspective". The caste system in India and tens of millions dead in the Great Leap forward stand in opposition to your position.
How do you know that Chinese workers retire with dignity?
China recognizes differences, strengths and ways to benefit all stakeholders? How do you know this is true?
China has done well at bringing millions out of poverty; however, this is in large part because of a betrayal of the American worker through policies effectuated in Washington over the past 30+ years. If you are seriously interested in supporting workers in America don't buy as much and what you buy should be made in the civilization you live in. Check the internet there are alternatives.
It seems to me the billionaire class is content to create a hell on earth. They are really foolish enough to think it won’t touch them. History says otherwise. I think the other end of their thinking is that they are aware of everything going wrong but think they are entitled to get theirs before it all falls apart. They are living up to the saying “money is the root of all evil” and “total power corrupts totally”. We the people are caught in their self serving net and we are just food for fodder to them. We are expendable if we’re not doing their will. They manage to find just enough cooperative people in the general population to keep pushing their agenda. At some point in the middle of the carnage that is on the horizon these same people will be aghast and wonder how this could happen to their neighbors and family members. History is repeating itself only on a global scale.
Seriously apples and oranges. Your comment is sanctimonious, arrogant and more than likely hypocritical. Stop pushing to support a dying empire through marketing to only buy US goods because well good luck with that. If you have the means to do that good for you. Many don’t. I try to buy us made items but have found that a lot of times those are only assembled here not manufactured. The stuff that is manufactured is still using materials sourced from....wait for it...China!
The jobs that exist in the U.S. don't pay enough for people to buy American. Of course there are some exceptions. Almost all the good jobs in manufacturing were sent overseas or to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor. The jobs that replaced those high-paying manufacturing jobs are in the service sector, which pay much less. Americans don't make anything anymore.
I'm not sure why a full-time working person should have to go to a flea market to buy clothing, etc. In the 1960s, my wife's grandfather was the sole supporter for his wife and 4 children. They had a modest house, and did all this on his working-class job with the local telephone company. If you would have asked them to rely on others, they would have been insulted.
So, you can't afford to buy from China, and working people are being asked to accept the crumbs that fall from the ruling class's table. This is how desperate Americans have become; they think their individual consumer habits are important (they aren't) and many are currently watching a video about shipping container homes.
Americans hopes for the future have been so thoroughly depressed by the ruling class that I think they will accept anything that comes along now without much fuss.
"The jobs that exist in the U.S. don't pay enough for people to buy American." For many this is true but not for all. I am fortunate, I can afford to buy some articles of daily living which are made in the US.
"I'm not sure why a full-time working person should have to go to a flea market to buy clothing, etc." Did you have parents who grew up during the Great Depression? My mom saved tinfoil, rubber bands, and plastic bags well into her 90s. Naturally people don't like the idea of going to flea market (I don't have to); however, that at least keeps the money in your local area of residence.
"Slavery" has come to American once again in drips and over decades. For anyone who buys a product made in China, I say: 1) you are supporting an authoritarian regimen with no labor laws or environmental laws that are enforced (as least not yet); and 2) You put money in the pockets of your oppressors. The people who lobbied for and effectuated the policies for the deindustrialization of the US make money on the skim. They take a tiny piece with each purchase. They set up the Walmarts, the Amazons, and off shored millions of factory jobs. Their policies immiserated millions of Americans.
You cannot run an effective revolution in the 21st century if you are a part of an inchoate mass running after any and all little bourgeoisie. The real sociopaths remain hidden. One needs names and as Chris Hedges has pointed out mass action. The January 6th riot at the Capital was about a lot more than just a bunch of Proud Boys or Oath Keepers. It was about 30 years of failure of the existing Power Elite. They'll hide that fact as much as possible but it is true.
"Stop pushing to support a dying empire..." That seems rather sanctimonious to me. This is particularly when on considers that today's "corporatism" is a part of that so-called "dying empire". As far as hypocritical, one can only do what one can. There are a growing number of goods made in the US. In a globalized economy some components will come from almost anywhere in the world; however, if some of the work is done here that benefits people who live here; in the civilization you live in and presumably benefit from.
As far as "surreptitiously made in China" - That stemmed from personal experience. Stanley has a website advertising "Made in America". My wife purchased an aluminum coffee mug for somewhere around $40.00. Upon arrival, I checked the label: "Made in China." We sent it back. I'm not going to pay $40.00 for something made in China. Were I to not have obtained a refund not only would have been supporting a mendacious bit of advertising but also a corporate policy that obtains goods from an authoritarian regime with virtually no labor or environmental laws (at least none that are enforced at this time).
Are you the Rick of Rick's Cafe in the fabulously insightful film "Casablanca" which at the ending scene Rick and Capt. Renault go off to fight the effin right-wing pathology of the NAZIs, Rick??
I find reading the comments as interesting as reading Chris’ commentaries. They display the serious differences that exist in this country as well as how our views are shaped by the Western media. There are several unarguable truths that Hedges has been stating for years. We are governed by a criminally corrupt and morally bankrupt ruling elite and that climate change, regardless of the causes is very real and endangering the entire planet and our very existence on it. We are living in a world historic time where the world is splitting into two separate universes. One is led by the declining U.S. NATO empire which is desperately trying to maintain a unipolar world under its complete control through wars and economic blackmail. The other is the emergence of a Eurasian Empire being formed now under China and Russia’s leadership that makes up more than half the world’s population and includes India, Iran, Brazil, Venezuela, and many other countries that refused to back the U.S. NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. It appears from the actions and from talks of Russian and Chinese leadership that their focus is on not only economic growth but in non interference in other country’s internal affairs and respect for individual cultures. How this struggle plays out will largely determine the future of humanity. One thing is certain, it is out of our control now, as the US government is completely under the control of the Military Industrial Complex and Wall Street.
"It appears from the actions and from talks of Russian and Chinese leadership that their focus is on not only economic growth but in non interference in other country’s internal affairs and respect for individual cultures."
