Christopher Hedges - The American Empire is Over

[161803398]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zotYU21qcU

[WhiteFeather]

It's about forking time. Down The $hitter it goes with all the toilet paper they used as currency.

[CivilDawn]

I'm only 3:00 in and this guy is hitting some solid points. Thanks!

[DreamsInDigital]

can someone please summarize for those of us that don't have 2+ hours to watch this?

[161803398]

can someone please summarize for those of us that don't have 2+ hours to watch this?

Cant. But its worth the 3 hours. Here are a couple of excerpts from his book:

―The election of Obama was one more triumph of illusion over substance. It was a skillful manipulation and betrayal of the public by a corporate power elite. We mistook style and ethnicity—an advertising tactic pioneered by Calvin Klein and Benetton—for progressive politics and genuine change. The goal of a branded Obama, as with all brands, was to make passive consumers mistake a brand for an experience. And this is why Obama was named Advertising Age‘s marketer of the year for 2008.....

‎"Our elites—the ones in Congress, the ones on Wall Street and the ones being produced at prestigious universities and business schools—do not have the capacity to fix our financial mess. Indeed, they will make it worse. They have no concept, thanks to the educations they have received, of the common good. They are stunted, timid and uncreative bureaucrats who are trained to carry out systems management. They see only piecemeal solutions which will satisfy the corporate structure. They are about numbers, profits and personal advancement. They are as able to deny gravely ill people medical coverage to increase company profits as they are able to use taxpayer dollars to peddle costly weapons systems to blood-soaked dictatorships. The human consequences never figure into their balance sheets. The democratic system, they think, is a secondary product of the free market. And they slavishly serve the market."

[161803398]

He talks a bit about Smedley Butler.

http://rationalrevolution.net/war/major_general_smedley_butler_usm.htm

I didn't know about the plot to seize the Whitehouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ2-XR8NhXU

[161803398]

He talks about -James Cone and the failure of White American theologians.

http://www.amazon.com/Cross-Lynching-Tree-James-Cone/dp/1570759375

-the military being well aware that Iraq was pure folly.

- how he came to understand the point of view of the rest of the world toward America and what their experience is like.

- the Occupy movement. The inability of the tone deaf elite to remedy the problem and that civil disobedience is the only option. How the elite are constantly monitoring what we think so they know what lies to tell us.

- how Obama betrayed the people consciously. George was basically clueless but Obama knew what he was doing and decided to betray the people and become a servant in order to have power.

- the battle for American democracy has been one long battle against the elites.

- he doesn't like magical thinking of Oprah, self help gurus, Hollywood etc. as myths used to beat up the poor.

- he was arrested in front of Goldman Sachs and he talks about what it was like to be there. He talks about the foolishness of the corporate forces to think they can push people around.

- he says how you deal with "terrorism" is the empathy of the masses of the people who will isolate the "terrorists" in their own communities but the American government screwed up. The Americans had the sympathy of the world after 9/11 and they blew it.

- he talks about the violence of the porn industry. The only emotion the women are allowed to display on the sets is a desire to be degraded and they constantly have to go to hospital because of being violated repeatedly.

- society's desire to annihilate itself.

[161803398]

- a disturbing bubbling right wing in Europe

- in the 1700s speculation was a crime and they were hung and now they are running the government.

- he doesn't think human beings are rational

- the belief we can advance morally is evil and provides a cover for criminality. The idea that human progress is inevitable is a myth. The Greeks were not linear. Time is cyclical (i have to say I agree with this) There is nothing to show that we are advancing morally. We make advances but then we go backwards. Human nature doesn't change much. We are confusing this with advances in technology. Its far more important that we face reality and deal with it.

- the truth is sacred.

[161803398]

- if there is no economic justice there can be no racial justice. The occupy movement picks up on this.

- white Americans because of the long night of slavery have a responsibility for what happened to the blacks and we are doing nada about it but doing everything we can to keep the poor poor

- the prison industrial complex - the cell block has replaced the auction block.

- there were so many great minds in the prisons and the walls had been built around them to deny them that.

- self delusion and the death wish.

[161803398]

he thinks America is worth fighting for and that will mean civil disobedience and the discomfort of being arrested. He thinks that's what people have to do. He is deeply committed to non-violence but we have to put our bodies on the line to challenge the corporations.

the American government is not promoting the interests of the American people; the war on terror is the new mantra; you can't have a war on terror you deal with terrorists in a different way.

traditional liberals are hypocrites who betray the rights of the poor. that hypocrisy is not lost on the poor and it enrages them.

Obama courts the rich and betrays the poor.

Elections are political theatre. Every promise Obama made has been broken.

He tries not to follow Iowa. No one talks about issues except Ron Paul. The march of the trolls; vacuous garbage. America will probably end up with Mitt Romney who is just like Obama. He likes some of Ron Paul's ideas and is concerned about others.

We have allowed corporate values to dominate us. Corporations are like psychopaths. We have to begin to question our values. Reality TV is essentially pathological.

Need to develop compassion and to understand how to think. Question structures and assumptions.

