“Chris is truly ahead of the curve. His predictions are remarkable. I remember my stepfather. He was a civil rights advocate and a criminal defense lawyer. I met him in the 1970s when I was a teenager. He told me back then that 90% of cops were corrupt. Both Chris and my stepfather were prescient about the trajectory of the United States government. I vividly recall my stepfather warning that the government had been heading in the wrong direction since the 1970s. He held that belief until his death in 2009.”
Yep, Heirs of the Robber Barons and the corporate elite were already seething because of the very popular New Deal. Then add the '60s activists. The frightened reactionaries organized as revealed by the agenda of the '71 Powell Memo. In the late '70s, the Ds went neolib, dumped the New Deal, and abandoned the majority working class. Thus enabling the Rs to go all out for plutocracy with their allies, the Christofascists.
And in 1976, after Lewis Powell was nominated for the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon and confirmed by the Senate, the Court decided Buckley v. Valeo, which equated money with speech, paving the way for our political system of bribery and control by billionaires and corporations, which Chris mentions in his article. Buckley was the precursor of Citizens United, but receives very little attention. Even if Citizens United were overturned, billionaires would still be able to buy elections under Buckley.
I made it around 20 years in Higher ed, bailed in the late Nineties as it became clear that the corporate claw had already strangulated discourse beyond the fund-raiser college president's office, trickling down to the extent that even academic deans were now clearly gagged from expressing opinions in the interests of faculty and students --- the true core of any university. I left behind well-meaning faculty in denial about what was transpiring, and students getting screwed out of tuition dollars that funded a mere skeleton of the free and open discourse they thought they were part of.
Thank you, Chris Hedges, for this sobering essay, and for your work as a prophetic journalist for so many years.
I am reminded this morning of one of my favorite passages by the brilliant philosopher William James (1842-1910):
"The systematic cultivation of healthy-mindedness as a religious attitude is therefore consonant with important currents in human nature, and is anything but absurd. In fact. we all do cultivate it more or less, even when our professed theology should in consistency forbid it. We divert our attention from disease and death as much as we can; and the slaughter-houses and indecencies without end on which our life is founded are huddled out of sight and never mentioned, so that the world we recognize officially in literature and in society is a poetic fiction far handsomer and cleaner and better than the world that really is."
Honestly the gaza genocide has completely destroyed my faith in democracy itself, I no longer mourn its destruction because it produces such abhorrent evil. Give me a Chinese communist dictatorship with a stable government which seeks peace and prosperity in its international dealings any day of the week. Liberty and freedom have lead us to immoral societies which proliferate death and destruction around the world, its time to reconsider liberalism itself.
I had previously submitted the following post elsewhere, but thought it appropriate here:
"By the way, yesterday Israel did begin the celebration of its 77th Independence Day, 'with gratitude for being able to live free in our land despite the constant threats to our survival here,' said one delusional resident Zionist, and with military strikes across Gaza that killed 47 people and wounded 61.
"For the sake of the Palestinians, for the sake of the world, may there not be a 78th."
Given what Chris has written, given that "Israel 'R' Us," and seeing that July 4, 2026 marks this country's 250th Independence Day, may there not be a 251st. Israel needs to be de-recognized and dismantled, the USA needs to be thoroughly overhauled.
Amen, KK. Both America and Israel have never had a true Democracy and they are showing the marks of their collapse. What will come next nobody knows but I hope it will be a socialist country.
Julio - I've speculated a bit as to what the post-American-Israeli Empire world will look like, assuming it won't be lethally radioactive or underwater by then. Maybe there'd be some hope for civilization if global leadership emerges from the BRICS nations and the Global South. I think most BRICS members have experienced European colonialism, so there's a good chance that debacle won't be visited upon the peoples of the earth again.
And the Jews in Europe also experienced holocaust and look what they are doing now to the Palestinians. No guaranties. I believe nations don't need a leader that eventually will become an empire. Thus, I would prefer a system where any country has the right to exercise its right to become whatever political, economic or religious system they want to adopt, with the only authority over them being an international organization of all the nations where every state has an equal vote on common interests related with the ecology, world peace and technology. Something akin to the UN but with teeth and with no veto power granted to any country regardless of its power. Yes, I know this is my magical thinking though I hope the magic of a true democracy will triumph.
Zionist cooperation with the Nazis has been well established, but of course the Hasbara squad is seeing to it that that is kept suppressed. For one thing the Zionists only wanted the educated and professional Jews spared for their Eretz (Ersatz) Israel, the hoi-polloi Jews they didn't care about. So in a way there's no irony in the murder of the European Jews and what the Zionists have been practicing on the Palestinians since even before 1948. In effect, they learned from the Nazis (and the British while they held the mandate).
I agree with your magical thinking. The UN has had at least some pretense to those ends - can't argue with the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example - but of course the post-WWII Global Hegemon had to control everything, and so it structured the UN to exercise its influence (to a lesser extent to western Europe too). Of course the penultimate example of that is vetoing any Security Council resolution against Israel.
As I alluded previously, maybe - just maybe - a BRICS/Global South coalition may offer the possibility of a new, more democratic, more humane world order, as many of those member nations have been victims of Western colonialism and can present different economic, political, and social models to the world.
Then again, that could just be my magical thinking.
Maybe it's not just Israel that needs to be de-recognized and dismantled, the USA needs a lot of that too, it is the world's largest criminal organization, just masquerading as a country.
And good luck with that....considering how long it took us in the west to realize we'd hitched our ideological wagons to the last settler colonial project....that, given the small land base on which it was founded, could only end in genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Time for a rerun of the famous EXODUS movie celebrating the land grab?
Ingamarie - “… considering how long it took us in the west to realize…”
I’m almost ashamed at how long it has taken me to catch on to the scam, although I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself given the stacked deck of the Israel/Zionist lobby and its Ziomedia offshoot in this country. That being said, I ask myself the question, how do I accommodate, how can I rationalize, that my knowledge not only of the dire plight of the Palestinians, but of the cruel realities of the American Empire, even of the harsh nature of life itself, has come at the horrific cost of a plausible 186,000 deaths of innocents [The Lancet, July 2024], more than half of them children, the hundreds of thousands maimed and injured, the entire population of Gaza consigned to living with severely diminished life prospects? Can any sense be made of this?
“Time for a rerun of the famous EXODUS movie celebrating the land grab?”
No, let’s please not go there, for one thing it should be referred to – if it is ever to be referred to – as the “infamous” “Exodus,” and we shouldn’t lend any acknowledgment to the Zionist fables other than to their toxicity. One problem is that Leon Uris’ opusculum is considered by laymen and policy makers alike not as a piece of mythical fiction, but as a documentary (even a deed). The same applies to Joan Peters’ once-highly touted “From Time Immemorial” which perpetuated the “Palestine is a country without a people; the Jews are a people without a country” canard. Fortunately, I have come across no mention of it - particularly as part of the propagandistic Hasbara strategy, once overseen by the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs, now under the Foreign Ministry – since it was soundly debunked as a hoax by Norman Finkelstein.
Ilan Pappe earlier this year said, “Historically, I’m willing to say with some caution that this is the last phase of Zionism. Historically, such developments in ideological movements, whether they are colonials or empires, it’s usually the final chapter [that is] the ruthless one, the most ambitious one. And then it’s too much and then they fall and collapse.”
With any luck, there won’t be that 78th celebration of Israel Independence Day.
Just wish we could find some way to make this debacle the last one.......but with what's going on in America, I suspect we're going to have to drink the hemlock......at least some of us will.
An unsustainable economy based on endless growth and the obscenity of 'wealth creation' (poverty creation for the world's majority) is collapsing as we exchange these thoughts..........my greatest fear being that as the Trump narcissist realizes his plans are failing, he'll declare war on Iran or Venezuela or......a lot of places could qualify..........and we'll advance to act 5 in this play I can't classify as tragedy or farce.
But there'll be more death of innocents, destruction of needed infrastructure, and exacerbation of the climate crisis coming for all life on earth.
Not much I can add to that, my sense too. With the Trumpanzees "running" things, I figure in the near term we'll be done in by nuclear Armageddon, somewhat longer term it'll be environmental collapse. Then again there could be bloody mass riots, maybe even Civil War Pt. II, once the economy tanks.