Except when it comes to the Ukraine, Chechnya, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang province, etc. All civilizations struggle with modernity and improving the living standards of their people. On the one hand America should not become an isolationist power and on the other hand it has much to repair here at home.
Rick...Your comment is based solely on the Western propaganda that we are constantly bombarded with. I would venture to guess that you know very little about each of the complex areas mentioned in it, other than what you’ve garnered from the mainstream media.
There is no validity to Western Propaganda as you term it.
I suppose that the great upheavals of both Russian and Chinese civilizations during the 20th century are purely "propaganda"? Those were civil wars of a sort; however, Russian Imperialism has been well documented. China has not been a global Imperialist power but it certainly has had disputes with its neighbors. Both India and Vietnam being two examples. Nothing on the scale of European conflicts or the conflicts within their own borders but not exactly peaceful interchanges.
Perhaps you listen too much to anti-Western propaganda. If you think that said propaganda is free of the intentions of those who produce it then perhaps you need to study more history.
The world is evolving. Both Russia and China are far from perfect but the great enemy facing us now is the US and NATO which have over 1,000 bases around the world and waste over a trillion dollars a year on military spending. The U.S. is by far the largest supplier of arms around the world. NATO should have been dissolved when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact disbanded. Instead it has steadily surrounded Russia and has become the global police force of Western global domination. There was nothing defensive about NATO’s assaults on Libya, Yugoslavia and Serbia, nor its training and arming Nazis in Ukraine. Nor is there anything defensive about NATO challenging China over Taiwan and control of the S. China Seas. All this has accomplished has been to forge a close alliance between China and Russia to protect themselves from U.S. domination and cause them to work towards building a Eurasian Empire outside of Western control. In effect, they no longer care what we think as they are breaking away from the west along with a few billion people in Eurasia. India and China alone have close to 2.5 billion people and Russia is a commodity powerhouse. They don’t need us anymore.
Of course the world is evolving. A good bit of that evolution has come from Western investment (done in its perceived interests) in both China and Russia. If China and Russia desire their own civilization independent of the West, no issue on my part. That acknowledged I'm not sure their interests will be limited to their geographic space. How is NATO "challenging" China over Taiwan and the South China Sea, apart from stressing that unification should be peaceful and with the consent of the Taiwanese? Taiwan which has been separate from mainland Chinese administration now for over 125 years (first Japan and then the Kuomintang) may have different interests from Beijing. If the people living in Taiwan desire unification with China then this is their decision. Chinese civilization is allegedly very patient. Perhaps in 10-100 years Taiwan may very well consider unification to be in its interests.
I don't think it likely that Taiwan will willing become a part of China, but who knows. The Han Chinese in Taiwan are the same ethnicity as Beijing's current leadership; however, their political systems have diverged. Something very similar occurred in US history. As for Russia, well the geographic area called the Ukraine has always been an area of conflict. Similar ethnicity but different political aspirations.
We could argue this forever. We all pick and chose and interpret history to justify our world view. I am aware that I am also subject to this phenomenon. I just repeat that how we think about this doesn’t matter anymore as these decisions have already been made by the great powers involved. We are mere pawns and spectators, and hopefully will not become victims of this rapidly changing dynamic. Chris Hedges has been brilliant in documenting the decline of the U.S. empire which is responsible for this. Here’s the declaration made by China and Russia back in February when Putin met Xi at the start of the Beijing Olympics…. https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/16/joint-russia-china-statement-articulates-united-opposition-to-western-alliance/
It is hard for me to comment they say I am autistic and I don't understand what that means exactly. In August of 2018 the headline read Canada stands alone against the world. Today Canada stands with 20 other countries as Full Democracies and the United States is not among us.
I try to read Chris Hedges’ comments with some degree of skepticism, or at least an educated sense of balance. But the truth is that every word rings true, every thought rings true, and worst of all, historically, the world we live in is the world that people like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and Cornell West, have warned us about four years, decades.
If there is a silver lining it’s that we’re still allowed to say these things in semi-public. Now, everybody, go out and hug a fascist gun nut, a born-again Christian, or a mindless yuppie, and try to share their hopes and pain. Because organizing now is the only hope we’ll ever have, and it’ll take all of us to make a difference. Stratification, atomization, is their strongest weapon. Don’t let them keep splintering, dividing, and marginalizing us.
And Mr. Fish, too, just keeps getting better, doesn’t he? Thank you both.
Personally I listen to Kinky Friedman in 1970 till today. He is a serious prophet. He is Chomsky on steroids. He is Diogenes.
Sera - I resemble, uh, resent, you remark about mindless yuppies. ;-)
Not all of us have lost our revolutionary fervor, we're just a bit older and slower.
Letter to Chris.
Dear Chris,
The headline of this newsletter on Substack "The Triumph of Death: The global ruling class is cementing into place a world where they govern without accountability, we are reduced to serfdom, the climate crisis accelerates, and mass death is normalized."
Do you not see the correlation and conflict between this unaccountable global ruling class and the "climate crisis"?
Do you not see that any and all declared global crises are in fact the catalysts for increasing authoritarian power grabs?
Do you not know that human death from cold weather is 600 times more than is human death from hot weather? What mass death are you agitating against?
Do you know know that all previous alarmist predictions of the dire human consequences of global warming (rebranded to "climate change" for obvious reasons that climate will change again), have failed to materialize, and that climate models are wrong every year and have to be re-calibrated?
Can you not see that the Biden Democrat's policies based on this alarmist view of climate change have caused and are causing more human suffering and misery from the purpose authoritarian rules and policies to make fossil fuel more scarce? We have to ask, who are you and others attempting to save from climate catastrophe, and if you goal is to save them, they why are you harming them?
Do you not know that the US had been making significant progress to reduce C02 emissions without radical attempts to force fossil fuel production, and that most of that progress was due to fracking and natural gas production and use? And while we achieved that benefit in the private sector, people like Elon Musk was also advancing other technology to help improve sustainable energy use options.
Do you know that the US electric grid cannot support over 10% of drivers having electric automobiles?