Rise of for profit universities where they don't even teach humanities. We end up being trained how to serve systems. Politicians only know how to serve a dead system they don't know how to change it.

[Vitalux]

One major problem I have listening to this guy is at 1 hour and 21 minutes in he tends to support that 911 as NOT an inside job.
How can this clown in one way come off as a guy that is so knowledgeable and in the next statement ....say that 911 was really caused by Terrorist in the middle east.
Then sugar coats it all by saying ...what the American government was just to take advantage of the situation.



I am starting to wonder about this guy.....

[schneider]

This guy is brilliant. " radical movements are necessary and are in some ways the only means for change against the elite. The battle for american democracy has been one long battle against those elites. The destruction of radical movements (occupy wall street) has greatly dis empowered us. We have a choice in life. We can serve privilege and power, or we can serve justice and truth. To those of us who commit to serving justice and truth, the more we make concessions to those who serve privilege and power, the more we dilute the possibilities of justice and truth. Defend the interests of the dispossessed."

[161803398]

One major problem I have listening to this guy is at 1 hour and 21 minutes in he tends to support that 911 as NOT an inside job.

I have that problem as well when I listen to brilliant people who accept the 9/11 government conspiracy theory. However, I think this man has some very important insights.

Maybe there are some things that we might believe right now, at this moment in time, that he would find completely ludicrous because of the information he has. We can't all think alike.

Maybe he will get interested in 9/11 one day and have another idea about it. You can't expect anyone to know everything.

[write4change]

He was forced to resign from the New York Times. He spent years in Arabia and speaks fluent Arabic; no one was interested or at least the elites who make decisions in any of his experiences or anything he had to say. He has been booed from the stage. He income has been highly reduced.

He was asked to name names of who controls us. The caller said and I know you know. All he would cite is corporations and the difference of corporate captalism and real local economic capitalism.

I think he has to be very careful what he specifically says. There have been more journalists killed in the last few years than the entire 19th century.

I watched the whole three hours yesterday and thought he did a fabulous job. As much as allowed this day. He does have a family he is responsible for.

[161803398]

He was forced to resign from the New York Times. He spent years in Arabia and speaks fluent Arabic; no one was interested or at least the elites who make decisions in any of his experiences or anything he had to say. He has been booed from the stage. He income has been highly reduced.

He was asked to name names of who controls us. The caller said and I know you know. All he would cite is corporations and the difference of corporate captalism and real local economic capitalism.

I think he has to be very careful what he specifically says. There have been more journalists killed in the last few years than the entire 19th century.

I watched the whole three hours yesterday and thought he did a fabulous job. As much as allowed this day. He does have a family he is responsible for.

That's possibly it. And if you consider that he is expecting to continue with the Occupy movement and will probably be arrested again; its very important.

[GlassSteagallfan]

Excellent interview. A+

I clicked the 'watch on youtube' link and kept thread page open. As the interview progressed, I wrote summaries on this thread as another poster requested. When the interview ended, I clicked on the 'post reply' button and was kicked off PA, and had to sign in again. Everything was lost.

This also happens frequently when going from page 1 to 2 and so on. I guess if you spend too much time on one page, autoboot kicks in.

[Corncrake]

This journalist is very well qualified to speak and like the rest of you I agree he makes some good points. Then 9/11 raises it's head and he loses some credibility. However most of the MSM journalists are the same - they will go so far and no further on this topic preferring to self censor. I don't want to drag out all the usual suspects but so many intellectuals I normally have a lot of time for fall down on this subject. At the Rebellious Media Conference the journalists on the platform when questioned on the subject by members of the audience simply responded (to cries of outrage) by saying there is no proof! I suppose at the end of the day they have got to eat and - other than the alternative media network - it is the big corporations who are ultimately paying their fees.

[161803398]

Now I'm thinking this: This guy is smart. He knows the answer. He also knows he could die for saying it.

Even that former CIA asset said a lot but she still said she thought there were terrorists.

These guys might know so much more than we do about 9/11 that they also know with certainty how murderous the perpetrators are.

[crosby]

161803398, i agree with you. this man has a great delivery, but there is something missing. notice that he is bringing forth information that we here in the alternative news world have already been made aware of, he is being allowed to bring it too msm. but there is a cost for this. notice the first caller, an obvious sleeper, is apathetic and becomes slightly aggressive just before he is cut off. the mentality being, if you make threats about not paying your taxes, you're not a true american...... imho, this is done to make anyone who is in tune and is listening aware that the tptw are still at work with the divide and conquer notion. even though many are awakening, i think this is a ploy to set man against man in a harsher tone. too raise it one level higher. i applaud him for bringing the news to the mainstream, but there is an undercurrent visible. of course, i haven't watched the entire episode, but i will have to do it later when i have more time and can take more time to discern his info. thanks for the thread, it is indeed, very interesting.
regards, corson

[Rantaak]

can someone please summarize for those of us that don't have 2+ hours to watch this?