Yes. A democracy and a democratic republic is as healthy as its citizens are informed, civic-minded, passionate about justice and actively care with expenditure of time on the well being of the collective and democracy. Couch potatoes, passivity, disinterestedness, checked out citizens invite the rich to buy up everything to suck out whatever wealth the people might have. I invite readers to check out Ralph Nader's Radio Hour this week for a most informative, enlightened interview with "Erica Payne, founder of Patriotic Millionaires, to update us on that group's latest efforts to save American democracy ...". She is one very sharp woman! Excellence.
Only white men born in Athens voted…women, slaves, immigrants could not.so the patriarchy of Athens “were pretty engaged” - that might translate into what - less than half the population?
That's not what "engagement" means. While Athenian democracy wasn't very democratic in the modern sense (although citizenship had nothing to do with race), the citizens of Athens followed politics very closely.
According to various sources in googling the definition of engagement, we find this:Engagement , to engage -" Engaged spirituality refers to the beliefs and practices of religious or spiritual people who actively engage in the world in order to transform it in ways consistent with their beliefs" "1. Involvement and Participation: Engage in something:This means to do something, take part in an activity, or be involved in a situation. " (google)
Re: Athenian Democracy". It allowed male citizens to actively participate in public affairs, including voting on leaders, laws, and critical issues through assemblies held on a designated hill. The assembly, which could accommodate around 6,000 citizens, was central to this political system, enabling citizens to voice their opinions and decisions openly. Additionally, a smaller council known as the Boule, composed of 500 randomly selected citizens, played a crucial role in governance and oversight.
Despite its innovative approach to citizen involvement, Athenian democracy had significant limitations. Notably, the political rights were confined to adult male citizens, excluding women, enslaved individuals, and non-residents from the democratic process. " (EBSCO.com)
Engagement , to engage -" Engaged spirituality refers to the beliefs and practices of religious or spiritual people who actively engage in the world in order to transform it in ways consistent with their beliefs" "1. Involvement and Participation: Engage in something:This means to do something, take part in an activity, or be involved in a situation. " (google)
No! Authoritarianism suffocates. What’s been missing is the people’s fervor for right action. In other words “Civic Response-ability.” We went to sleep instead of awakening from our naïveté about the consequences of the Powell Memorandum. Naïveté that denies the reality when Gingrich proclaimed the Democrats were to be regarded and treated as the enemy to be obliterated. Surely, such one-sidedness was not possible for an American who loved hir Democracy with its notion of the well-being of the whole? The “In-it-together” mindset. So, while we slept coddled by our denial that some Americans wanted to own everything no matter who or what got shredded. Power and money were the only things that counted. You and I and shared, cooperative power sharing just obstacles to conquest. And we slept. Surely -after WW2, they couldn’t mean it! And those of the corporate, biggest fat money stripe, sucking on wet dreams not just conquest of “the homeland” but of global homelands, Ambitions of Empire. Where you don’t and must not count beyond a number in the consumer columns. And be controlled by whatever means possible, uninhibited by law- domestic and global, and Nature’s. “What will you do with your one precious life?”Mary Oliver asked. Sleep? Deny? Face it? Become committed to participating in good trouble?
The '71 Powell Memo marks the spot when the anti-New Dealer and anti-Keynesian cabal became publicly visible. When Milton Friedman, who supported Pinochet because "democracy interferes with market efficiency," and his Chicago School of Economics became dominant. There's little empirical evidence for their theories; it's almost entirely assumptions and assertions. Read the Powell Memo--what's horrifying is how so many of its pro-big biz suppositions have become givens.
When this reactionary shift began there were progressive Rs and lots of Dem New Dealers in office. The Memo is most likely the motive behind the neolib unfriendly takeover of the Dem party, which began in the late '70s. It wasn't a response to Reaganism, the explanation of D apologists. The "new" Ds abandoned the majority working class and dumped the New Deal, including financial regulations. They became corporate lite, helping to make the US and the world safe for econopathy. Furthermore, their shift to the right enabled the Rs to go full out for plutocracy in alliance with the Christofascists.
Authoritarianism may suffocate individual liberties, but if done in context of communism it does so for the greater good of the country and its people. Consider the American empire I live in; we love to go around the world spreading democracy. Why is this? Because democracies are easy to control. The general population is either not capable of critical thinking, or doesn't have the time to apply independant thought to the things they read and hear, so they are easy to control through media manipulation. Control the media and you own the democracy, its as simple as that.
Unless a government has the power to stamp out malign propaganda, people with money will buy influence in the media and shape the country for their own ends. That is the current reality of America, we are a country run by people with money, and as long as we remain a democracy, people with money will continue to rule us. The antidote to this flawed governmental system is right before us in Russia, China, and Venezuela. These countries have governments which have control over their oligarchs rather than be ruled by them, as only a strong government can. The communist element ensures that the authoritarianism is directed towards positive results for the country, and the inclusion of capital markets under the watchful eye of the government in new communist countries ensures economic prosperity and efficient allocation of resources.
Even a monarchy that takes the welfare of the populace as a whole can do that, but as you say, democracies or republics can easily be directed by money.
True, I suppose monarchies do exist in the UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, but to my knowledge they haven't been particularly good on the Gaza issue, despite their close proximity and demographic similarity to Palestine. But I will admit I am not an expert on exactly what those countries have been up to during this massacre of Muslim people.
Only Iran and Houthis of Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon have really done anything substantial and they are theocracies/religious movements.
Please see my comment. The USA has kept the "appearance" of democracy while its substance has been hollowed out actively since the Powell Memorandum incited corporations over the continuing long haul to "own" everything. Scholar Sheldon Wolin referred to USA's governmental system as not a democracy, but instead "inverted totalitarianism" where oligarchy dominates. Encouragement to check in with Chris Hedges, Chomsky, Nader...all solid, all brilliant, all awake.
Am I? Tell me, what types of governments are perpetuating the genocide in Gaza right now? What countries/types of governments are resisting and protesting? That right there ought to give you a compass for the new moral center of the world.
Reread your first comment, communism as a reason… was it fully implemented, fulfilled?Authoritarianism “, yes, full control of the population, our government wants that so bad
Bravo! Even Montaigne could have learned from this essay. This reader can corroborate first-hand the corruption of academia from top to bottom. Most of the other assertions and premises are observable, testable or may be assumed to be correct due to the authority of the correspondent. Anything left is probably immaterial. Sometime after The People assert themselves in a successful overthrow of this correctly characterized "corporate coup d'etat" this essay and those of Reich, Hubbell and prescient others will be included in the encyclopedia of this struggle. If more of our population access these essays and dialogues, we will stand a better chance of living to see that magnum opus. Again, Bravo!
Outstanding, and not quite as maximally depressing as some of the usual articles. Kudos!
"the idea of a life dedicated to values that cannot possibly be realized by a commercial civilization — has gradually lost its allure" I think it has lost more than its allure, it has lost traction entirely, due to a loss of logical thinking skills in the public at large. Such thoughtful concepts reach the mind, these days, and simply do the mental version of spinning their wheels until sliding into the mud of pre-fabricated infotainment that functions as our modern equivalent of that abyss Nietzsche warned about.
I'm not sure there is a 'loss of logical thinking skills', it's more a matter of just not wanting to look at reality, much better to mindlessly watch 'reality' TV and ignore the world as it passes by, unnoticed.
Mr. Hedges, your essay says it all and is beautifully written, easily understood, and has the clear ring of truth to it-as scary as that truth is. How can the Democrat party open their eyes to their part in history? My liberal friends keep focusing on Trump, Trump, Trump as if he were an artifact of history, a quirk, an accident! If we just got rid of Trump, all would be well—
Hello, Maryann - Frighteningly, the Democratic Party has been a part of the problem at least since the Clinton years, maybe even back to the Carter years (the Lewis Powell memo came out in 1971), and as Chris has previously pointed out, Trump is not the disease, he's the symptom of the wider "neoliberal, corporate forces that have destroyed our democracy [that] will continue to vomit up more monstrosities as dangerous as Donald Trump" [https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/15/trump-symptom-not-disease].
There is no one to save us, short of entire overhaul of this society, and seeing as the hedge fund and private equity partners see no quick, exploitive profit in that, it won't happen.