Do you know that sustainable energy alternatives for many essential industries like farming and trucking are decades away? And do you know that death from starvation is anticipated to increase significantly in the coming years... and mostly due to the over-reaction of policy makers to the "climate crises" where the cost of fertilizer has doubled and will likely quadruple.
I think you both empower the same unaccountable globalist government that you decry, and contribute to the human death that you decry... by decrying "climate crisis".
Lastly, where do you stand on the use of nuclear power? France seems to be fine with it.
Yours truly,
Frank
Right now there is massive flooding in Montana, major heat waves in the south, major forest fires in Arizona and other parts of the coutry and a major drought in Utah and the southwest so thar Salt Lake City is running out of water all resulting from the pouring of dirty carbon into the environment . The alarmist predictions concerning climate change has materialized! There certainly is a climate crisis!
Your comment shows a lack of respect and that you don’t know what you are taling about. You present no evidence to refute the examples I gave. Also don’t call me son unless you are older than me, which would mean you are eighty plus.
What "evidence" did YOU present? All I see is narrative. No data, much less a meta-narrative analysis.
A lot of "green" ideology is corrupt bullshit, corporate greenwashing.
This exposes an even deep level of "green" corporate corruption:
https://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
I did not present narrative, i presented evidence of major climate catastrophe. So major flooding, forest fires, droughts, and heat waves, all predicted as a result of burning fossils is nothing and just a figment of my imagination?
So, if you were a Greenlander about 1100 years ago enjoying the warmer temperatures would you have had the same "evidence"?
For your alarmist opinion to be proven you would need to connect the activities of man to these cherry-picked climate events. You would also need to catalogue and calculate the history of climate events in these areas to determine the variable outside the average and mean.
And lastly, you should open up your thinking apparatus to identify the actual problem you are alarmist about, and then consider the consequences of the reactions to solve that alarmist problem... are they really solving the problem, or creating a bigger mess?
Scientists have concluded based on their "theory" of anthropogenic global warming that if the entire world stopped burning fossil fuel today, the earth would still continue to warm for at least 50 years.
So, if you are prone to faithfulness to the Gods of climate science, then you would also have to comply with this part of the scientific climate change scripture.
Truly intelligent and objective people can conclude that chasing this organic energy scarcity reaction is clear indication that the practitioners of the alarmist cult of climate change are a hazard to humanity. If we cannot stop warming in its tracks, then ALL of our efforts should be on adaption to the changing climate and not fake virtue signaling feel-good attempts to eliminate organic energy before we have adequate alternatives to meet the needs of humanity.
https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
How many links to you want to actual scientific analysis that climate change is a scam and a moral panic?
With all due respect, you are absolutely wrong about the climate catastrophe. Unfortunately I don't think there's anything anyone can say that will change your position though. You have decided--based not on science but on, well that is the question.
I have a friend that tells me the same about the coming wrath of Allah.
No, sir, you are incorrect. There is unambiguous scientific basis for climate change.
https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
How many links to you want to actual scientific analysis that climate change is a scam and a moral panic?
All you have to do to discredit your position is to claim that any complex scientific theory is unambiguous and settled.
A better way to discredit one's position is to not post any supporting references or citations.
How many links to you want to actual scientific analysis that climate change is a scam and a moral panic?
https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/10/climate-change-no-its-not-97-percent-consensus-ian-tuttle/
Frank I totally agree with you about the over-reaction of political powers to deal with the climate change. The infrastructure cannot support electrical automobiles at the rate we are going. I really think society is in decline, like Rome before the fall. We need to proceed carefully in dealing with climate issues. Not continue to crash and burn with reactive measures that have not been thought out and are politically driven. The perpetual state of looming crisis we are fed by media, corporations and political powers is keeping us paralyzed by fear and apathy. I must admit I struggle daily with how we can collectively make a difference or if it's even possible at this point.
We have been making a difference without drastic and hazardous policy based on a fanatical view, and that is the trend. I fully believe that the power behind this anthropogenic global warming crisis narrative is the globalist corporatist cabal, and it owns the media and has been spoon feeding the narrative to media consumers and too many have just adopted it as a great tribal acceptance virtue signaling orgasm. Bill Gates buys up a bunch of farmland and then goes on tour to shame us into eating synthetic meat... business that he is also heavily invested in. The billionaires are in the best position to leverage these changes and they are forcing them.
Consider that all reasonable people support reductions in pollution of all types, and they all accept the benefits of alternative energy that meets their needs. But forcing scarcity of our existing organic fuel production is madness as the alternatives do not yet exist in quantity and quality to sustain the population.
Yes exactly. I think we should encourage and politically promote innovation and creativity instead of panic and impulsivity to address the problem. This reactive and as you say "fanatical" hysteria that is currently happening will cost us immensely. I just read a book called False Alarm about this very issue. Emotions dull intelligence. And we are reacting in the most bizarre emotional mind. Bill Gates is one of the biggest hypocrites around. We in Canada have Justin Trudeau and his incompetent cabinet. Corruption incompetency is what I call it.
A few months ago started looking into the man made climate change theory seeing little reason to think it was false. The more and more I dig, it surprisingly looks like just another racket. Things like the IPCC "revising" old numbers down. Or using less accurate temperature measurements. And the associated financial ties are remarkable.
Unfortunately, it seems difficult to find highly objective, unloaded language from either viewpoint. It's difficult to investigate the veracity of evidence as a non-scientist when getting told of your stupidity by both sides. Most people here probably agree that one should be highly skeptical of "debunking" or "fact-checking" articles from places such as Politifact, Snopes, Reuters, etc. Yet that healthy skepticism oddly doesn't seem to extend to the man made climate change hypothesis.
I really don't know what to believe about anything. I am sure there must be some benefit to those in power to keep the underlings in a state of perpetual confusion. For me, I notice a sense of numbness, followed by despair and apathy with the occasional dose of anger at the blatant corruption within the systems of power. This ultimately creates a state of learned helplessness. I find it harder by the day to see much good. That being said, I live in a safe province surrounded by friendly people overlooking a beautiful river. My husband thinks I spend too much time on the internet. He is probably right. I can't seem to let go of the foreboding sense we are on the brink of something where there will be no going back and it won't be due to climate change. The masses are being subverted. Soon there will be no memory of freedom in the generations to come.
https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/
Wow astounding research! If you don't consent that the warming is man-made, then you lose your grant money.
