Why Chris Hedges Believes That Serious Revolt Is the Only Option People Have Left

[Kurovski]

"... We are seeing the conscious and deliberate creation by the corporate state of a permanent, insecure and terrified underclass within the wider society. They have had a lot of practice in refining these techniques in the sacrifice zones, such as West Virginia, we wrote about. The corporate state sees this permanent and desperate underclass as the most effective weapon to thwart rebellion and resistance as our economy is reconfigured to wipe out the middleclass and leave most of us at subsistence level. Huge pools of unemployed and underemployed effectively blunt labor organizing, since any job, no matter how menial, is zealously coveted. The beating down of workers, exacerbated by the refusal to extend unemployment benefits for hundreds of millions of Americans and the breaking of public sector unions, the last redoubt of union power, has transformed those in the working class from full members of society, able to participate in its debates, the economy and governance, into terrified people in fragmented pools preoccupied with the struggle of private existence...

...The electoral process has been hijacked by corporations. The judiciary has been corrupted and bought. The press shuts out the most important voices in the country and feeds us the banal and the absurd. Universities prostitute themselves for corporate dollars. Labor unions are marginal and ineffectual forces. The economy is in the hands of corporate swindlers..."

http://www.alternet.org/books/why-chris-hedges-believes-serious-revolt-only-option-people-have-left?page=0%2C0

[Viva_Daddy]

1. Maybe "The Hunger Games" was "prophecy" rather than fiction.

[cali]

2. whatthefuckever, chris.

I'm poor. I'm disabled. You can go fuck yourself with a rake, Hedges. You're an elitist piece of crap. You don't give a shit about people so stop with the pretense.

If Romney and Ryan somehow make it to the White House and repubs hold the house and take the senate, the most vulnerable, the poor, the middle class are so fucked.

And frankly, I think YOU, dear OP, should not be posting pleas not to vote- and of course that's what this is, but as I started out with this post: whatthefuckever.

Variation on the "they're just the same theme" #5,372.


and yes, I read the whole lousy polemic. gad, he's full of shite.

[Kurovski]

4. I don't see it as a plea not to vote.

Not in the least.

I think it was Howard Zinn who said we still get to stand on the ledge when we vote.

But as usual, you are the boss.

[cali]

5. I'm the boss? say what?

Hedges has long been beating the anti-vote drum and he excoriates Obama at every possible turn. In this piece he says revolt is the only option, ergo logic dictates, dear, that voting is not an option. It's not fucking quantum physics. Hedges plays fast and loose with facts and his writing is almost invariably a harangue these days.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002205710

[starroute]

10. There's no "logic dictates" about it

Let's start by assuming Obama is the man we thought he was in 2008. Let's assume that what he promised during the campaign was what he truly wanted to do.

Then compare those dreams of hope and change to what we've actually gotten. It's only a fraction of what we were promised -- and even that fraction is partial and compromised.

If even Obama -- who, let us agree, is the best person we could possibly have elected -- is incapable of defying the military-industrial complex, the national security state, and the CIA. If even Obama is incapable of getting a truly progressive agenda past a Congress of lockstep Republicans who can always pick off a few Blue Dog Democrats. If even Obama has to wear a flag pin, play the rah-rah patriotism game, and lend his presence to national prayer breakfasts.

Then what hope is there, really, in voting -- except the negative one of holding at bay the forces that would dismantle us entirely and sell the pieces off to the highest bidder?

In that sense, voting may not be an entirely pointless exercise -- but it's certainly useless when it comes to making the genuine changes we need if we and the planet are to survive.

That's what I take to be Hedges' message.

And if you think differently -- if you think that voting alone, in the age of Citizens United and Karl Rove's $1 billion war chest, really will get us out of the hole we're in -- I hope you can explain the scenario by which this miracle is going to be accomplished.

[villager]

22. excellent analysis, starroute!

And I agree with you -- when even the "hope and change" candidate is swept into office, and can only deliver a few crumbs of "change" - as the planet burns, etc., well then, that tells you all about the efficacy of "voting" to bring deep, structural change...

[stopbush]

26. Obama delivered only a fraction of what we were promised? Like, what? 85%?

Seriously, Obama has gotten more major legislation through Congress than just about anyone. You sound like a Rethug.