Yes. And as a start, the next symptom in line, Vance's arrogant and frightening fascist fanaticism, will be more monstrous and dangerous than that brainless, not to mention heartless, chaotic symptom called Trump.
Chris is right on: we are in a deep mess. The questions is: What are we doing about it? The individual congressman is powerless. It takes a well-organized group to make a difference. I am unaware of any such group. Even the well-educated Congressman mouthes the party line.
Even those representatives who should know better don't want to step "out of line" for fear of being cut off. They are intimidated by AIPAC and its allies.
Chris writes an absolute masterpiece here. He has, once again, provided us with a summary of the slow-motion "coup-de-eta" which has been in the works for many decades, and is now reaching its zenith. We live in a lawless, authoritarian landscape, ruled by the dark forces of billionaire & corporate control and a felonious sociopath and his minions. The Democratic Party is a flaccid invertebrate-like facade which is scared of its own shadow and mostly goes along to get along-and whose leaders speak yet to us in that tired and impotent language of resistance. There are no leaders in the party; we are on our own. And I admit freely- I am afraid. I see the steady decline in our freedoms, every day slowly succumbing to the still-subdued but potent forces insisting on our "patriotic"compliance while eviscerating those same institutions which we once could turn to for support. I fear mostly for my children and three grandchildren (two who are female) and those freedoms which they will lose before they're old enough to know what's been taken from them. I feel the need to beg my beloved father's forgiveness. Forgiveness for not doing more to save the country he once came to for refuge from Nazi Germany, and the country he once fought to protect in WW2. For his sake, if for no one else's, I must find some way to do more.
I can't help but believe the time for revolution has arrived.
Though I agree that a total overhaul of our governmental system would be necessary to fix the problems of America, I do not see revolution as a practical option. Simply protesting against Israeli genocide has brought down the cudgel of the state hard enough to shatter and scatter that movement to the edges of society, what chance could a revolution have against the full power of the state. Worse than hopeless.
Honestly if I were able bodied enough I would immigrate to Russia or China, I see those countries as the new hope for humanity, a bulwark against the zombie democracies owned and controled by oligarchs. Democracy, we told ourselves after WW2, was going to be the peaceful rightous path for humanity, but how wrong we were! Communism also helped to defeat fascism, and though it has had its blunders and mistakes in its early stages, its new iterations which utilize capital markets produce stable leadership and economic prosperity we could only dream of having here in the United States.
With literally millions on the streets protesting, things can change, look at how it happened through many of the Eastern European countries, it's simply that too many people are too comfortable with the situation as it is, they've become accustomed to their position as a slave to the system and 'know' that fighting it will '[bring] down the cudgel of the state' on them. And make no mistake, if there are a few thousand or a few hundred thousand, that cudgel will be used, but can they do that to multiple millions of people?
When the government fears the people-NOT from threats of violence, but from the specter of work stoppages- then we will have a government of and by the people. Not of and by the Oligarchs
Well look at the Canadian trucker protests as a recently example of how that might work out. The CBC and government aligned media outlets slandered and discredited the protestors, their bank accounts were frozen, and they were eventually dispersed by riot police. And this protest was only possible because people felt personally affected by draconian governmental policies.
Imagine trying to organize a protest/strike/rebellion around ephemeral issues such as "billionaires control our government" or "freedom of speech", difficult at best. Now imagine the full power of the state comes down on your fledgling strike, protestors are de-banked/deported/arrested, intelligence agencies inflitrate the movement with spies and agent provacateurs (the FBI still refuses to disclose how many plain clothes operatives it had on the ground on Jan. 6). I recommend a deep dive into all the events surrounding Jan 6 in fact to see just how far the government will go in its suppression efforts.
Any attempt at peaceful protest or strike will be met with these measures and more. The state powers that were accumulated on 9/11 which were ostensibly to fight foreign terrorism have all been turned inward. Protestors are the new terrorists and the government over multiple agencies already spends tens of billions a year on monitoring, inflitrating, and suppressing/manipulating any movements it deems a threat to the status quo. Worse than hopeless still.
Of course the price we would/will pay for any substantive rebellion will be a high one. I have never thought that rebellion, even peaceful rebellion, would come without a tough price. Power concedes nothing without a struggle. And as Chris himself said on his talks, the state will be vicious in its response to an upheaval. The state will not cede its authority without causing great pain to the citizenry- if we even get to the point of sustained, mass uprisings which are not yet violent. We are prisoners right now in a constrictive all encompassing death march, seeing our Democracy choked out steadily over the last five decades thanks to a betrayal of the working class by a hollowed-out Democratic party which has sold itself to corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Regardless of what we do or don't do from here on in, we only have each other to rely on.
Well personally I gain hope for humanity from the rise of China, Russia and Iran as major powers resisting the expansion of the amoral "democratic" empire. Eventually our military empire will collapse or gradually weaken under its own weight is my guess and afterwards limp on as a shadow of its former glory, as most empires do.
I used to blame the Democratic party, but now I think they are just trying to play the game to win. And the way to consistantly win elections is to accumulate a large amount of funding for advertising/propaganda purposes. Propaganda is effective. The easiest and most effective way to accumulate funding is through catering to the rich/corporations. And that is, in essence, why the rich and powerful own democracies, particularly ours.
I agree with you bleak outlook but completely disagree 'the Democratic Party [neoliberal 'left'] is a flaccid invertebrate-like facade which is scared of its own shadow and mostly goes along to get along-and whose leaders speak yet to us in that tired and impotent language of resistance, they were actively promoting what you are experiencing, they were just telling you the lies you wanted to believe.
I believe the democratic Party has long ago sold us out to become their own version of the Republicans. They are "Republican-light" in that they are focused on getting more and more funds and catering to the wealthy class and those boutique issues which speak in our language but do nothing substantial to facilitate change
Well this is pretty grim, and one would hope Americans wake up soon enough to prevent the worst consequences of Trump's second election victory.......but what I find most valuable about this litany of how we all went down the magical mystery road....is the historical details.....Chris seems to have connected all the dots.
When money becomes the main attribute of power.....Musk is the result. One look at that man's face is all I need to know something pretty terrible has happened to his humanity. The richest man in the world??? How did a democracy let that obscene accumulation happen??? What collective nightmare brought us this comic book hero of the apocalypse??
Much of what Chris details is historically correct......the commodification of universities being the most egregious to my mind. When I got my masters at the University of Massachusetts, a university education was still affordable. But warmongers and war hawks saw the connection between real higher education and the protests against America's imperial war in VietNam.
Those were exciting years of protest and youth radicalism....but the right learned affordable education had to disappear. Today my daughter has just tapped us for 2.200 bucks for her last masters course........a summer class that will likely be taught on line......with next to no interaction....in the future I foresee such classes being delivered by artificial stupidity drones....
And yes.......if you count yourself in the 'liberal class' stop imagining the people choosing Trump are evil, or stupid, or something worse. They're the folks you allowed to be disenfranchised so your personal wealth could accumulate. Mammon worship is always accompanied by poverty, war, and the destruction of culture.
And here we are again....winking at genocide, arguing for more military spending, and gutting the programs ordinary people depend on. Book burning is just the icing on that totally unpalatable capitalist cake.......90% sawdust, 10% gmo corn flour.
You ask how a democracy allowed this obscene accumulation to happen? I say it is the inevitable result of liberal democracy itself. Intelligent people with critical thinking skills constitute a small minority of the population, the rest are easy to control if you have enough money to buy influence in the media. And so here we are, a media which convinces most people to fall into the comfortable slumber of work and consumerism, and those whose brains arn't satisfied with mere consumerism can usually be herded into a camp with a D or an R and convinced that if they cheer their respective camp hard enough something will actually change. Jokes on them, it's just two heads of the same monster.
Those with enough intelligence and critical thinking skills to see through that parlour trick, the ones who go out and protest genocides, are by this time few enough in number that a little state repression can easily snuff out their discontent.
The fundamental mistake in all this was thinking enough of the citizenry in a democracy have the wherewithall to see though lies and deception to really understand what is going on. Anyone imagining the average citizen has this capability simply doesn't know enough average people.
I'm not as cynical about the people as you sound......perhaps because I see the massive propaganda machine the oligarchs have been assembling since the start of NAFTA.
