Appreciates and well delivered Chris. Your last article notified me of the event and I attended. I did meet you a dozen years ago when you gave a speech at Raritan Valley Communty College. Prior to the speech you and your colleagues sat down at the lunch table I was at in the cafeteria. You kindly gave me the time of day and we chatted before and after the speech. Today I noticed you give a young man with a small group 20 minutes of your time prior to the rally. It was very pleasant and for the lot of us who admire you for speaking the truth and sticking your neck out, we deeply appreciate it and I'm sure it was it was a notable life moment for that young man. Keep up the good work as always.
Another sermon from the mount into the valley of the deaf. Our leaders, Neanderthal thugs, clubs in hand drenched in the blood of the innocent. And we: stand by.
Yes that worries me as well: the ever growing, ever militarization of local police; the ever growing survalience state...deep state. And worse of all Neanderthalic brut force to resolve conflict over talking things out by us the people.
The most cogent statement of the current US zeitgeist that I have read or heard. I, too, wish that I had been able to see you speak. Thank you for your years of service to the people who are being inundated by unending propaganda. Every voice speaking truth in the wilderness is a valuable one, and yours is one of the finest I've heard. And thank you for your work with inmate education.
Thank you , Chris Hedges, for naming every one of those think tanks you named. Developing a humanist and reasonable framework to understand the causes of war is clouded with the incessant opining and not so hidden political bias of these "esteemed " institutions.
Which "think tanks" did Chris Hedges name in his "talk"? I didn't read about a single one. Further, what think tank has never been predicated on political bias?
They are puppets of the Pentagon, a state within a state, and the weapons manufacturers who lavishly fund their think tanks: Project for the New American Century, Foreign Policy Initiative, American Enterprise Institute, Center for a New American Security, Institute for the Study of War, Atlantic Council and Brookings Institute.
Thank you for traveling the lonely journey for all these decades and for all of us. Your experience and oratory skills convey a sincere message with great credibility.
Oh please. Chris Hedges is not a one-man redeemer fighting all alone. He has been co-opted by his bourgeois class. What lonely journey are you referring to? The journey over the bridge to the Dark Side?
I don't think there is any evidence that Chris Hedges has been co-opted by anyone...or any institution. He thinks for himself. I may not always agree with him, but his rational positions (expressed better than 99.9% of us) come from a place of individual, high level, critical thought. To the contrary, decisive "Dark side" references amounts to simplistic banter meant to fan the flames of the "us vs them", "good vs. evil" mentality. In reality, the world is a million shades of grey that takes a tremendous amount critical thought (work) to discern one shade from another.
However, it is good to learn that Mr. Hedges continues to evolve, every so slowly, towards the path of activism with his reference to the same modus operandi embraced by Dr. King and Mahatmat Ghandi; non violent, civil disobedience. Unfortunately, he doesn't adopt the same strategy. There is nothing disobedient about giving a talk in public. An elaboration on his earlier reference to the effectiveness of worker strikes would have stayed more on point.
A disobedient speech in public raises awareness, and just like a butterfly flapping its wings can lead to a hurricane thousands of miles away, a speech can lead to a revolution!
"can lead to" indicates a 50-50 chance. It is just a likely that it will not. I wouldn't put my money down on it. Again, there is nothing disobedient about a public speech. No laws went unobserved or broken. You may wish to label it that way, but just like The Bush administration's repeated claims of there being weapons of mass of destruction in Iraq, it doesn't make it so.
And exactly what are YOU doing to make the world a better place? I'm sure vastly less than Chris Hedges! Incredible to see people like you try to cut down someone who has done and still is doing so much good in the world. Shame!
Good is relative....and you're sure of nothing. Your conjecture comes from a place of wild imagination and pure ignorance. Your casting shame is about the same as you pissing in the wind. Your only achievement is the development of a bigger load of laundry.
Interesting point ... meaningless unless you also are leading the charge. To criticize a hero at work is almost like attempting to trip him from a distance by pulling a rope... which side are you on?
I am on the side of socialist revolution and the overthrow of capitalism, which is the source of all war. You have to go to the root and rip it out. Consorting with right-wing and even fascist elements is insane. I am so outraged.
I see your point, of course. But WWIII would be the end of all humanity. We are getting extremely close to nuclear war and mucker winter. Preventing it, IMHO, takes precedence over any other concern.
I see Chris Hedges's speech as calling on us to discard the verities of left and right and realize we've got a common problem, powerful sectors of a ruling elite that plunges us into war after futile war. By not insisting on enrolling Ukraine in NATO, we could have totally avoided this bloody mess. Joe Biden campaigned for the Democratic nomination, then the presidency -- how much did he reveal he intended to embroil us in a war with a nuclear power over nothing?
