A snippet of brutal truth from Chris Hedges

[SHRED]

The aim of the corporate state is not to feed, clothe or house the masses, but to shift all economic, social and political power and wealth into the hands of the tiny corporate elite. It is to create a world where the heads of corporations make $900,000 an hour and four-job families struggle to survive. The corporate elite achieves its aims of greater and greater profit by weakening and dismantling government agencies and taking over or destroying public institutions. Charter schools, mercenary armies, a for-profit health insurance industry and outsourcing every facet of government work, from clerical tasks to intelligence, feed the corporate beast at our expense. The decimation of labor unions, the twisting of education into mindless vocational training and the slashing of social services leave us ever more enslaved to the whims of corporations. The intrusion of corporations into the public sphere destroys the concept of the common good. It erases the lines between public and private interests. It creates a world that is defined exclusively by naked self-interest.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_collapse_of_globalization_20110328/


----

[KG]

1. Chris Hedges knows what time it is...

[EFerrari]

16. I used to think he was prophetic.

Lately, it's more like simply descriptive.

[roxiejules]

46. Amen!

:kick:

[Selatius]

2. That paragraph is the blueprint for the return of fascism.

Instead of one dictator at the top, it's going to be a board of directors. Instead of a one-party state, it's going to be a state with multiple parties with each party bought and compromised. Instead of one outlet for corporate propaganda, there will be many espousing the same viewpoints yet each claiming to be different. Instead of no elections, there will be rigged elections wherever possible.

[davekriss]

11. I don't understand why you use future tense

The neo-fascist state hedges and you describe, It's already here.

[femrap]

38. I believe we should have

the option to vote for: None of the Above.

[sad sally]

41. "In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

George Orwell

[glinda]

43. Dictator in each State makes it easier to destroy, incarcerate, kill people. Multiple ones

acting in unison is a pox upon our Country and hard to stop.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. I hope more folks begin to realize that America has been "acquired"

by corporate interests.

[Marblehead]

4. Chris Hedges

doesn't like Obama either.

[cui bono]

14. ?

[Marblehead]

23. ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQfRwey_o4c
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama/

[housewolf]

5. K&R for Chris Hedges

n/t

[BeHereNow]

6. I read that peice earlier today- thanks for posting it, it needs to be read by one and all. n/t

bhn

[n2doc]

7. The heart of the matter:

.....But none of this is going to change until we turn our backs on the Democratic Party, denounce the orthodoxies peddled in our universities and in the press by corporate apologists and construct our opposition to the corporate state from the ground up. It will not be easy. It will take time. And it will require us to accept the status of social and political pariahs, especially as the lunatic fringe of our political establishment steadily gains power. The corporate state has nothing to offer the left or the right but fear. It uses fear—fear of secular humanism or fear of Christian fascists—to turn the population into passive accomplices. As long as we remain afraid nothing will change.

[villager]

8. And really, why should we remain afraid when there is nothing left to lose?

:shrug:

[AKDavy]

30. People who believe they have nothing left to loose are powerful

I hope for a critical mass of Americans who realize they have nothing left to lose.

[TalkingDog]

29. +1000

The core idea behind most good Zombie movies. The Un-Dead dead have power precisely because they have absolutely nothing left to lose.


The Un-Dead Party: We've got Braaaaaiinnnzzz!

[AKDavy]

31. That IS the heart of the matter

I once worked for a refining company, and we had an "employee PAC." We had one rule: BUY EVERYBODY. Whatever candidate won was equally beholding. If we donated money to one, we donated an identical amount to the leading opponent.

Both parties are for sale. Both parties have been bought.

And when you can't buy the election, just buy the elected.

[Patiod]

42. I like Hedges, but he's wrong. I agree with Thom Hartmann.

Change the Democratic Party from within.

We see what happens when we turn our back on the Democrats - Paul LePage happens, Scott Walker happens, John Kasich, Tom Corbett happens, Chris Christie, Rick Scott happens.

We turn our back on Democrats and John Roberts happens ("But, but, but, but Nader was so much more aligned with my <i>values</i> and I wanted to vote for him. So sorry that Bush got elected and got those appointments - but hey - I was making a <i>statement</i>!!!!!").

We turn our back on Democrats, and unions are destroyed, while corporations and the rich get big tax cuts. We turn our backs on Democrats and OSHA is destroyed, and people die.

Yeah, sometimes some Democrats really suck, but sometimes Dean gets some power, and sometimes Paul Wellstone gets a voice. And Roberts NEVER gets nominated. And Scalia and Thomas NEVER get nominated.

So stay home in 2012, and let the teabaggers win. And see how you like our country then. Scott Walker irritates you? See how you like President Bachmann. See how you like President Huckabee. See how you like President Romney.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

44. I believe we are starting into that period of change, we need to

clearly identify what changes we want and how to accomplish them. Perhaps the largest problem in our culture is wanting it to happen overnight, it will take time.

[tonybgood]

51. I disagree.

Really want to shake things up.VOTE THEM OUT!!! Whether Democrat or Republican, the two political parties have been bought by the special interests. They have divided our country in order to hold their power and reward those who paid for their election. If you really want change NOW, when you go to the voting booth and you see a (D) or an (R) next to a candidate's name; DON'T VOTE FOR THEM!!!

[democrank]

9. Like Howard Dean said....

"YOU have the power."

No change= no check, no vote.