Do you have any supporting sources or citations? Show us how research is really done.
What "research" have you done? All I see is one link, with ZERO analysis of the probability that the source of the information is corrupt.
Actual science is based on skepticism, not conformism and political orthodoxy.
https://www.heritage.org/environment/commentary/follow-the-climate-change-money
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/07/how-they-airbrushed-out-the-inconvenient-pause/
https://dailycaller.com/2017/07/07/new-satellite-data-still-shows-less-global-warming-than-climate-models/?utm_source=site-share
https://thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ef-gast-data-research-report-062717.pdf
https://www.netzerowatch.com/study-finds-temperature-adjustments-account-for-nearly-all-of-recent-warming-in-climate-data-sets/
http://notrickszone.com/2015/02/09/long-list-of-warmist-organizations-scientists-haul-in-huge-money-from-big-oil-and-heavy-industry/
Thank you. I appreciate your effort. Unfortunately, these are not reliable sources for technical scientific information, nor do they, themselves, provide citations to any peer-reviewed articles or other publicly reliable sources of science.
If you're feeling adventurous, consider checking out:
US EPA - https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science
NASA - https://climate.nasa.gov/
Geological Society of America - https://www.geosociety.org/gsa/positions/position10.aspx
How many links to you want to actual scientific analysis that climate change is a scam and a moral panic?
Frankly, if you can pull your head out of your navel for a minute, listen up.
I wrote a book in the Seventies where I said that we were in a devolutionary stage with 50 namable way we could go down and it was probably an as yet unconstructed surprise that would do it. And here you are, beaming your light on one that suits you. Well, why not. Most people can't even count up to one, being oblivious and zeroed into zero.
There was a time when societal leaders were cruel and ruthless and rich and rapists and corrupt and devastatingly incompetent, etc. But if we went on and named fifty more sociatal-crushing acts it was rarely ant one that caused the empire or nation or false democracy to return to dust. It was normally an interwoven set of failures as America and many other country have today.
It's not that Biden speaks better than Trump or that he can even read. It's not that the entire Germanic lineage of the Bush family were better educated and perhaps more ruthlessly directed than the Clintons than the Clintons nor even that an ill-equipped little pol from South Chicago flared up like a candle just before it goes out thinking he'd make a difference for the Afro-Americans or that Mrs. Buttageig felt she would cement the rise of her beleagured group by accepting the Peter Principle mantle.
I've lived among tribes that had no written language who were better equipped to survive, better educated for their environments than any of the last 4 or 5 decades of Americans have been. We, collectively were taught by Reagan that the sole leisure of success is ho much money you make. That's true with a painter, a teacher or a broker in Goldman-Sachs.
We of the middle or upper economic class had 30 years of fun after WW II, but we poked one stick after another into the body of our country and the world. They stabbed education, drove every available group away from any other, raised egos beyond usability and competition to the point of deathliness and invented regime change and endless war.
We became a sorry lot and try as you might there's no One person, no One group or condition to blame, but our ignorance for being led by Bushes and Clinton Clintons (she still owns the DNC and bears the responsibility for destroying Assange.)
Furthermore, it's probably too late to do anything about it, so keep smoking dope so you can forget you peed on the floor, pooed on the couch or mistook a girl for a guy.
There's not even the energy for a revolution. Enjoy a butterfly- if you can find one.
"Can you not see that the Biden Democrat's policies based on this alarmist view of climate change have caused and are causing more human suffering and misery from the purpose authoritarian rules and policies to make fossil fuel more scarce?"
Can you give a specific example of a Biden policy that is making fossil fuel more scarce? For instance: restrictions on pipelines; restrictions on drilling in public land; restrictions on permits; restrictions on drilling geographically?
Really? Why would I do the work for you that is easy enough for you to do yourself?
He just denied a permit for a refinery expansion. He said during his campaign that he would eliminate fossil fuels. He has denied permits in the gulf and on millions of acres of federal land. He has increased regulations on franking and other related activities related to exploration and production. He canceled the Keystone Pipeline. The denial here is fantastic. It is really the crux of the Democrat problem that will get them pummeled in upcoming elections. The MSM ignores certain reporting and amplifies other reporting and good Democrats run around believing that this tells them all they need to know. And they push the absurd and ignore the truth and facts... like they put their heads in the sand. Meanwhile everyone else sees it clearly and their anger is boiling over... not only at the Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress, but the Democrats in general that keep denying the train wreck happening.
And why do you think the two money-mad Bidens spent so much time with a Ukrainian gas company last year? To avoid digging coal? Wake up.
You put climate crisis in quotes, thereby negating anything you have to say.
LOL. So you are "quotes sensitive". Do we need a safe space without quotes?
I don't disagree. Hedges is right. But what exactly is advocated by "... unless those who control us are wrenched from power"? We all know that working through the System is a farce and a laugh. The System is just a red-and-blue-colored mummer's show for the United Corporations of America. So what, then? A passive resistance? A revolution? Of what type? Assuming you could wake people up and get them off the couch long enough to storm the streets, violent revolutions have very uncertain outcomes; they routinely devolve into pure chaos that guarantees nothing except a whole lot of death and atrocity (not that things are super-duper now, but you get my point; people are either complacent or feel powerless). And those revolutions almost always get stomped into the ground by the military anyway. So what, then? Massive resistance? A unified front of labor workers and a real Labor Party? That seems unlikely too. How do you combat a unified front of multi-billionaires who control the media, the police, the government, and probably the military? Is it any wonder people are either dialed-out or flailing for ideas?