There is a no win situation that has been created for most ordinary people....if you have to work as hard as many of them do, its exhaustion, not stupidity that keeps them in line.
Regulation, real freedom of the press, a sound taxation system, and a refusal to let financiers have so much power would have produced different results. However.......it does seem that America has a penchant for fantasy. We watched the 2004 documentary WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE last night. It was fascinating.
Made totally from the Evangelical perspective, it painted a picture of the American mind that was fascinating......and scary. Again...mostly good people, motivated by a self centred belief in their own 'goodness'...........choosing, over and over again........right wing war mongers and wealth creators...............who promised to keep America Christian, women in their rightful place, and prayer in schools.
Critical thinking has no chance among a population run by Mega Churches. And in capitalist America, Christ and Capitalism make an obscene marriage....So I don't blame democracy. ITS THEOLOGY THAT HAS DUMBED DOWN THE AMERICAN POPULATION...to the point where war criminals get off, so long as they are evangelical war criminals.
As to the Mammon Christ railed against?? Most Americans seem to be old testament believers.......not much of the gospel of Jesus in what they profess.
Fortunately, American religiosity has been in decline since the 90's and now only about 60% belong to any religious organization. Still a big pest, but I hope things will improve when those pious people realize that the George Ws and Trumps are not on the side of god.
Certainly. But another great favor that Trump did to Canada recently was wanting to make it the the 51st state of USA. With his idiocy he allowed the the left defeat the conservatives who were posed to win. Thank you, Trump.
Yes. But unless Canadians see the parallels between this election and the American one that put in Biden.........we may only have delayed the inevitable.
There are real problems with our just barely left of centre ruling elites. They have towed the corporate agenda for the most part, left the working class behind, and virtue signalled on the most important issues of our time: climate change, inclusion for all, and the end to global wealth creation built on military might and land theft.
We need a rapid transition off fossil fuels/fools
We need affordable housing that is also net 0...and produces more energy than it uses.
We need government funded realistic educational systems for training the workers and thinkers of the future.
We need local, resilient food systems that don't depend on the foreign temp slave trade.
My understanding of history, Canadian political reform, and global capitalism suggests to me that Carney won't deliver on most of that. But I'm watching.
I don't understand your meaning here when you say, "perhaps because I see the massive propaganda machine the oligarchs have been assembling since the start of NAFTA". From what I have observed, propaganda is fantastically effective still to this day. Just consider the most recent example of Ukraine war. Nearly every NATO country is convinced that Russia is some grave threat to the existance of freedom and democracy, when the truth is we as NATO has been expanding and encroaching on Russia since the fall of the Berlin wall. We are the problem, we are the ever expanding empire, but our media has convinced most citizens of the exact opposite. Admittedly movements have arisen which are seeing through this propaganda, but on many minds it still holds strong.
On the subject of religion the evangelical perspective is terrifying to behold, particularly their religious devotion to Israel. I assume they still constitue a relatively small minority of Christians though? Correct me if I am wrong. Also important to note that Christianity also sometimes produces excellent moral thinkers and leaders, Chis Hedges and MLK Jr. come to mind immediately. But I agree that once a person becomes a believer, they generally become even more easy to manipulate. You hypothesize that religion is the cause of our inability of think critically, but perhaps it is merely a symptom of what I alluded to in my previous post?
Human's general lack of critical thinking skills was identified as far back as Plato and is exemplified in one of my favorite thought experiments of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The more you observe humans and their thought patterns, the more you realize that to varying degrees, we are all trapped in our own versions of Plato's Cave. We observe shadows on the wall, and associate ourselves with people who agree that those shadows are real. When someone tries to upset that interpretation of reality, they are invariably met with incredible resistance. The light outside the cave, it burns the eyes and is terrifying, much safer and more comfortable to stay in the cave.
I too thought evangelicals were a small part of the American society....but after watching WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE...I realized how hard they have worked...since before Carter.........to ensure a good Christian (according to their fundamentalist dim bulbs) would be president. Ideology makes critical thinking unnecessary........and much of what passes for American critical thinking is tainted by it......and by the Christian assumptions that our values are God's values.
I actually believe that human beings are very good at critical thinking.....but it goes underground, and perhaps gets cultish......if the ideology children grow up in is narrow, certain and based on absolute beliefs that can't be contradicted.
It's what passes for Culture in the west that I see as the problem......and much of that culture is a product of centuries of colonial rape and pillage....sanctioned by Christianity's "God Almighty". Yes......there are good people like Chris........and Canada's Tommy Douglas....who emerge out of Christian belief. But Christian nationalism as it has evolved in the USA is a killer.
And among the good things it seeks to eradicate is the critical, evidence based mind. So far, it seems to be winning....and I guess if God's a fascist, fascism ceases to be a problem???
As interesting as that documentary may be, I think you are missing the forest for the trees. Religiosity has been on the decline in the United States for decades now. In 1993 52% of Americans considered religion to be "very important" in their lives, in 2022 that number stands at 37%.
We are increasingly a metropolitan and secular society, so that surely does not account for any recent political or cognitive ability trends. If your hypothesis is correct people should be getting smarter.
I don't think evangelicals are the majority in America...far from it. But they are organized, have worked for years under the radar.........and perhaps most importantly...........they put a moral varnish on America's natural tendencies to world domination while imagining what they're really doing, is bringing civilization (conversion) to the world's poor.
Plus: Having God on your side is a powerful conversion....and intimidation tool. An evangelical president, as the documentary claimed George Bush was........makes for that cold blooded certainty with which that war criminal pursued his war against terrorism. Religious nuts may not be in the majority....
But they are fanatical........and know what they're fighting for. Their recent wins against abortion rights are just one example. Stay tuned for the war against trans....and other diversions from the right wing religious norm.
“In contrast to Germany, the U.S.A. had a constitution which was democratic from the start. And its ruling class managed, particularly during the imperialist era, to have the democratic forms so effectively preserved that by democratically legal means, it achieved a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism at least as firm as that which Hitler set up with tyrannic procedures.
This smoothly functioning democracy, so-called, was created by the Presidential prerogative, the Supreme Court’s authority in constitutional questions, the finance monopoly over the Press, radio, etc., electioneering costs, which successfully prevented really democratic parties from springing up beside the two parties of monopoly capitalism, and lastly the use of terroristic devices (the lynching system).
And this democracy could, in substance, realize everything sought by Hitler without needing to break with democracy formally. In addition, there was the incomparably broader and more solid economic basis of monopoly capitalism.”
Georg Lukacs
Georg Lukács, The Destruction of Reason, 770
The US was never a democracy, it was and is an Empire; a banana republic dependent on the export of bananas.
And as all Empires do when they fail, it is flailing. There is no 'United States', simply an assemblage of territories about for grabs.
Once again, again and again, as he has for decades, Hedges illustrates a reality that we refuse to look at, recognize, see. When I read "Death of the Liberal Class" I couldn't much argue against it because it reflected my lived experience. This quote describes what is already underway: "We will descend into the world of magical thinking that is the hallmark of all despotisms, one where the language we use to describe ourselves and our society bears no relationship to reality." The more Trump fails and flails, the bigger the lies will become. Eggs have dropped in price by 80%, right? Gasoline is less than $2 a gallon. And on and on with the pure fantasy.
“Chris is truly ahead of the curve. His predictions are remarkable. I remember my stepfather. He was a civil rights advocate and a criminal defense lawyer. I met him in the 1970s when I was a teenager. He told me back then that 90% of cops were corrupt. Both Chris and my stepfather were prescient about the trajectory of the United States government. I vividly recall my stepfather warning that the government had been heading in the wrong direction since the 1970s. He held that belief until his death in 2009.”
Yep, Heirs of the Robber Barons and the corporate elite were already seething because of the very popular New Deal. Then add the '60s activists. The frightened reactionaries organized as revealed by the agenda of the '71 Powell Memo. In the late '70s, the Ds went neolib, dumped the New Deal, and abandoned the majority working class. Thus enabling the Rs to go all out for plutocracy with their allies, the Christofascists.