[Doctor_J]

38. Rec this reply

I don't understand why DUers must bash anyone who says, "the status quo sucks, and electing the current Dems isn't helping much". That couldn't be more clear, and yet anyone who points it out is lambasted.

Good post, star

[Kurovski]

11. Well, this...

"I think YOU, dear OP, should not be posting pleas not to vote"...Bossy, even as to how I should percieve a statement.

There is no urging not to vote in this article I have posted. I would not have posted such an urging."The only option for real change" does not immediatly result in not voting in an election. As I read it, the statement does not state that NO change will occur with a vote. Logic is not always a case of "either-or".


I like it on the ledge for now.

What I don't like is your patronising use of the term"dear". But I can live with it. Indeed, we all more-or-less must.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. I, too, do not see your post as a plea "not to vote."

[Bonobo]

16. I hear a lot of fear.

Darling, dearie, sweetie... (I will speak to you as you speak to others) What could be a more effective strategy, and a more time-tested one, than manipulating people with crushing fear?

You illustrate quite well, without intending to do so, the truth of what we're trying to get out there.

We're in a fuck load of fucking trouble and scavenging the last shred of meat off athrown away bone may get you through today and maybe tomorrow... but not next year.

[cali]

29. Of course I fear an R/R administration

Probably in a way YOU don't need to.

You live in Japan. You're not, to my knowledge, disabled and dependent on Medicaid. Easy for you and those of your ilk to rah rah tearing it all down.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

18. It is obvious that the OP did not post a plea "not to vote." It should be obvious to you.

[PSPS]

3. "refusal to extend unemployment benefits for hundreds of millions of Americans"

The beating down of workers, exacerbated by the refusal to extend unemployment benefits for hundreds of millions of Americans and the breaking of public sector unions, the last redoubt of union power, has transformed those in the working class from full members of society, able to participate in its debates, the economy and governance, into terrified people in fragmented pools preoccupied with the struggle of private existence...

While anyone would agree the situation is grim, it's hard to take a piece seriously that is so cavalier with the facts (i.e., "hundreds of millions" would be impossible as there are only about 150 million working-age adults in the US.)

[Kurovski]

6. It's an interview, so that may be an error of immediacy or even editing.

he also speaks in terms of a future America, based on "sacrifice zones", already created in areas such as West Virginia, as spreading everywhere.

He does employ the hyperbole.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. I got his back...

...way back.

[bhikkhu]

8. Anyone who advocates revolution as a better alternative than electing sane politicians...

Is an asshat. I don't care if he's left or right. It would be so much easier to fix things at this point - enforcing Dodd-Frank, the Volker Rule, an easy national ID system and voting reform, hiking the minimum wage, etc, etc...

I'd challenge anyone to give an example of a revolution in a complex developed economy that didn't wind up with one chaotic emergency and unplanned disaster another. Long-term declines in health, chronic poverty, infrastructure loss, are all much easier to wind up with once you start smashing things.

[Kurovski]

12. Do you feel that the Occupy Movement are a bunch of asshats?

The article clearly states peaceful means.


You think we should not revolt in any manner against citizen's United?

[bhikkhu]

15. I believe the Occupy Movement advocates the election of sane politicians

...who advocate for and represent their best interests. Which is a different thing than revolution.

Given a congress in full possession of its faculties, the citizen's united crap could be fixed by a good election finance reform bill.

[jberryhill]

25. The Occupy Movement is pre-occupied with a tangent

The primary thrust of the Occupy Movment is about police tactics and urban camping.

The next president is going to have Supreme Court appointments which will definitely set this country on one course or the other for a generation to come.

[hack89]

30. Occupy for the most part is advocating change within the political system.

they are not asshats if they do not embrace non-democratic means - which they have not.

[limpyhobbler]

20. Hedges isn't taking about a "revolution" in the same sense you are using it. He is talking about

using non-violent civil disobedience such as was advocated by Martin Luther King. To confront power and demand fixes. It's pretty clear to a lot of us that voting alone is no longer enough.

Your talk about "smashing things" shows you are not familiar with what he advocates. Did you even read the article?