Hedges has repeatedly written to oppose violence and violent revolutions. He has written many times of non-violent civil disobedience and massive direct action - protests, boycotts, strikes, etc to shut the system down until it concedes. There's no lack of ideas, but a lack of organizing for mobilization. Many progressive and left and "activist" groups are either overtly corrupted by corporate money or they are sheep of the Democratic Party and limited to electoral politics (or consumed by identity politics or what Hedges calls "boutique politics").
You categorize protests as "no lack of ideas," but what we lack for, even most, are good ideas. All the talk is about what's wrong, but there is a paucity of thinking about what else could be done -- by we-the-people, us. Its a topic that would be good for CH to open for us, setting his intelligent audience to being creative together and not just reacting to the ills he writes so well about. Let's see if we have ideas for how to do some "organizing for mobilization!"
In 15 minutes of Google, anyone can gather multiple creative solutions.
Here's one for energy and GHG emissions:
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/WWSBook/WWSBook.html
There are many similar radical solutions to housing, food, transportation, education, healthcare, peace, land preservation, et cetera. We don't lack ideas, we lack power, courage, solidarity, integrity, organizing, etc.
What I was characterizing was how we don't have ideas for how to implement life-giving solutions. It's akin to how to get global warming taken seriously. The question I lead with is, "If you ran the country (or the world), what would you do?" People talk about what's wrong and how we need to fix things, but they don't have ideas for how to make changes happen.
History provides examples of how people took power from entrenched elites.
A US or world dictator is not a desirable solution, as you imply with that silly question.
Obviously, you missed my point and didn't even take the time to read the link I posted about a real world solution, using existing technology and governing institutions.
Now, now. Don't take lessons from e. pierce. Stay nice. You don't know me so I'll at least tell you I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from NYU. I'm saying that to get your attention to dealing with what we the people could actually make happen. Maybe read it again, bearing in mind it comes from a super intelligent source.
You seem to be attracted to me since you are following me around. However this seems to be a cut and paste of what you've said before, which is no way to woo me. Please stay original in your responses. Would you like an invite to my cult? The entry fee is very reasonable.
A reasonable point of view. Many are dilettante activists and social reformers.
What other sort of activists and social reformers are there besides dilettante ones? Perhaps give some definitions.
Do you expect other people to provide "content" for you?
Why do you ask?
Any type of violence, or even traditional protest plays right into the hands of the owner-rulers, who thrive on conflict and violence. I think the only thing that could be effective would be something like mass refusal to participate, over an extended period of time; and in a very quiet, stoic and resolute fashion. Take the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and apply it to everything, including refusal to use any corporate-controlled media or other services. Painful, disruptive, unthinkable; and so, unlikely. And that's why the empire continues on; and our childrens' lives continue into futher dystopia.
I agree that mass refusal to participate is likely to work, though, as you said, unlikely to happen. I live in Appalachia among some of the poorest in the nation, and one of the last things they can ill afford to do is engage in a "mass refusal to participate, over an extended period of time" -- as much as I wish we could. So many people live paycheck to paycheck, and with children to feed and rent to pay, civil disobedience over an extended period is a plan they just can't do -- as you said, its cost is too "painful." The elites can afford to wait all of us out.
I see no way at this late date
They’d use the military against us- and I believe the military is brainwashed enough to kill fellow citizens
They Won
We slept and lost
That’s my take … hope I’m wrong
Sera's comment says it all about the truth contained in this report, and yes, "organizing now is the only hope humanity will ever have, and it'll take all of us to make a difference." That's the only pathway to survival and the time to begin is NOW! The ruling class will kill us all, including themselves, with their greedy, mad design of forever wars, mendacious plutocratic government structures and predatory capitalist exploitation of the planet's finite resources. It's like an alcoholic's compulsion to drink, a consumptive quest for fulfillment that can only end in insanity and death. It's an ugly, tragic diagnosis, but at least with journalists of integrity like Hedges and Fish presenting the evidence, we'll know the causes of our catastrophic demise.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
Those who possess the emotional and intellectual fortitude to face what lies before them will always be in the minority. There is a numbing comfort that comes with surrendering moral autonomy for abject servility and obedience, and this comfort is especially attractive in a crisis.
Because of the disproportionate amount spent on the military, Americans must endure the neglect of environmental needs, the financial insolvency and decay of our cities, the deterioration of our transportation, education, and health care systems, and the devastating effects of unemployment and underemployment upon millions of households and hundreds of communities. In addition, there are the frightful social and psychological costs, the discouragement and decline of public morale, (anomie) the anger and suffering of the poor and the not-so-poor, the militarization and violence of popular culture, ubiquitous presence of the protean security and surveillance apparatus, and the application of increasingly authoritarian solutions to our social ills….
If we are to mobilize resistance to the empire, we must appeal not only to people’s moral values but to their self-interest (and I do not mean their selfishness). People may rally around the banners of empire when convinced that their security and survival are at stake. They will not choose morality if they think it brings endangerment to them and their loved ones. Nor will they choose disarmament and peaceful conversions if they think it will show weakness and invite aggression against themselves and their families.
So they must be shown that the republic is being bled for the empire’s profits, not for their well-being. That real national security means secure jobs, safe homes, healthcare for all, access to higher education without incurring debt peonage, and a clean environment. They must be informed that this empire, which is paid for by their blood, sweat, and taxes, has little to do with protecting them or people abroad and everything to do with victimizing them in order to feed the power and profits of the few. The global military apparatus they grudgingly support at such immense costs to the national treasury, does not serve their interests. To cut it drastically will not leave us prey to some foreign adversaries. On the contrary, to lay down the sword and use our labor and national treasure for the peaceful reconstruction so desperately needed at home and abroad is not to become a weak nation but a truly great one.
Mainstream pundits and propagandists label our desire to move away from corporate militarism and imperial domination as weakness, folly, isolationism, or self-defeating pacifism and yes, even treasonous. But there is another name for the course of action that aims to wrest the wealth and power out of the hands of the military-industrial complex, the protean security and surveillance apparatus, and the Davos jetting World Economic Forum players, and give it back to the people so that they become the agents of their own lives and social conditions: it is called democracy, the victory of the republic, the consent of the governed over the empire.
Okay, where does one start?