I agree with your point, the culture war is a distraction manufactured and stoked to divide people. As for Biden he does what he is told, independent thought plays no part, the habit of political accommodation, political expediency is all that remains after 50 years.
Just like you, I didn't need to be invited. That's because, just like you, I pay to comment here. Glad to know that you're duly provoked. If you can't take the heat, than I suggest you stay out of the kitchen.
"Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war---war had literally been continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil."
War is not to win but to keep the structure of society intact by keeping ignorance and poverty on the population at the brink of starvation. I just graduated from room 101 : "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is..."
I would have loved to have been there to see this speech and to support this growing movement in any way I can. Thank you for sharing the transcript for those who could not attend and thank you for speaking and writing such an important, cogent, and unifying speech! As Murrow stated," We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men [and women] -- not from those who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment unpopular." Thank you sir! My name is Lou Baczewski, author of a book called Louch about my grandfather's service in WWII and I would very much like to speak with you sir. My grandfather's story is no doubt as you say the "self-sacrifice... perish(ed) on the blood soaked altars [they] erected for [us the working class]." The men and women who fought in WWII would be appalled at the state of our union and having interviewed and studied their thoughts for decades, I cannot thank people like you enough for stating what NEEDS to be said. Yours most respectfully, Lou Baczewski.
"I would have loved to have been there to see this speech and to support this growing movement in any way I can."
Lou Baczewski
Since you weren't, does your use of a past tense perspective infer that you are now, somehow, absolved of any future responsibility of actively working toward keeping your Republic?
Using a well-worn baseball metaphor, this article is a grand slam on a full count in the bottom of the ninth. Spot on, every word. Thank you again for pointing out with eloquence and great erudition the insanity and the corruption of our so-called ruling classes. Mass, peaceful, civil disobedience and non-cooperation is truly all we have left. And it must not just be now and then, here and there, but ongoing, continual and relentless, worldwide.
Greetings from the peripheral margins: Sonoran desert in a Skoolie:
"The architects of imperialism, the masters of war, the corporate-controlled legislative, judicial and executive branches of government and their obsequious mouth pieces in the media and academia, are illegitimate. Say this simple truth and you are banished, as many of us have been, to the margins.
And again, Mr Hedges - you articulate the truth of our world - and shine that light on Julian Assange. Even at this very moment a petition is circulating within the national Parliament of Australia - to all elected members and senators to sign - calling on the US to stop its persecution of Julian Assange - to be presented on the 23rd of this month - three days from now. And I am engaged in back-and-forth with a cousin in Dallas who simply cannot see anything amiss with his country and its foreign interference. I know why - I think he has scarcely been beyond its shores in truth - he is immersed in self-adulation and unable to even consider that it could in any degree be to blame for injustices. He's at least 50 - an oncologist - but sustained by a sect one might truthfully call fundamentalist - perhaps not quite fully Christian in fact. I think that there must a sizeable proportion of the citizens of the US who have their eyes and hearts set not on this world - but on the one they think (in various shapes/forms) is to come after death. It would surely account for why they care little for THIS world and its people. Who cares if the world destroys itself - we'll all be in God's Kingdom, they tell themselves - not the slightest thread of evidence or proof for that - but, hey! Faith...
I believe you - judging by the totally irrational calling of God's name from most political figures in the US - unseemly and dishonest that it is. Close to 50% of Australians claim no religious affiliation - paedophiles and other financial shenanigans rife in many of the major churches here! Some of our copycat politicians here are trying the same nonsense - claiming Australia is a christian nation. Not 240 years ago - it wasn't christian then. Unlike some fair dinkum Christians - Chris Hedges for one - doing the work of Jesus - and other friends who are Christian who practice the Way of Jesus - for social justice on this earth - some were/are members of religious orders (Jesuit, Marist) - and others are Hindu or Buddhist - Shintōist, too, Muslim as well. There is a universal generosity of spirit which exists independently of formal religious structure - and sometimes exists within that structure. But those who want to control others in the name of their sect - count me out!
"He, who begins by loving Christianity better than the truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Moral and Religious Aphorisms", Aids to Reflection"
Appreciates and well delivered Chris. Your last article notified me of the event and I attended. I did meet you a dozen years ago when you gave a speech at Raritan Valley Communty College. Prior to the speech you and your colleagues sat down at the lunch table I was at in the cafeteria. You kindly gave me the time of day and we chatted before and after the speech. Today I noticed you give a young man with a small group 20 minutes of your time prior to the rally. It was very pleasant and for the lot of us who admire you for speaking the truth and sticking your neck out, we deeply appreciate it and I'm sure it was it was a notable life moment for that young man. Keep up the good work as always.
Moving speech, like King, prof Hedges has the gift and understanding that we cannot survive alone!
Another sermon from the mount into the valley of the deaf. Our leaders, Neanderthal thugs, clubs in hand drenched in the blood of the innocent. And we: stand by.