And in 1976, after Lewis Powell was nominated for the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon and confirmed by the Senate, the Court decided Buckley v. Valeo, which equated money with speech, paving the way for our political system of bribery and control by billionaires and corporations, which Chris mentions in his article. Buckley was the precursor of Citizens United, but receives very little attention. Even if Citizens United were overturned, billionaires would still be able to buy elections under Buckley.
Chris without your extensive knowledge of corporate domination and it's destructive
effect on American lives, many of us wouldn't know why our country is in disarray. Thank you
for your compassion and intellectual clarity. Your words are courageous and inspiring!
I made it around 20 years in Higher ed, bailed in the late Nineties as it became clear that the corporate claw had already strangulated discourse beyond the fund-raiser college president's office, trickling down to the extent that even academic deans were now clearly gagged from expressing opinions in the interests of faculty and students --- the true core of any university. I left behind well-meaning faculty in denial about what was transpiring, and students getting screwed out of tuition dollars that funded a mere skeleton of the free and open discourse they thought they were part of.
May 3, 2025
Thank you, Chris Hedges, for this sobering essay, and for your work as a prophetic journalist for so many years.
I am reminded this morning of one of my favorite passages by the brilliant philosopher William James (1842-1910):
"The systematic cultivation of healthy-mindedness as a religious attitude is therefore consonant with important currents in human nature, and is anything but absurd. In fact. we all do cultivate it more or less, even when our professed theology should in consistency forbid it. We divert our attention from disease and death as much as we can; and the slaughter-houses and indecencies without end on which our life is founded are huddled out of sight and never mentioned, so that the world we recognize officially in literature and in society is a poetic fiction far handsomer and cleaner and better than the world that really is."
--John B., western Massachusetts
Honestly the gaza genocide has completely destroyed my faith in democracy itself, I no longer mourn its destruction because it produces such abhorrent evil. Give me a Chinese communist dictatorship with a stable government which seeks peace and prosperity in its international dealings any day of the week. Liberty and freedom have lead us to immoral societies which proliferate death and destruction around the world, its time to reconsider liberalism itself.
Oh, that is as old as ancient Athens.
The Peloponesian War was for centuries a cautionary tale about democracy.
Anyway, we in no wise live in a "democracy" or "democratic republic".
I had previously submitted the following post elsewhere, but thought it appropriate here:
"By the way, yesterday Israel did begin the celebration of its 77th Independence Day, 'with gratitude for being able to live free in our land despite the constant threats to our survival here,' said one delusional resident Zionist, and with military strikes across Gaza that killed 47 people and wounded 61.
"For the sake of the Palestinians, for the sake of the world, may there not be a 78th."
Given what Chris has written, given that "Israel 'R' Us," and seeing that July 4, 2026 marks this country's 250th Independence Day, may there not be a 251st. Israel needs to be de-recognized and dismantled, the USA needs to be thoroughly overhauled.
Amen, KK. Both America and Israel have never had a true Democracy and they are showing the marks of their collapse. What will come next nobody knows but I hope it will be a socialist country.
Julio - I've speculated a bit as to what the post-American-Israeli Empire world will look like, assuming it won't be lethally radioactive or underwater by then. Maybe there'd be some hope for civilization if global leadership emerges from the BRICS nations and the Global South. I think most BRICS members have experienced European colonialism, so there's a good chance that debacle won't be visited upon the peoples of the earth again.
Beyond that, I just dunno...
And the Jews in Europe also experienced holocaust and look what they are doing now to the Palestinians. No guaranties. I believe nations don't need a leader that eventually will become an empire. Thus, I would prefer a system where any country has the right to exercise its right to become whatever political, economic or religious system they want to adopt, with the only authority over them being an international organization of all the nations where every state has an equal vote on common interests related with the ecology, world peace and technology. Something akin to the UN but with teeth and with no veto power granted to any country regardless of its power. Yes, I know this is my magical thinking though I hope the magic of a true democracy will triumph.
Zionist cooperation with the Nazis has been well established, but of course the Hasbara squad is seeing to it that that is kept suppressed. For one thing the Zionists only wanted the educated and professional Jews spared for their Eretz (Ersatz) Israel, the hoi-polloi Jews they didn't care about. So in a way there's no irony in the murder of the European Jews and what the Zionists have been practicing on the Palestinians since even before 1948. In effect, they learned from the Nazis (and the British while they held the mandate).
I agree with your magical thinking. The UN has had at least some pretense to those ends - can't argue with the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example - but of course the post-WWII Global Hegemon had to control everything, and so it structured the UN to exercise its influence (to a lesser extent to western Europe too). Of course the penultimate example of that is vetoing any Security Council resolution against Israel.
As I alluded previously, maybe - just maybe - a BRICS/Global South coalition may offer the possibility of a new, more democratic, more humane world order, as many of those member nations have been victims of Western colonialism and can present different economic, political, and social models to the world.
Then again, that could just be my magical thinking.
Maybe it's not just Israel that needs to be de-recognized and dismantled, the USA needs a lot of that too, it is the world's largest criminal organization, just masquerading as a country.
And good luck with that....considering how long it took us in the west to realize we'd hitched our ideological wagons to the last settler colonial project....that, given the small land base on which it was founded, could only end in genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Time for a rerun of the famous EXODUS movie celebrating the land grab?
Ingamarie - “… considering how long it took us in the west to realize…”
I’m almost ashamed at how long it has taken me to catch on to the scam, although I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself given the stacked deck of the Israel/Zionist lobby and its Ziomedia offshoot in this country. That being said, I ask myself the question, how do I accommodate, how can I rationalize, that my knowledge not only of the dire plight of the Palestinians, but of the cruel realities of the American Empire, even of the harsh nature of life itself, has come at the horrific cost of a plausible 186,000 deaths of innocents [The Lancet, July 2024], more than half of them children, the hundreds of thousands maimed and injured, the entire population of Gaza consigned to living with severely diminished life prospects? Can any sense be made of this?
“Time for a rerun of the famous EXODUS movie celebrating the land grab?”
No, let’s please not go there, for one thing it should be referred to – if it is ever to be referred to – as the “infamous” “Exodus,” and we shouldn’t lend any acknowledgment to the Zionist fables other than to their toxicity. One problem is that Leon Uris’ opusculum is considered by laymen and policy makers alike not as a piece of mythical fiction, but as a documentary (even a deed). The same applies to Joan Peters’ once-highly touted “From Time Immemorial” which perpetuated the “Palestine is a country without a people; the Jews are a people without a country” canard. Fortunately, I have come across no mention of it - particularly as part of the propagandistic Hasbara strategy, once overseen by the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs, now under the Foreign Ministry – since it was soundly debunked as a hoax by Norman Finkelstein.
Ilan Pappe earlier this year said, “Historically, I’m willing to say with some caution that this is the last phase of Zionism. Historically, such developments in ideological movements, whether they are colonials or empires, it’s usually the final chapter [that is] the ruthless one, the most ambitious one. And then it’s too much and then they fall and collapse.”
With any luck, there won’t be that 78th celebration of Israel Independence Day.
Just wish we could find some way to make this debacle the last one.......but with what's going on in America, I suspect we're going to have to drink the hemlock......at least some of us will.
An unsustainable economy based on endless growth and the obscenity of 'wealth creation' (poverty creation for the world's majority) is collapsing as we exchange these thoughts..........my greatest fear being that as the Trump narcissist realizes his plans are failing, he'll declare war on Iran or Venezuela or......a lot of places could qualify..........and we'll advance to act 5 in this play I can't classify as tragedy or farce.
But there'll be more death of innocents, destruction of needed infrastructure, and exacerbation of the climate crisis coming for all life on earth.
A fitting end to the "American century'???
Perhaps.
Not much I can add to that, my sense too. With the Trumpanzees "running" things, I figure in the near term we'll be done in by nuclear Armageddon, somewhat longer term it'll be environmental collapse. Then again there could be bloody mass riots, maybe even Civil War Pt. II, once the economy tanks.
I guess there is no Santa Claus, is there...?
Yes. A democracy and a democratic republic is as healthy as its citizens are informed, civic-minded, passionate about justice and actively care with expenditure of time on the well being of the collective and democracy. Couch potatoes, passivity, disinterestedness, checked out citizens invite the rich to buy up everything to suck out whatever wealth the people might have. I invite readers to check out Ralph Nader's Radio Hour this week for a most informative, enlightened interview with "Erica Payne, founder of Patriotic Millionaires, to update us on that group's latest efforts to save American democracy ...". She is one very sharp woman! Excellence.