[cui bono]

15. That's what they want. The less people vote the easier it is for them.

Unfortunately it's gotten to the point where our vote doesn't count any more.

And that means we have to use means other than the ballot box.

[bertman]

22. Truer words were never spoken, cui bono.

Those Presidential elections in '00 and '04 taught us that. If only we would learn the lesson.

[AKDavy]

33. Time to start throwing our wooden shoes

into the machinery of the status quo.

Imagine the shockwaves of even a one-week general boycott of all nonessential spending.

[slipslidingaway]

10. knr nt

[WCGreen]

12. It's the Roman Empire all over again...

[SpiralHawk]

13. "We luvs us that naked self-interest shit. Ummmm good." - Republicons Against America

[ProgressIn2008]

17. K&R for Hedges. nt

[hifiguy]

18. 100% Truth there

n/t

[disillusioned73]

19. Thanks for sharing.... here are some snips I found worth reiterating here,

"Dying civilizations often prefer hope, even absurd hope, to truth. It makes life easier to bear. It lets them turn away from the hard choices ahead to bask in a comforting certitude that God or science or the market will be their salvation. This is why these apologists for globalism continue to find a following. And their systems of propaganda have built a vast, global Potemkin village to entertain us."


"The perversion of values has created a landscape where corporate management by sleazy figures like Donald Trump is confused with leadership and where the ability to accumulate vast sums of money is confused with intelligence. And when we do glimpse the poor or working class on our screens, they are ridiculed and taunted. They are objects of contempt, whether on “The Jerry Springer Show” or “Jersey Shore.”

[freshwest]

20. And will continue to result in disasters of all kinds.

[felix_numinous]

21. K&R

What are we going to do about the next election?? Will we insist on real representation with real countable ballots??

[RevStPatrick]

24. That paragraph may be the perfect distillation...

...of what is happening these days. It's simply bizarre to me that there are so many people who don't understand this, and even applaud this although it goes completely against their own best interests.

[Plucketeer]

26. It IS incomprehensible

that those who'll suffer most from the corporate crescendo are applauding it's rise!

Like Chris said a couple of months ago: Capitalism is doomed to eventually feeding on itself. It simply can not go on, forever growing. By it's very nature, it is destined to collapse once it devours all the easy pickin's. We little folk are just collateral damage to the crash.

[whatchamacallit]

25. K&R (nt)

[Catherina]

27. Rec'd. That's the paragraph of the year n/t

[cate94]

28. K & R

[PufPuf23]

32. kr nt

[WillyT]

34. K & R !!!

:kick:

[thereismore]

35. Nanny state: bad. Corporate state: good.

You want a nanny state? You are a man (woman), you don't need a nanny state!

You don't like a corporate state? You are a man (woman), take the pain!

[bvar22]

36. K&R #128

Well Said.
Obvious to those paying attention over the last 30 years.

[goodnews]

37. The corporatists goal is to keep the population desperate and divided

It has been the standard method of suppressing the masses for millenia. In the late 1300's the Great Uprising of of peasants in England with the help of the Long Bow nearly overthrew the entire nobility in the country. This is a bit of history that we know so little about, though we know of Robyn Hode and Lady Godiva, jousts and wars for profit. Out of this the nobility and the state learned something:

When they were hungry and desperate, none complained-- So stated contemporary writer William Langland in Piers Plowman.

The job then was to keep them that way.



They hang the man, and flog the woman,
That steals the goose from off the common;
But let the greater villain loose,
That steals the common from the goose.

[snagglepuss]

49. Well said. Welcome to DU.

:hi:

[socialist_n_TN]

39. I saw two examples of the first sentence just today.....

I used to work for a mortgage brokerage company. It was a (relatively) small business, mom and pop type store. Because of the way the financial reform laws have been rewritten, it's harder for these small firms to stay in business. The laws were rewritten to funnel the trade that used to go into these small businesses into the major Wall St. mortgage banks. There's MORE red tape and LESS income for these small businesses where the major firms don't have to change their practices very much at all.

Another example was a small one person contractor that I know. She retired her license in '04 and now wants to reactivate it. It's costing her MORE in dollars and time to reactivate than it did to get the license to begin with. And since this is Tennessee, they make it EASIER to set up a LARGE contracting business than to reactivate her small firm.

Both examples of funnelling business into the major corps and making it harder for a TRUE small business to get set up. Eventually, when most business is in the major corps they'll price fix and we're all screwed. Or screwed even more.

[jwirr]

40. That is very clear to most of us down here but they must not be able

to see it at the SCOTUS. They are supposed to be protecting the constitution not the corporations. Personhood indeed.

[ProudDad]

45. When will the sheep look up?

Rhetorical question...

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

47. I honestly don't know when the sheep will realize what is

actually happening in this country.

We've been fed pablum from the media for the last 30 years. My father predicted all of this the night Rayguns was elected in 1980. He didn't have a crystal ball, he just knew how mean and corrupt the entire Republican party was and is. I'm glad he's not around now to see what's happening. He would be heartbroken to see his beloved country become bought and paid for by corporations and lobbyists.

[ProudDad]

48. It's frustrating...

But one can be damn sure it's got to be a mass movement like in Egypt (or Wisconsin on steroids)...

We sure can't expect the corrupt system that supports the two-right-wings of the Corporate War Party to change anything...

[defendandprotect]

50. Fascism knows no bounds -- !!

[earcandle]

52. thank you! well said.