Yes that worries me as well: the ever growing, ever militarization of local police; the ever growing survalience state...deep state. And worse of all Neanderthalic brut force to resolve conflict over talking things out by us the people.
The most cogent statement of the current US zeitgeist that I have read or heard. I, too, wish that I had been able to see you speak. Thank you for your years of service to the people who are being inundated by unending propaganda. Every voice speaking truth in the wilderness is a valuable one, and yours is one of the finest I've heard. And thank you for your work with inmate education.
Thank you , Chris Hedges, for naming every one of those think tanks you named. Developing a humanist and reasonable framework to understand the causes of war is clouded with the incessant opining and not so hidden political bias of these "esteemed " institutions.
Which "think tanks" did Chris Hedges name in his "talk"? I didn't read about a single one. Further, what think tank has never been predicated on political bias?
They are puppets of the Pentagon, a state within a state, and the weapons manufacturers who lavishly fund their think tanks: Project for the New American Century, Foreign Policy Initiative, American Enterprise Institute, Center for a New American Security, Institute for the Study of War, Atlantic Council and Brookings Institute.
Institute for the Study of War was founded by Fred Kagan’s wife, sister-in-law to Victoria “fuck the EU” Nuland
Those aren't think tanks. Those are echo chambers staffed by lobbyists.
So does the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates. Does that make them "think tanks" as well?
Thank you for traveling the lonely journey for all these decades and for all of us. Your experience and oratory skills convey a sincere message with great credibility.
Oh please. Chris Hedges is not a one-man redeemer fighting all alone. He has been co-opted by his bourgeois class. What lonely journey are you referring to? The journey over the bridge to the Dark Side?
I don't think there is any evidence that Chris Hedges has been co-opted by anyone...or any institution. He thinks for himself. I may not always agree with him, but his rational positions (expressed better than 99.9% of us) come from a place of individual, high level, critical thought. To the contrary, decisive "Dark side" references amounts to simplistic banter meant to fan the flames of the "us vs them", "good vs. evil" mentality. In reality, the world is a million shades of grey that takes a tremendous amount critical thought (work) to discern one shade from another.
...and great redundancy.
However, it is good to learn that Mr. Hedges continues to evolve, every so slowly, towards the path of activism with his reference to the same modus operandi embraced by Dr. King and Mahatmat Ghandi; non violent, civil disobedience. Unfortunately, he doesn't adopt the same strategy. There is nothing disobedient about giving a talk in public. An elaboration on his earlier reference to the effectiveness of worker strikes would have stayed more on point.
A disobedient speech in public raises awareness, and just like a butterfly flapping its wings can lead to a hurricane thousands of miles away, a speech can lead to a revolution!
"can lead to" indicates a 50-50 chance. It is just a likely that it will not. I wouldn't put my money down on it. Again, there is nothing disobedient about a public speech. No laws went unobserved or broken. You may wish to label it that way, but just like The Bush administration's repeated claims of there being weapons of mass of destruction in Iraq, it doesn't make it so.
And exactly what are YOU doing to make the world a better place? I'm sure vastly less than Chris Hedges! Incredible to see people like you try to cut down someone who has done and still is doing so much good in the world. Shame!
Good is relative....and you're sure of nothing. Your conjecture comes from a place of wild imagination and pure ignorance. Your casting shame is about the same as you pissing in the wind. Your only achievement is the development of a bigger load of laundry.
I'm an ignorant man and definitely not effective at all, please answer Mr. Martin question: "what are YOU doing to make the world a better place?"
🤣 Happy trolling!
He did sue the Obama Administration over it's violation of Habeus Corpus in their National Defense Authorization Act. Sounds disobedient to me.
Interesting point ... meaningless unless you also are leading the charge. To criticize a hero at work is almost like attempting to trip him from a distance by pulling a rope... which side are you on?
I am on the side of socialist revolution and the overthrow of capitalism, which is the source of all war. You have to go to the root and rip it out. Consorting with right-wing and even fascist elements is insane. I am so outraged.
I see your point, of course. But WWIII would be the end of all humanity. We are getting extremely close to nuclear war and mucker winter. Preventing it, IMHO, takes precedence over any other concern.
That was supposed to be nuclear winter!
Talk about meaningless.
I see Chris Hedges's speech as calling on us to discard the verities of left and right and realize we've got a common problem, powerful sectors of a ruling elite that plunges us into war after futile war. By not insisting on enrolling Ukraine in NATO, we could have totally avoided this bloody mess. Joe Biden campaigned for the Democratic nomination, then the presidency -- how much did he reveal he intended to embroil us in a war with a nuclear power over nothing?
I agree with your point, the culture war is a distraction manufactured and stoked to divide people. As for Biden he does what he is told, independent thought plays no part, the habit of political accommodation, political expediency is all that remains after 50 years.
