This is the text of a talk I gave in Washington, D.C. on Sunday at the Rage Against The War Machine rally.
chrishedges.substack.com
Murder King - by Mr. Fish Idolatry is the primal sin from which all other sins derive. Idols tempt us to become God. They demand the sacrifice of others in the mad quest for wealth, fame or power. But the idol always ends by requiring self-sacrifice, leaving us to perish on the blood-soaked altars we erected for others.
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.
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.
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.
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?
"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."
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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?
"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
“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.
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...
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.