[bhikkhu]

39. You're right, a better reading of the article...

and my disagreement with it is more a matter of semantics than substance. I'll do better next time!

[villager]

23. "Long-term declines in health, chronic poverty, infrastructure loss..."

You mean, the exact things we're getting now.. with voting?

[Doctor_J]

31. What if we can't elect "sane politicians"?

Seriously, at what point would you accept fighting back?

[nc4bo]

9. Camden, NJ

And as conditions worsen the corporate state, which controls the systems of information and entertainment, renders the poor and cities like Camden invisible.

Camden, Detroit - I'm sure there are dozens of once thriving cities that fit the description.

CH: You cannot use the word hope if you do not resist. If you resist, even if it appears futile, you keep hope alive. And in every sacrifice zone we visited, including Immokalee where the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have organized tomato workers, we saw heroic struggles to fight back. But at the same time it is vital to remember that we cannot achieve significant reform or restore our democracy through established mechanisms of power. The electoral process has been hijacked by corporations. The judiciary has been corrupted and bought. The press shuts out the most important voices in the country and feeds us the banal and the absurd. Universities prostitute themselves for corporate dollars. Labor unions are marginal and ineffectual forces. The economy is in the hands of corporate swindlers

We are living through this right now, can't we all see it? Why can't we all see and feel what's coming? All the people who think of themselves as Republican, seem to think they will become a Mitt Romney or Sheldon Adelson or, they have a few dollars and in their own minds, ARE one of them. How do you reach those who do everything they can to achieve stardom but will never ever realize their minds' fantasy world unless they hit the Big Lotto or win American Idol? They will never become one of them except by pure luck. Just how many lucky breaks do they think exists in this world?

The rest are a bunch of dolts whose only concern is making sure their stupid religious ideology is forced upon an entire society.

CH: The importance of the Occupy movement, and the reason I suspect its encampments were so brutally dismantled by the Obama administration, is that the corporate state understood and feared its potential to spark a popular rebellion. I do not think the state has won. All the injustices and grievances that drove people into the Occupy encampments and onto the streets have been ignored by the state and are getting worse. And we will see eruptions of discontent in the weeks and months ahead.

If these mass protests fail, opposition will inevitably take a frightening turn. The longer we endure political paralysis, the longer the formal mechanisms of power fail to respond, the more the extremists on the left and the right - those who venerate violence and are intolerant of ideological deviations - will be empowered. Under the steady breakdown of globalization, the political environment has become a mound of tinder waiting for a light

This article is sooooooo damn depressing because it rings so true. to me.

[truedelphi]

17. I just read this on Facebook:

DDivide and Conquer:
To effectively control a nation, allow the citizens a little hope by offering them a choice of which of your two political parties they would like to submit their will to.

Then encourage debate only within the limited scope of the two party system. This will force the citizenry to go around in circles, while the major agendas are implemented regardless of whichever of the parties is put in power.

Our election is only smoke and mirrors. Mirrors and smoke. In any event, the bankers continue to plunder 49 cents out of every dollar of profit. Nuclear power plants will be given the full go ahead, as the Political Class wants the payback they will receive. We have seen scant little leadership (except maybe Bernie Sanders.)

People blame the Republicans for everything that is bad - but it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her State Department that asked for Keystone XL Pipeline to be built. Monsanto is stronger now after three and three quarters years of Obama's Administration than ever before.
The Trans Pacific Plan will be achieved, and the specter of Chinese factories roaring along in a New America where Americans make a mere $ 18 a day might be at hand. As far as revolt - who would dare to in a nation where every metropolis has a police force fully militarized and backed up by drones?

[Kalidurga]

13. So a revolt with a bit of levity won't do the trick?

I agree with the sentiment that things are seriously F'd up. But, I think we have a window of opportunity to turn things around at the ballot box. I think at this point it is crucial that we get together with people in our communities and talk to each other. We are learning politics isn't just all local. Local politics can influence the national stage, this is where the tea baggers came from they got into local elections and finally they got into DC. If we want people in DC that can make the necessary changes we have to start on a local level but think nationally.

[Major Hogwash]

14. I think Mitch Romney is revolting enough that voting for Obama will do the trick.

I wouldn't give Romney's troubles to a monkey . . . on a rock!!