If only you realized that identity politics is also a distraction manufactured to divide people.
That’s what I said.
Who insisted that we enroll Ukraine in NATO? I don't recall any "we" involved.
Who invited you to this table? All your comments are wilfully blind and designed to provoke.
Just like you, I didn't need to be invited. That's because, just like you, I pay to comment here. Glad to know that you're duly provoked. If you can't take the heat, than I suggest you stay out of the kitchen.
"Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war---war had literally been continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil."
George Orwell
War is not to win but to keep the structure of society intact by keeping ignorance and poverty on the population at the brink of starvation. I just graduated from room 101 : "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is..."
“A society that prohibits the capacity to speak in truth extinguishes the capacity to live in justice.”
I would have loved to have been there to see this speech and to support this growing movement in any way I can. Thank you for sharing the transcript for those who could not attend and thank you for speaking and writing such an important, cogent, and unifying speech! As Murrow stated," We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men [and women] -- not from those who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment unpopular." Thank you sir! My name is Lou Baczewski, author of a book called Louch about my grandfather's service in WWII and I would very much like to speak with you sir. My grandfather's story is no doubt as you say the "self-sacrifice... perish(ed) on the blood soaked altars [they] erected for [us the working class]." The men and women who fought in WWII would be appalled at the state of our union and having interviewed and studied their thoughts for decades, I cannot thank people like you enough for stating what NEEDS to be said. Yours most respectfully, Lou Baczewski.
"I would have loved to have been there to see this speech and to support this growing movement in any way I can."
Lou Baczewski
Since you weren't, does your use of a past tense perspective infer that you are now, somehow, absolved of any future responsibility of actively working toward keeping your Republic?
There you go again - provoking with insensitivity - and ignorant of how the English language works, too!
Using a well-worn baseball metaphor, this article is a grand slam on a full count in the bottom of the ninth. Spot on, every word. Thank you again for pointing out with eloquence and great erudition the insanity and the corruption of our so-called ruling classes. Mass, peaceful, civil disobedience and non-cooperation is truly all we have left. And it must not just be now and then, here and there, but ongoing, continual and relentless, worldwide.
The courage in you and your ongoing discourse, continues to enlighten. Thank you.
Greetings from the peripheral margins: Sonoran desert in a Skoolie:
"The architects of imperialism, the masters of war, the corporate-controlled legislative, judicial and executive branches of government and their obsequious mouth pieces in the media and academia, are illegitimate. Say this simple truth and you are banished, as many of us have been, to the margins.
And again, Mr Hedges - you articulate the truth of our world - and shine that light on Julian Assange. Even at this very moment a petition is circulating within the national Parliament of Australia - to all elected members and senators to sign - calling on the US to stop its persecution of Julian Assange - to be presented on the 23rd of this month - three days from now. And I am engaged in back-and-forth with a cousin in Dallas who simply cannot see anything amiss with his country and its foreign interference. I know why - I think he has scarcely been beyond its shores in truth - he is immersed in self-adulation and unable to even consider that it could in any degree be to blame for injustices. He's at least 50 - an oncologist - but sustained by a sect one might truthfully call fundamentalist - perhaps not quite fully Christian in fact. I think that there must a sizeable proportion of the citizens of the US who have their eyes and hearts set not on this world - but on the one they think (in various shapes/forms) is to come after death. It would surely account for why they care little for THIS world and its people. Who cares if the world destroys itself - we'll all be in God's Kingdom, they tell themselves - not the slightest thread of evidence or proof for that - but, hey! Faith...
45% of Americans are Christian Supremacists.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/10/27/45-of-americans-say-u-s-should-be-a-christian-nation/
I believe you - judging by the totally irrational calling of God's name from most political figures in the US - unseemly and dishonest that it is. Close to 50% of Australians claim no religious affiliation - paedophiles and other financial shenanigans rife in many of the major churches here! Some of our copycat politicians here are trying the same nonsense - claiming Australia is a christian nation. Not 240 years ago - it wasn't christian then. Unlike some fair dinkum Christians - Chris Hedges for one - doing the work of Jesus - and other friends who are Christian who practice the Way of Jesus - for social justice on this earth - some were/are members of religious orders (Jesuit, Marist) - and others are Hindu or Buddhist - Shintōist, too, Muslim as well. There is a universal generosity of spirit which exists independently of formal religious structure - and sometimes exists within that structure. But those who want to control others in the name of their sect - count me out!
"He, who begins by loving Christianity better than the truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Moral and Religious Aphorisms", Aids to Reflection"
Thank you for sharing your speech. Your words echo with the pain and suffering you’ve experienced. That is bravery
Metaphorically speaking the elite must cast out of their homes into the wilderness.