In this series, I've criticized Chris Hedges because I've read the same sort of thing for quite some time now. One cannot change a corrupt civilization strictly through moralizing. There is plenty of information out their which helps to provide evidence of corruption and malfeasance. Bring that to light.
To imagine that the US will abandon its so-called Empire is at this moment a pipe dream. Too much has been invested in Europe, Japan, and South Korea to imagine that much will change in the near term. What can change is where money is spent. New aircraft carriers? Why, that is technology from 100 years ago. More tanks? Why, they are easy targets for missiles and drones.
None of us can do much about this except to challenge those running for office on why their agenda's meet the needs of the people of the US. This nation through its policies immiserated millions as entire industries were sent off shore. Rather than investing in the best tools and processes it was infinitely easier to import goods from lower cost countries. As Americans we were all complicit in this. mers since alternatives were few and far between. How does one change this dynamic?
How does one change the revolving door in Washington? I never heard this before this past Friday but apparently, one Curtis Wright of the FDA left the Agency for a job at Purdue Pharma. He was very involved in the review and approval process of Oxycontin back in the 1990s.
https://www.businessinsider.com/fda-chief-approved-oxycontin-six-figure-gig-at-purdue-pharma-2021-5
We don't need anymore evidence that Congress is corrupt. That is a given. I think everyone knows that. They never pass bills concerning the issues Americans have clearly favored. Providing more evidence of ruling class crimes is unnecessary and a waste of time.
Likewise, 'voting out the bums' just gets new bums like the squad elected. They say progressive things, then become Nancy Pelosi's lap dogs within a year. I think it's pretty obvious that electoral politics is now a dead-end. Corporations have it all locked up.
Look at the revolutionary literature for the way forward. It's out there. Don't make the mistake of thinking what happens in Washington, D.C., is real. It's just more meaningless spectacle. Court intrigues that are the political equivalent of Kardashian reality TV.
Without revolution, the way forward is the continued atomization of American society. Large areas of large cities are already de facto open air prisons, just with virtual walls. Private, militarized police forces will enforce boundaries in the system of internal colonization that corporate America and fascists inflict. I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, and by comparison, today's U.S. is already a dystopian nightmare for anyone without private means.
Cowards who continue to think that the way to deal with America's problems is to elect a new set of thieves to Congress, or who think revolution will bring the military on them simply haven't been paying attention. When is Joe Biden going to be "pulled left?" And the military is always is used by the ruling class against protestors and strikers.
Once you become desperate enough you will see how little of what passes as "politics" in the U.S. has meaning for your life. The solutions are elsewhere.
"They never pass bills concerning the issues Americans have clearly favored. Providing more evidence of ruling class crimes is unnecessary and a waste of time."
Only if you are lazy and sit on your ass. Decision making needs data, apart from sitting around in mutual misery, how else does one tease out the true sociopaths? Label all as enemies is an extremely ineffective means of shifting power. It also is nihilistic and cynical.
"Once you become desperate enough you will see how little of what passes as "politics" in the U.S. has meaning for your life. The solutions are elsewhere." "Elsewhere", where? No one outside of your civilization will save you. Exploit you most definitely but save you, forget it.
"I grew up in the Sixties and Seventies, and by comparison, today's U.S. is already a dystopian nightmare for anyone without private means." I agree completely. I'm lucky and wish that people had the opportunities that existed in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Look at the revolutionary literature for the way forward..."
No thank you, I've had my fill of revolutionary zeal and nonsense. The so-called revolution of the 1960s and 1970s in the US quickly slipped into oblivion as the "radicals" switched to Armani suits and Wall Street.
I don't need a different group of closet aristocrats and sociopaths with words about "freedom" and "the people" on their lips. The chaos created in France with the Reign of Terror and the Russian Civil War are evidence enough that some revolutions create immense destruction in their wake.
- The people have been turned into "hosts" (a food source - rent payers) for the 1% parasites (leeches - rent collectors) by the re-establishment of the "West Virginia Coal Mine Experience"™ (circa 1900). See Earned Vs. Unearned income
by incrementally monopolizing (privatizing)necessities (food, water, shelter, utilities, even information), by debt expansion, and by wage suppression: we now work in their company "mines" (cube farms, whatever), live in their company housing (mortgage, rent) shop in their company store (credit card debt), and pay MONOPOLY prices for basic necessities.
Literally, cradle to grave slavery to a small collection of "Nanny" Transnational Corporations (all owned at the top by a handful of the Davos jetting World Economic Forum, transnational investor class.)
Wonderful. Apart from stating the obvious what do you intend to do?
Rick, From your query I can only conclude you did not read my second post. In it there is a paragraph that begins with, “If we are to mobilize resistance to the empire, we must…
You are right, I did not see it. Will read.
I live in a rural community in Texas & the poverty I see here has been accelerating. The local school needs repairs but it’s impossible to pass a bond issue because it would raise taxes on the farms & ranches. What I do see as a hopeful sign is volunteering & grassroots fundraising to mitigate the shortfall.
War is very useful to the sociopaths in power.
Reform? We don't have time for that now, don't you know, we gotta fight Milosevic/Osama/Saddam/Khamenei/Gaddafi/Kim/Assad/Putin?
And protesting current conditions? What are you, say, are you on *their* side?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
[JFK Remarks on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, 13 March 1962]”
The Four Horsemen illustration by Mr Fish is perfect for this article.
In my opinion, a functional human society is any group of self-organized human beings that can survive; and the nature of empire is control, through the imposition of force. Within the empire that controls the geographies in which we exist, all human societies are, to varying degrees, dysfunctional; but I don't believe this dysfunction to be because they have, somehow, developed erroneous ways of behavior that have caused the dysfunction. I think the dysfunction is an inherent design feature; because within this empire, no functional society can ever be allowed to exist, as any functional society is, by definition, self-organized and capable of survival; and this will always, and correctly, be considered a threat to imperial control.
Any functional society threatens the empire; so it must be destroyed. Any functional society threatens the empire; so it will be destroyed. Orwell was spot on.