I dunno, the citizens of the Athenian democracy were pretty engaged.
Only white men born in Athens voted…women, slaves, immigrants could not.so the patriarchy of Athens “were pretty engaged” - that might translate into what - less than half the population?
That's not what "engagement" means. While Athenian democracy wasn't very democratic in the modern sense (although citizenship had nothing to do with race), the citizens of Athens followed politics very closely.
According to various sources in googling the definition of engagement, we find this:Engagement , to engage -" Engaged spirituality refers to the beliefs and practices of religious or spiritual people who actively engage in the world in order to transform it in ways consistent with their beliefs" "1. Involvement and Participation: Engage in something:This means to do something, take part in an activity, or be involved in a situation. " (google)
Re: Athenian Democracy". It allowed male citizens to actively participate in public affairs, including voting on leaders, laws, and critical issues through assemblies held on a designated hill. The assembly, which could accommodate around 6,000 citizens, was central to this political system, enabling citizens to voice their opinions and decisions openly. Additionally, a smaller council known as the Boule, composed of 500 randomly selected citizens, played a crucial role in governance and oversight.
Despite its innovative approach to citizen involvement, Athenian democracy had significant limitations. Notably, the political rights were confined to adult male citizens, excluding women, enslaved individuals, and non-residents from the democratic process. " (EBSCO.com)
Engagement , to engage -" Engaged spirituality refers to the beliefs and practices of religious or spiritual people who actively engage in the world in order to transform it in ways consistent with their beliefs" "1. Involvement and Participation: Engage in something:This means to do something, take part in an activity, or be involved in a situation. " (google)
No! Authoritarianism suffocates. What’s been missing is the people’s fervor for right action. In other words “Civic Response-ability.” We went to sleep instead of awakening from our naïveté about the consequences of the Powell Memorandum. Naïveté that denies the reality when Gingrich proclaimed the Democrats were to be regarded and treated as the enemy to be obliterated. Surely, such one-sidedness was not possible for an American who loved hir Democracy with its notion of the well-being of the whole? The “In-it-together” mindset. So, while we slept coddled by our denial that some Americans wanted to own everything no matter who or what got shredded. Power and money were the only things that counted. You and I and shared, cooperative power sharing just obstacles to conquest. And we slept. Surely -after WW2, they couldn’t mean it! And those of the corporate, biggest fat money stripe, sucking on wet dreams not just conquest of “the homeland” but of global homelands, Ambitions of Empire. Where you don’t and must not count beyond a number in the consumer columns. And be controlled by whatever means possible, uninhibited by law- domestic and global, and Nature’s. “What will you do with your one precious life?”Mary Oliver asked. Sleep? Deny? Face it? Become committed to participating in good trouble?
The '71 Powell Memo marks the spot when the anti-New Dealer and anti-Keynesian cabal became publicly visible. When Milton Friedman, who supported Pinochet because "democracy interferes with market efficiency," and his Chicago School of Economics became dominant. There's little empirical evidence for their theories; it's almost entirely assumptions and assertions. Read the Powell Memo--what's horrifying is how so many of its pro-big biz suppositions have become givens.
When this reactionary shift began there were progressive Rs and lots of Dem New Dealers in office. The Memo is most likely the motive behind the neolib unfriendly takeover of the Dem party, which began in the late '70s. It wasn't a response to Reaganism, the explanation of D apologists. The "new" Ds abandoned the majority working class and dumped the New Deal, including financial regulations. They became corporate lite, helping to make the US and the world safe for econopathy. Furthermore, their shift to the right enabled the Rs to go full out for plutocracy in alliance with the Christofascists.
Authoritarianism may suffocate individual liberties, but if done in context of communism it does so for the greater good of the country and its people. Consider the American empire I live in; we love to go around the world spreading democracy. Why is this? Because democracies are easy to control. The general population is either not capable of critical thinking, or doesn't have the time to apply independant thought to the things they read and hear, so they are easy to control through media manipulation. Control the media and you own the democracy, its as simple as that.
Unless a government has the power to stamp out malign propaganda, people with money will buy influence in the media and shape the country for their own ends. That is the current reality of America, we are a country run by people with money, and as long as we remain a democracy, people with money will continue to rule us. The antidote to this flawed governmental system is right before us in Russia, China, and Venezuela. These countries have governments which have control over their oligarchs rather than be ruled by them, as only a strong government can. The communist element ensures that the authoritarianism is directed towards positive results for the country, and the inclusion of capital markets under the watchful eye of the government in new communist countries ensures economic prosperity and efficient allocation of resources.
Even a monarchy that takes the welfare of the populace as a whole can do that, but as you say, democracies or republics can easily be directed by money.
True, I suppose monarchies do exist in the UAE, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, but to my knowledge they haven't been particularly good on the Gaza issue, despite their close proximity and demographic similarity to Palestine. But I will admit I am not an expert on exactly what those countries have been up to during this massacre of Muslim people.
Only Iran and Houthis of Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon have really done anything substantial and they are theocracies/religious movements.
Preach, sister! Law of the assassin is the only code driving the engines of consumption.
Please see my comment. The USA has kept the "appearance" of democracy while its substance has been hollowed out actively since the Powell Memorandum incited corporations over the continuing long haul to "own" everything. Scholar Sheldon Wolin referred to USA's governmental system as not a democracy, but instead "inverted totalitarianism" where oligarchy dominates. Encouragement to check in with Chris Hedges, Chomsky, Nader...all solid, all brilliant, all awake.
no, you're blaming the wrong reasons
Am I? Tell me, what types of governments are perpetuating the genocide in Gaza right now? What countries/types of governments are resisting and protesting? That right there ought to give you a compass for the new moral center of the world.
Reread your first comment, communism as a reason… was it fully implemented, fulfilled?Authoritarianism “, yes, full control of the population, our government wants that so bad
Bravo! Even Montaigne could have learned from this essay. This reader can corroborate first-hand the corruption of academia from top to bottom. Most of the other assertions and premises are observable, testable or may be assumed to be correct due to the authority of the correspondent. Anything left is probably immaterial. Sometime after The People assert themselves in a successful overthrow of this correctly characterized "corporate coup d'etat" this essay and those of Reich, Hubbell and prescient others will be included in the encyclopedia of this struggle. If more of our population access these essays and dialogues, we will stand a better chance of living to see that magnum opus. Again, Bravo!
Outstanding, and not quite as maximally depressing as some of the usual articles. Kudos!
"the idea of a life dedicated to values that cannot possibly be realized by a commercial civilization — has gradually lost its allure" I think it has lost more than its allure, it has lost traction entirely, due to a loss of logical thinking skills in the public at large. Such thoughtful concepts reach the mind, these days, and simply do the mental version of spinning their wheels until sliding into the mud of pre-fabricated infotainment that functions as our modern equivalent of that abyss Nietzsche warned about.
I'm not sure there is a 'loss of logical thinking skills', it's more a matter of just not wanting to look at reality, much better to mindlessly watch 'reality' TV and ignore the world as it passes by, unnoticed.
Mr. Hedges, your essay says it all and is beautifully written, easily understood, and has the clear ring of truth to it-as scary as that truth is. How can the Democrat party open their eyes to their part in history? My liberal friends keep focusing on Trump, Trump, Trump as if he were an artifact of history, a quirk, an accident! If we just got rid of Trump, all would be well—
Hello, Maryann - Frighteningly, the Democratic Party has been a part of the problem at least since the Clinton years, maybe even back to the Carter years (the Lewis Powell memo came out in 1971), and as Chris has previously pointed out, Trump is not the disease, he's the symptom of the wider "neoliberal, corporate forces that have destroyed our democracy [that] will continue to vomit up more monstrosities as dangerous as Donald Trump" [https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/15/trump-symptom-not-disease].
There is no one to save us, short of entire overhaul of this society, and seeing as the hedge fund and private equity partners see no quick, exploitive profit in that, it won't happen.
Yes. And as a start, the next symptom in line, Vance's arrogant and frightening fascist fanaticism, will be more monstrous and dangerous than that brainless, not to mention heartless, chaotic symptom called Trump.