[longship]

21. I'll tell you why. He's jumped the shark.

Lots of hyperbole there.

I've liked Hedges for some time, but recently he has fallen off my preferred reading list. This article is an exemplar of the reason why.

[limpyhobbler]

24. Hedges is right. The system is broken.

[BeyondGeography]

27. And yet, corporate money isn't doing it for RomneyCo so far

I find it far more exciting to get outspent by the likes of the Kochs, Adelson, etc., and beat their ass anyway. Should this occur, it would suggest that the corporations lost because they are getting worse by the day at giving people what they need from them; economic and personal security. They are holding parties for the owners and they keep forgetting to invite the line employees.

You get even with them by doing exactly what Obama is doing. Beating them, and moving the country in a more equitable direction than they would have it go. That smells like real revolt to me.

[Doctor_J]

32. What do you mean?

Despite being a mean, lying, do-nothing hypocrite, with a running mate who fits the same description, he is within striking distance and could win with the voter suppression. the corporate money (and media control) is doing wonders for him.

[BeyondGeography]

33. It would be close anyway

Nothing in the last 45 years of American politics suggests otherwise. Or maybe you can point to that Democratic presidential election landslide in a struggling economy (or any economy) post-1964 that we all don't know about. Unemployment is over 8% and Obama has maintained a lead. The corporate money is doing very little for Mitt.

[99Forever]

34. Good grief.

You think this is some sort of freakin' sports event?

Holy crap, we really are fucked.

[BeyondGeography]

35. Great post

Enlightening.

[99Forever]

42. Rah rah!

Go team!

Yay!!!!!!!!

[graham4anything]

44. Jerry Brown told Meg Whitman what to do with her money

money can't buy you love

[graham4anything]

28. Hedges is a another conspiracy theory nut who makes money off of panic

anyone who uses the both parties are the same bullshit wants Mitt Romney to win

end of story.

Those conspiracy theorists really got what they wanted, didn't they, when Bush43 was seated in 2000 by people listening to the lies that Bush and Gore were the same

bullshit

complete 100% bullshit

[Fumesucker]

40. More registered Democrats voted for Bush in 2000 than for Nader..

[graham4anything]

43. thanks to Ralph Nader's lies, what a corporate shill he turned into.

Nader is an a-hole who was propped by the rightwing.
His legacy is dirt. A sell out.

but most of all, Nader was a liar.And a corporate shill
He got people to believe falsely that Gore and Bush were the same.


No matter what, just the US Supreme Court decision said it all. And Gore wouldn't have put Roberts or Alito on the court.

but anarchy is bad and wrong and never warranted.
quickest way to lose your freedom is to vote republican or for the Ron Paul family
Just akin to cult groups that brainwash

[Fumesucker]

45. No, those Democrats voted for Bush because they wanted to have a (non alcoholic) beer with him..

Not to mention that Gore didn't even win his own state of Tennessee, which if he had Florida would have been irrelevant.

Oh, and Gore's fat and he invented the internet.

[sufrommich]

36. Chris Hedges is no different than a teabagger. All

apocalyptic fear mongering all the time.

[gateley]

37. Bookmarking. Great comments, guys, now I have to come back and rad hr piece!

[raouldukelives]

41. At some point retaining the ecosystem that gives us life.

That gives us all the things we cherish. That is undeniably the most important gift we will leave to the world. Has to become a priority. Chris would like to live in that world. So would I. And if I may be so bold, I think all your potential future grandchildren would too.
No amount of regulations would ever be enough or happen quickly enough. The money machine will not be stopped. Standing with our President is the only answer, right now. R&R would send the ravages of corporatism into overdrive instead of just being set on cruise control. Anything we can do to keep it at its current level is least we can do. Anything we can do to slow down and actually make the world better is the best we can hope for.

[Egalitarian Thug]

46. Reading the replies, I had to K&R this.

The 3rd way types are in panic mode. If President Obama should lose this election they are terrified that they will be rightly blamed for the disaster that follows.

Chris Hedges is no different than a teabagger.
Hedges is a another conspiracy theory nut who makes money off of panic
He's jumped the shark.