I think Chris is absolutely right in his observations here about the world. I can’t imagine why anyone who agrees would ever want to bring a child into this world because of it. But I also believe the mainstream media’s corruption has been exposed sufficiently enough that if there is enough work put in, an actual honest politician can succeed without the need of mass media coverage, which so far appeared impossible for a presidential candidate to have a chance without it.Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, Sanders, and Tulsi Gabbard are the candidates who suffered from this come to mind. And obviously, the majority of professional politicians aren’t trustworthy. The ideal candidate for the job of U.S. president to me would be one who would be vocal about and actively participate in class struggles and protests such as protesting the military industrial complex, fight for free health care, etc. One such person considering running is someone Chris knows well who may be a good choice. Unfortunately, this person has said on camera that they have a weakness for big money and that the job appeals to their ego, reasons that make me suspicious of them. Otherwise, I would immediately support this person. I agree with Chris that change in the world should come from the grassroots. At the same time, it’s important to at least try to elect honest and moral people in government. I wonder if Chris knows who I’m describing. Anyway, I think the devastation of the world in all the ways Chris described here is apparent enough to most people by now that an honest candidate has a chance despite what looks to many like an impossible accomplishment without the support of Oligarchy owned media.
The winner-take-all, zero sum capitalism that America and Western Europe have devolved in to, has a hard time understanding the Eastern philosophical perspective on capitalism that works to mutually benefit countries, companies, workers and citizens. You may call the Chinese working conditions as 'sweatshops' but as an American worker, I am jealous that they do not have to fear being unhoused or hungry and can retire with dignity. American work conditions may include air conditioning, but the sweat of fear cannot be discounted. In it's relations with sovereign nations, China recognizes differences, strengths and ways to benefit all stakeholders. American capitalism only works to benefit shareholders.
I hold out hope that after a period of deep depression/recession the US and Western Europe will be forced to join the new world order and the WEF, World Bank, Wall Street and MIC are mere memories of a time past, as the iceman and telegraph operators have become.
That is a very naive view of the "Eastern philosophical perspective". The caste system in India and tens of millions dead in the Great Leap forward stand in opposition to your position.
How do you know that Chinese workers retire with dignity?
China recognizes differences, strengths and ways to benefit all stakeholders? How do you know this is true?
China has done well at bringing millions out of poverty; however, this is in large part because of a betrayal of the American worker through policies effectuated in Washington over the past 30+ years. If you are seriously interested in supporting workers in America don't buy as much and what you buy should be made in the civilization you live in. Check the internet there are alternatives.
It seems to me the billionaire class is content to create a hell on earth. They are really foolish enough to think it won’t touch them. History says otherwise. I think the other end of their thinking is that they are aware of everything going wrong but think they are entitled to get theirs before it all falls apart. They are living up to the saying “money is the root of all evil” and “total power corrupts totally”. We the people are caught in their self serving net and we are just food for fodder to them. We are expendable if we’re not doing their will. They manage to find just enough cooperative people in the general population to keep pushing their agenda. At some point in the middle of the carnage that is on the horizon these same people will be aghast and wonder how this could happen to their neighbors and family members. History is repeating itself only on a global scale.
Stop buying crap made in China.
Check the labels.
If you can't buy it in store go and buy what you need at flee market.
Support the civilization you live in.
Don't buy unnecessary "impulse" items.
If you find out it is surreptitiously made in China - send it back and demand your money back.
Seriously apples and oranges. Your comment is sanctimonious, arrogant and more than likely hypocritical. Stop pushing to support a dying empire through marketing to only buy US goods because well good luck with that. If you have the means to do that good for you. Many don’t. I try to buy us made items but have found that a lot of times those are only assembled here not manufactured. The stuff that is manufactured is still using materials sourced from....wait for it...China!
The jobs that exist in the U.S. don't pay enough for people to buy American. Of course there are some exceptions. Almost all the good jobs in manufacturing were sent overseas or to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor. The jobs that replaced those high-paying manufacturing jobs are in the service sector, which pay much less. Americans don't make anything anymore.
I'm not sure why a full-time working person should have to go to a flea market to buy clothing, etc. In the 1960s, my wife's grandfather was the sole supporter for his wife and 4 children. They had a modest house, and did all this on his working-class job with the local telephone company. If you would have asked them to rely on others, they would have been insulted.
So, you can't afford to buy from China, and working people are being asked to accept the crumbs that fall from the ruling class's table. This is how desperate Americans have become; they think their individual consumer habits are important (they aren't) and many are currently watching a video about shipping container homes.
Americans hopes for the future have been so thoroughly depressed by the ruling class that I think they will accept anything that comes along now without much fuss.
"The jobs that exist in the U.S. don't pay enough for people to buy American." For many this is true but not for all. I am fortunate, I can afford to buy some articles of daily living which are made in the US.
"I'm not sure why a full-time working person should have to go to a flea market to buy clothing, etc." Did you have parents who grew up during the Great Depression? My mom saved tinfoil, rubber bands, and plastic bags well into her 90s. Naturally people don't like the idea of going to flea market (I don't have to); however, that at least keeps the money in your local area of residence.
"Slavery" has come to American once again in drips and over decades. For anyone who buys a product made in China, I say: 1) you are supporting an authoritarian regimen with no labor laws or environmental laws that are enforced (as least not yet); and 2) You put money in the pockets of your oppressors. The people who lobbied for and effectuated the policies for the deindustrialization of the US make money on the skim. They take a tiny piece with each purchase. They set up the Walmarts, the Amazons, and off shored millions of factory jobs. Their policies immiserated millions of Americans.
You cannot run an effective revolution in the 21st century if you are a part of an inchoate mass running after any and all little bourgeoisie. The real sociopaths remain hidden. One needs names and as Chris Hedges has pointed out mass action. The January 6th riot at the Capital was about a lot more than just a bunch of Proud Boys or Oath Keepers. It was about 30 years of failure of the existing Power Elite. They'll hide that fact as much as possible but it is true.