JD Vance, Yale Law '05, are you as stunned by that as I am...?
Chris, is right about the reality of the situation. The question becomes, what are we going to do about it?
Chris is right on: we are in a deep mess. The questions is: What are we doing about it? The individual congressman is powerless. It takes a well-organized group to make a difference. I am unaware of any such group. Even the well-educated Congressman mouthes the party line.
Even those representatives who should know better don't want to step "out of line" for fear of being cut off. They are intimidated by AIPAC and its allies.
Chris writes an absolute masterpiece here. He has, once again, provided us with a summary of the slow-motion "coup-de-eta" which has been in the works for many decades, and is now reaching its zenith. We live in a lawless, authoritarian landscape, ruled by the dark forces of billionaire & corporate control and a felonious sociopath and his minions. The Democratic Party is a flaccid invertebrate-like facade which is scared of its own shadow and mostly goes along to get along-and whose leaders speak yet to us in that tired and impotent language of resistance. There are no leaders in the party; we are on our own. And I admit freely- I am afraid. I see the steady decline in our freedoms, every day slowly succumbing to the still-subdued but potent forces insisting on our "patriotic"compliance while eviscerating those same institutions which we once could turn to for support. I fear mostly for my children and three grandchildren (two who are female) and those freedoms which they will lose before they're old enough to know what's been taken from them. I feel the need to beg my beloved father's forgiveness. Forgiveness for not doing more to save the country he once came to for refuge from Nazi Germany, and the country he once fought to protect in WW2. For his sake, if for no one else's, I must find some way to do more.
I can't help but believe the time for revolution has arrived.
Though I agree that a total overhaul of our governmental system would be necessary to fix the problems of America, I do not see revolution as a practical option. Simply protesting against Israeli genocide has brought down the cudgel of the state hard enough to shatter and scatter that movement to the edges of society, what chance could a revolution have against the full power of the state. Worse than hopeless.
Honestly if I were able bodied enough I would immigrate to Russia or China, I see those countries as the new hope for humanity, a bulwark against the zombie democracies owned and controled by oligarchs. Democracy, we told ourselves after WW2, was going to be the peaceful rightous path for humanity, but how wrong we were! Communism also helped to defeat fascism, and though it has had its blunders and mistakes in its early stages, its new iterations which utilize capital markets produce stable leadership and economic prosperity we could only dream of having here in the United States.
With literally millions on the streets protesting, things can change, look at how it happened through many of the Eastern European countries, it's simply that too many people are too comfortable with the situation as it is, they've become accustomed to their position as a slave to the system and 'know' that fighting it will '[bring] down the cudgel of the state' on them. And make no mistake, if there are a few thousand or a few hundred thousand, that cudgel will be used, but can they do that to multiple millions of people?
When the government fears the people-NOT from threats of violence, but from the specter of work stoppages- then we will have a government of and by the people. Not of and by the Oligarchs
Well look at the Canadian trucker protests as a recently example of how that might work out. The CBC and government aligned media outlets slandered and discredited the protestors, their bank accounts were frozen, and they were eventually dispersed by riot police. And this protest was only possible because people felt personally affected by draconian governmental policies.
Imagine trying to organize a protest/strike/rebellion around ephemeral issues such as "billionaires control our government" or "freedom of speech", difficult at best. Now imagine the full power of the state comes down on your fledgling strike, protestors are de-banked/deported/arrested, intelligence agencies inflitrate the movement with spies and agent provacateurs (the FBI still refuses to disclose how many plain clothes operatives it had on the ground on Jan. 6). I recommend a deep dive into all the events surrounding Jan 6 in fact to see just how far the government will go in its suppression efforts.
Any attempt at peaceful protest or strike will be met with these measures and more. The state powers that were accumulated on 9/11 which were ostensibly to fight foreign terrorism have all been turned inward. Protestors are the new terrorists and the government over multiple agencies already spends tens of billions a year on monitoring, inflitrating, and suppressing/manipulating any movements it deems a threat to the status quo. Worse than hopeless still.
Of course the price we would/will pay for any substantive rebellion will be a high one. I have never thought that rebellion, even peaceful rebellion, would come without a tough price. Power concedes nothing without a struggle. And as Chris himself said on his talks, the state will be vicious in its response to an upheaval. The state will not cede its authority without causing great pain to the citizenry- if we even get to the point of sustained, mass uprisings which are not yet violent. We are prisoners right now in a constrictive all encompassing death march, seeing our Democracy choked out steadily over the last five decades thanks to a betrayal of the working class by a hollowed-out Democratic party which has sold itself to corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Regardless of what we do or don't do from here on in, we only have each other to rely on.
Well personally I gain hope for humanity from the rise of China, Russia and Iran as major powers resisting the expansion of the amoral "democratic" empire. Eventually our military empire will collapse or gradually weaken under its own weight is my guess and afterwards limp on as a shadow of its former glory, as most empires do.
I used to blame the Democratic party, but now I think they are just trying to play the game to win. And the way to consistantly win elections is to accumulate a large amount of funding for advertising/propaganda purposes. Propaganda is effective. The easiest and most effective way to accumulate funding is through catering to the rich/corporations. And that is, in essence, why the rich and powerful own democracies, particularly ours.
I agree with you bleak outlook but completely disagree 'the Democratic Party [neoliberal 'left'] is a flaccid invertebrate-like facade which is scared of its own shadow and mostly goes along to get along-and whose leaders speak yet to us in that tired and impotent language of resistance, they were actively promoting what you are experiencing, they were just telling you the lies you wanted to believe.
I believe the democratic Party has long ago sold us out to become their own version of the Republicans. They are "Republican-light" in that they are focused on getting more and more funds and catering to the wealthy class and those boutique issues which speak in our language but do nothing substantial to facilitate change
Well this is pretty grim, and one would hope Americans wake up soon enough to prevent the worst consequences of Trump's second election victory.......but what I find most valuable about this litany of how we all went down the magical mystery road....is the historical details.....Chris seems to have connected all the dots.
When money becomes the main attribute of power.....Musk is the result. One look at that man's face is all I need to know something pretty terrible has happened to his humanity. The richest man in the world??? How did a democracy let that obscene accumulation happen??? What collective nightmare brought us this comic book hero of the apocalypse??
Much of what Chris details is historically correct......the commodification of universities being the most egregious to my mind. When I got my masters at the University of Massachusetts, a university education was still affordable. But warmongers and war hawks saw the connection between real higher education and the protests against America's imperial war in VietNam.
Those were exciting years of protest and youth radicalism....but the right learned affordable education had to disappear. Today my daughter has just tapped us for 2.200 bucks for her last masters course........a summer class that will likely be taught on line......with next to no interaction....in the future I foresee such classes being delivered by artificial stupidity drones....
And yes.......if you count yourself in the 'liberal class' stop imagining the people choosing Trump are evil, or stupid, or something worse. They're the folks you allowed to be disenfranchised so your personal wealth could accumulate. Mammon worship is always accompanied by poverty, war, and the destruction of culture.
And here we are again....winking at genocide, arguing for more military spending, and gutting the programs ordinary people depend on. Book burning is just the icing on that totally unpalatable capitalist cake.......90% sawdust, 10% gmo corn flour.
You ask how a democracy allowed this obscene accumulation to happen? I say it is the inevitable result of liberal democracy itself. Intelligent people with critical thinking skills constitute a small minority of the population, the rest are easy to control if you have enough money to buy influence in the media. And so here we are, a media which convinces most people to fall into the comfortable slumber of work and consumerism, and those whose brains arn't satisfied with mere consumerism can usually be herded into a camp with a D or an R and convinced that if they cheer their respective camp hard enough something will actually change. Jokes on them, it's just two heads of the same monster.
Those with enough intelligence and critical thinking skills to see through that parlour trick, the ones who go out and protest genocides, are by this time few enough in number that a little state repression can easily snuff out their discontent.
The fundamental mistake in all this was thinking enough of the citizenry in a democracy have the wherewithall to see though lies and deception to really understand what is going on. Anyone imagining the average citizen has this capability simply doesn't know enough average people.
I'm not as cynical about the people as you sound......perhaps because I see the massive propaganda machine the oligarchs have been assembling since the start of NAFTA.