He's well-versed in official history and politics but is of particularly low spiritual advancement and is a complete tool when it comes to morality. He's definitely right about a lot of things, I just don't have the patience to listen to the bulk of what he deems important. If you want any more detail than what I've given you, you can try listening to him speak while laying down with headphones on in the dark. Might even get a good night's rest.

[Vitalux]

161803398, i agree with you. this man has a great delivery, but there is something missing. notice that he is bringing forth information that we here in the alternative news world have already been made aware of, he is being allowed to bring it too msm. but there is a cost for this. notice the first caller, an obvious sleeper, is apathetic and becomes slightly aggressive just before he is cut off. the mentality being, if you make threats about not paying your taxes, you're not a true american...... imho, this is done to make anyone who is in tune and is listening aware that the tptw are still at work with the divide and conquer notion. even though many are awakening, i think this is a ploy to set man against man in a harsher tone. too raise it one level higher. i applaud him for bringing the news to the mainstream, but there is an undercurrent visible. of course, i haven't watched the entire episode, but i will have to do it later when i have more time and can take more time to discern his info. thanks for the thread, it is indeed, very interesting.
regards, corson


YOu caught a few good points on this guy too.


My gut feeling tells me to be very suspicious of this guy Christopher Hedges.
We know he has spent a lot of time working for and with the media.
I tend not to trust mainstream media.
I have witnessed too many times they play our friends while they feed us propaganda.

My end guess is this guys is mixing information with disinformation.
I don't trust him.
That is my gut feeling based on what I have seen in this video.
Had he accused the past president Bush of being a war criminal, and 911 being an inside job etc...he would have gained my trust.

[Carmen]

This is a very good interview. Only managed to watch half of it so far. He is a rare being, a journalist with integrity!

[Enquiring1]

161803398, i agree with you. this man has a great delivery, but there is something missing. notice that he is bringing forth information that we here in the alternative news world have already been made aware of, he is being allowed to bring it too msm. but there is a cost for this. notice the first caller, an obvious sleeper, is apathetic and becomes slightly aggressive just before he is cut off. the mentality being, if you make threats about not paying your taxes, you're not a true american...... imho, this is done to make anyone who is in tune and is listening aware that the tptw are still at work with the divide and conquer notion. even though many are awakening, i think this is a ploy to set man against man in a harsher tone. too raise it one level higher. i applaud him for bringing the news to the mainstream, but there is an undercurrent visible. of course, i haven't watched the entire episode, but i will have to do it later when i have more time and can take more time to discern his info. thanks for the thread, it is indeed, very interesting.
regards, corson


YOu caught a few good points on this guy too.


My gut feeling tells me to be very suspicious of this guy Christopher Hedges.
We know he has spent a lot of time working for and with the media.
I tend not to trust mainstream media.
I have witnessed too many times they play our friends while they feed us propaganda.

My end guess is this guys is mixing information with disinformation.
I don't trust him.
That is my gut feeling based on what I have seen in this video.
Had he accused the past president Bush of being a war criminal, and 911 being an inside job etc...he would have gained my trust.

Yup... as Douglas Dietrich stated "They tell enough truth to uphold the lie".

Jeezz this interview does pack a punch tho...........

[161803398]

I haven't read any of his books so I don't know what he says about George Bush. Just googled up this.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20061204_chris_hedges_george_bushs_america/

http://www.truthdig.com/worldasitis

American Fascists:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Fascists-Christian-Right-America/dp/0743284461/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325741854&sr=1-1

Review:

Most great artists and thinkers are outsiders in some sense or another. This ability to observe from the outside often uncovers patterns that are invisible because they are too close. Chris Hedges spent most of his adult life outside of the United States, covering wars and despotic regimes. On his return to America, he was able to see our society with an eye unblunted by habit or assumptions, which, combined with his theological education and visceral experience and understanding of totalitarian systems, gives him a uniquely penetrating perspective into the growing movement known as the Christian Right.

In "American Fascists," Hedges never makes the simplistic claim that the Christian Right is the Nazi party, or that Bush is Mussolini, or that America will inevitably become a fascist state. His investigation is much more nuanced, identifying the incipient stirrings, invisible to many Americans, of a complex, mass political movement that is mobilizing and gaining strength and support beneath the surface of our democracy.

In characteristically muscular and clear prose that fuses the minister and veteran reporter, Hedges not only details multiple facets of the movement, but also examines the ideological undercurrents that drive them and how they translate into political consequences.

At The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, which "prove[s] that God's word is true," Hedges writes "The danger of creationism is...that it allows all facts to be accepted or discarded according to the dictates of a preordained ideology."

At a Love Won Out conference, an organization founded to "cure" those who suffer from "same sex attraction," and which denounces and warns against unrepentant homosexuals who seek to corrupt children and destroy the family, Hedges observes that "This cultivated sense of persecution - cultivated by those doing the persecuting - allows the Christian Right to promote bigotry and attack any outcry as part of the war against the Christian faith. A group trying to curtail the civil rights of gays and lesbians portrays itself, in this rhetorical twist, as victims of an effort to curtail the civil rights of Christians."