Chris Hedges is an amazingly knowledgeable and insightful journalist who writes thought-provoking — and sometimes disturbing — articles about our nation and the world we live in.
Just before the November 2018 election, Chris Hedges spoke to an audience. He provided BY FAR THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE and MOST PROFOUND analysis of Trumpism and the U.S.’s current crisis that I have EVER seen!
What we’re experiencing is far from “politics as usual,” so merely electing Democrats is NOT anywhere near what we need.
Chris Hedges’ speech begins by explaining how economic elites have severed social relationships and social sustainability in order to grab more than their fair share of our wealth. He lays a foundation in the first 8 minutes for his critique of current economic exploitation, and by minute 18 he is talking about what the economic elites will do when their empire is dying.
He proceeds to explain clearly that when people are exploited as they increasingly are, they are open to exploitation by demagogues who exploit their fears and anxieties and who provide them with scapegoats upon whom to vent their frustrations and hatred. Much of this has been written by a variety of people including me. (See http://parallaxperspectives.org/our-nations-crisis-how-we-got-into-it-and-how-to-get-out and the November & December TV programs “Choose a Better Worldview to Create a Better World” and the thorough essays I wrote that significantly flesh them out. Both TV programs and both essays are at this link: http://parallaxperspectives.org/tv-programs-part-2-of-choose-a-better-worldview-to-build-a-better-world)
Chris Hedges’ brilliant speech goes beyond that and explains Trump as a demagogue, a “cult leader” who has arisen from a failed democracy. Trump demonizes “enemies” and wins by breaking society’s rules and by destroying the status quo. Ordinary politics (electing Democrats, etc.) are NOT anywhere near as strong as the remedies that really are needed in order to defeat Trump and his cult.
Hedges’ speech is very insightful, profound, and frightening. But we really need to understand it, because mainstream politics (and even “progressive” politics) simply do NOT understand the depth of what’s happening! Neither our political process nor our media dare to go to the depth of this. Electing Democrats will NOT save us!
The underlying problem is the very profound, far-reaching social/political/economic decay. We need a nonviolent overthrow of this radically corrupt “corporate state.”
His speech runs for 53 ½ minutes, and ALL of it is worth watching! The second hour is Q&A.
If you watch or read NOTHING else this week, or this month, WATCH THIS VIDEO:
Here is the link to my blog post introducing his video. My blog post includes a link to the video itself:
http://parallaxperspectives.org/american-anomie-chris-hedges-thoughtful-article-about-some-aspects-of-our-current-crisis
If you don’t have much time, PLEASE watch the first 8 minutes, but it keeps getting stronger and stronger.
I VERY, VERY highly recommend this video:
https://www.truthdig.com/videos/chris-hedges-on-the-ruleless-ness-tearing-apart-our-world-video/