There is a no win situation that has been created for most ordinary people....if you have to work as hard as many of them do, its exhaustion, not stupidity that keeps them in line.
Regulation, real freedom of the press, a sound taxation system, and a refusal to let financiers have so much power would have produced different results. However.......it does seem that America has a penchant for fantasy. We watched the 2004 documentary WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE last night. It was fascinating.
Made totally from the Evangelical perspective, it painted a picture of the American mind that was fascinating......and scary. Again...mostly good people, motivated by a self centred belief in their own 'goodness'...........choosing, over and over again........right wing war mongers and wealth creators...............who promised to keep America Christian, women in their rightful place, and prayer in schools.
Critical thinking has no chance among a population run by Mega Churches. And in capitalist America, Christ and Capitalism make an obscene marriage....So I don't blame democracy. ITS THEOLOGY THAT HAS DUMBED DOWN THE AMERICAN POPULATION...to the point where war criminals get off, so long as they are evangelical war criminals.
As to the Mammon Christ railed against?? Most Americans seem to be old testament believers.......not much of the gospel of Jesus in what they profess.
Fortunately, American religiosity has been in decline since the 90's and now only about 60% belong to any religious organization. Still a big pest, but I hope things will improve when those pious people realize that the George Ws and Trumps are not on the side of god.
If that occurs than perhaps Trump will have done us a favour? Depends how willing the would be 'winners' are to continue thrashing the losers.
Certainly. But another great favor that Trump did to Canada recently was wanting to make it the the 51st state of USA. With his idiocy he allowed the the left defeat the conservatives who were posed to win. Thank you, Trump.
Yes. But unless Canadians see the parallels between this election and the American one that put in Biden.........we may only have delayed the inevitable.
There are real problems with our just barely left of centre ruling elites. They have towed the corporate agenda for the most part, left the working class behind, and virtue signalled on the most important issues of our time: climate change, inclusion for all, and the end to global wealth creation built on military might and land theft.
We need a rapid transition off fossil fuels/fools
We need affordable housing that is also net 0...and produces more energy than it uses.
We need government funded realistic educational systems for training the workers and thinkers of the future.
We need local, resilient food systems that don't depend on the foreign temp slave trade.
My understanding of history, Canadian political reform, and global capitalism suggests to me that Carney won't deliver on most of that. But I'm watching.
I don't understand your meaning here when you say, "perhaps because I see the massive propaganda machine the oligarchs have been assembling since the start of NAFTA". From what I have observed, propaganda is fantastically effective still to this day. Just consider the most recent example of Ukraine war. Nearly every NATO country is convinced that Russia is some grave threat to the existance of freedom and democracy, when the truth is we as NATO has been expanding and encroaching on Russia since the fall of the Berlin wall. We are the problem, we are the ever expanding empire, but our media has convinced most citizens of the exact opposite. Admittedly movements have arisen which are seeing through this propaganda, but on many minds it still holds strong.
On the subject of religion the evangelical perspective is terrifying to behold, particularly their religious devotion to Israel. I assume they still constitue a relatively small minority of Christians though? Correct me if I am wrong. Also important to note that Christianity also sometimes produces excellent moral thinkers and leaders, Chis Hedges and MLK Jr. come to mind immediately. But I agree that once a person becomes a believer, they generally become even more easy to manipulate. You hypothesize that religion is the cause of our inability of think critically, but perhaps it is merely a symptom of what I alluded to in my previous post?
Human's general lack of critical thinking skills was identified as far back as Plato and is exemplified in one of my favorite thought experiments of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The more you observe humans and their thought patterns, the more you realize that to varying degrees, we are all trapped in our own versions of Plato's Cave. We observe shadows on the wall, and associate ourselves with people who agree that those shadows are real. When someone tries to upset that interpretation of reality, they are invariably met with incredible resistance. The light outside the cave, it burns the eyes and is terrifying, much safer and more comfortable to stay in the cave.
I too thought evangelicals were a small part of the American society....but after watching WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE...I realized how hard they have worked...since before Carter.........to ensure a good Christian (according to their fundamentalist dim bulbs) would be president. Ideology makes critical thinking unnecessary........and much of what passes for American critical thinking is tainted by it......and by the Christian assumptions that our values are God's values.
I actually believe that human beings are very good at critical thinking.....but it goes underground, and perhaps gets cultish......if the ideology children grow up in is narrow, certain and based on absolute beliefs that can't be contradicted.
It's what passes for Culture in the west that I see as the problem......and much of that culture is a product of centuries of colonial rape and pillage....sanctioned by Christianity's "God Almighty". Yes......there are good people like Chris........and Canada's Tommy Douglas....who emerge out of Christian belief. But Christian nationalism as it has evolved in the USA is a killer.
And among the good things it seeks to eradicate is the critical, evidence based mind. So far, it seems to be winning....and I guess if God's a fascist, fascism ceases to be a problem???
As interesting as that documentary may be, I think you are missing the forest for the trees. Religiosity has been on the decline in the United States for decades now. In 1993 52% of Americans considered religion to be "very important" in their lives, in 2022 that number stands at 37%.
We are increasingly a metropolitan and secular society, so that surely does not account for any recent political or cognitive ability trends. If your hypothesis is correct people should be getting smarter.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/how-important-religion-is-in-your-life
I don't think evangelicals are the majority in America...far from it. But they are organized, have worked for years under the radar.........and perhaps most importantly...........they put a moral varnish on America's natural tendencies to world domination while imagining what they're really doing, is bringing civilization (conversion) to the world's poor.
Plus: Having God on your side is a powerful conversion....and intimidation tool. An evangelical president, as the documentary claimed George Bush was........makes for that cold blooded certainty with which that war criminal pursued his war against terrorism. Religious nuts may not be in the majority....
But they are fanatical........and know what they're fighting for. Their recent wins against abortion rights are just one example. Stay tuned for the war against trans....and other diversions from the right wing religious norm.
Traitors they are indeed. I am not an American but bewail the fate now of the USA as I do that of Israel by implication in the poem ...
The Chosen
How dare you perpetrators of the war in Palestine
fail to chose virtue over vice,
compassion over corruption,
and good over evil !
What do you think to be chosen means
when it is that Ultimate Reality that Chooses ?
Is it not
that the good, compassionate and virtuous flourish ?
Your destiny now is to wither away.
For your demonstrable choices have been
the evil of countless innocent infants deaths,
the corrupting lies spoken and published to justify such atrocities,
the vicious delight in obliterating hospitals, universities and houses of worship
displayed in your own social media recordings.
Reflect on this and repent.
That you you may become of The Chosen again.
“In contrast to Germany, the U.S.A. had a constitution which was democratic from the start. And its ruling class managed, particularly during the imperialist era, to have the democratic forms so effectively preserved that by democratically legal means, it achieved a dictatorship of monopoly capitalism at least as firm as that which Hitler set up with tyrannic procedures.
This smoothly functioning democracy, so-called, was created by the Presidential prerogative, the Supreme Court’s authority in constitutional questions, the finance monopoly over the Press, radio, etc., electioneering costs, which successfully prevented really democratic parties from springing up beside the two parties of monopoly capitalism, and lastly the use of terroristic devices (the lynching system).
And this democracy could, in substance, realize everything sought by Hitler without needing to break with democracy formally. In addition, there was the incomparably broader and more solid economic basis of monopoly capitalism.”
Georg Lukacs
Georg Lukács, The Destruction of Reason, 770
The US was never a democracy, it was and is an Empire; a banana republic dependent on the export of bananas.
And as all Empires do when they fail, it is flailing. There is no 'United States', simply an assemblage of territories about for grabs.
Once again, again and again, as he has for decades, Hedges illustrates a reality that we refuse to look at, recognize, see. When I read "Death of the Liberal Class" I couldn't much argue against it because it reflected my lived experience. This quote describes what is already underway: "We will descend into the world of magical thinking that is the hallmark of all despotisms, one where the language we use to describe ourselves and our society bears no relationship to reality." The more Trump fails and flails, the bigger the lies will become. Eggs have dropped in price by 80%, right? Gasoline is less than $2 a gallon. And on and on with the pure fantasy.
BRAVISSIMO, Chris.
.
my subscription,
Worth Every
Penny.