"Stop pushing to support a dying empire..." That seems rather sanctimonious to me. This is particularly when on considers that today's "corporatism" is a part of that so-called "dying empire". As far as hypocritical, one can only do what one can. There are a growing number of goods made in the US. In a globalized economy some components will come from almost anywhere in the world; however, if some of the work is done here that benefits people who live here; in the civilization you live in and presumably benefit from.
As far as "surreptitiously made in China" - That stemmed from personal experience. Stanley has a website advertising "Made in America". My wife purchased an aluminum coffee mug for somewhere around $40.00. Upon arrival, I checked the label: "Made in China." We sent it back. I'm not going to pay $40.00 for something made in China. Were I to not have obtained a refund not only would have been supporting a mendacious bit of advertising but also a corporate policy that obtains goods from an authoritarian regime with virtually no labor or environmental laws (at least none that are enforced at this time).
Are you the Rick of Rick's Cafe in the fabulously insightful film "Casablanca" which at the ending scene Rick and Capt. Renault go off to fight the effin right-wing pathology of the NAZIs, Rick??
On a Global Empire scale.
What You state is true. I would like to know Your solution and How am I to go about this solution?
Chris Hedges has no solutions, just bitterness.
I find reading the comments as interesting as reading Chris’ commentaries. They display the serious differences that exist in this country as well as how our views are shaped by the Western media. There are several unarguable truths that Hedges has been stating for years. We are governed by a criminally corrupt and morally bankrupt ruling elite and that climate change, regardless of the causes is very real and endangering the entire planet and our very existence on it. We are living in a world historic time where the world is splitting into two separate universes. One is led by the declining U.S. NATO empire which is desperately trying to maintain a unipolar world under its complete control through wars and economic blackmail. The other is the emergence of a Eurasian Empire being formed now under China and Russia’s leadership that makes up more than half the world’s population and includes India, Iran, Brazil, Venezuela, and many other countries that refused to back the U.S. NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. It appears from the actions and from talks of Russian and Chinese leadership that their focus is on not only economic growth but in non interference in other country’s internal affairs and respect for individual cultures. How this struggle plays out will largely determine the future of humanity. One thing is certain, it is out of our control now, as the US government is completely under the control of the Military Industrial Complex and Wall Street.
"It appears from the actions and from talks of Russian and Chinese leadership that their focus is on not only economic growth but in non interference in other country’s internal affairs and respect for individual cultures."
Except when it comes to the Ukraine, Chechnya, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang province, etc. All civilizations struggle with modernity and improving the living standards of their people. On the one hand America should not become an isolationist power and on the other hand it has much to repair here at home.
Rick...Your comment is based solely on the Western propaganda that we are constantly bombarded with. I would venture to guess that you know very little about each of the complex areas mentioned in it, other than what you’ve garnered from the mainstream media.
Oh, I see...
There is no validity to Western Propaganda as you term it.
I suppose that the great upheavals of both Russian and Chinese civilizations during the 20th century are purely "propaganda"? Those were civil wars of a sort; however, Russian Imperialism has been well documented. China has not been a global Imperialist power but it certainly has had disputes with its neighbors. Both India and Vietnam being two examples. Nothing on the scale of European conflicts or the conflicts within their own borders but not exactly peaceful interchanges.
Perhaps you listen too much to anti-Western propaganda. If you think that said propaganda is free of the intentions of those who produce it then perhaps you need to study more history.
The world is evolving. Both Russia and China are far from perfect but the great enemy facing us now is the US and NATO which have over 1,000 bases around the world and waste over a trillion dollars a year on military spending. The U.S. is by far the largest supplier of arms around the world. NATO should have been dissolved when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact disbanded. Instead it has steadily surrounded Russia and has become the global police force of Western global domination. There was nothing defensive about NATO’s assaults on Libya, Yugoslavia and Serbia, nor its training and arming Nazis in Ukraine. Nor is there anything defensive about NATO challenging China over Taiwan and control of the S. China Seas. All this has accomplished has been to forge a close alliance between China and Russia to protect themselves from U.S. domination and cause them to work towards building a Eurasian Empire outside of Western control. In effect, they no longer care what we think as they are breaking away from the west along with a few billion people in Eurasia. India and China alone have close to 2.5 billion people and Russia is a commodity powerhouse. They don’t need us anymore.
Of course the world is evolving. A good bit of that evolution has come from Western investment (done in its perceived interests) in both China and Russia. If China and Russia desire their own civilization independent of the West, no issue on my part. That acknowledged I'm not sure their interests will be limited to their geographic space. How is NATO "challenging" China over Taiwan and the South China Sea, apart from stressing that unification should be peaceful and with the consent of the Taiwanese? Taiwan which has been separate from mainland Chinese administration now for over 125 years (first Japan and then the Kuomintang) may have different interests from Beijing. If the people living in Taiwan desire unification with China then this is their decision. Chinese civilization is allegedly very patient. Perhaps in 10-100 years Taiwan may very well consider unification to be in its interests.
I don't think it likely that Taiwan will willing become a part of China, but who knows. The Han Chinese in Taiwan are the same ethnicity as Beijing's current leadership; however, their political systems have diverged. Something very similar occurred in US history. As for Russia, well the geographic area called the Ukraine has always been an area of conflict. Similar ethnicity but different political aspirations.
We could argue this forever. We all pick and chose and interpret history to justify our world view. I am aware that I am also subject to this phenomenon. I just repeat that how we think about this doesn’t matter anymore as these decisions have already been made by the great powers involved. We are mere pawns and spectators, and hopefully will not become victims of this rapidly changing dynamic. Chris Hedges has been brilliant in documenting the decline of the U.S. empire which is responsible for this. Here’s the declaration made by China and Russia back in February when Putin met Xi at the start of the Beijing Olympics…. https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/16/joint-russia-china-statement-articulates-united-opposition-to-western-alliance/
It is hard for me to comment they say I am autistic and I don't understand what that means exactly. In August of 2018 the headline read Canada stands alone against the world. Today Canada stands with 20 other countries as Full Democracies and the United States is not among us.
I think we are making progress.