Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Chris Hedges: The Great Unraveling [View all]
from truthdig:
by Chris Hedges
The ideological and physical hold of American imperial power, buttressed by the utopian ideology of neoliberalism and global capitalism, is unraveling. Most, including many of those at the heart of the American empire, recognize that every promise made by the proponents of neoliberalism is a lie. Global wealth, rather than being spread equitably, as neoliberal proponents promised, has been funneled upward into the hands of a rapacious, oligarchic elite, creating vast economic inequality. The working poor, whose unions and rights have been taken from them and whose wages have stagnated or declined over the past 40 years, have been thrust into chronic poverty and underemployment, making their lives one long, stress-ridden emergency. The middle class is evaporating. Cities that once manufactured products and offered factory jobs are boarded up-wastelands. Prisons are overflowing. Corporations have orchestrated the destruction of trade barriers, allowing them to stash $2.1 trillion in profits in overseas banks to avoid paying taxes. And the neoliberal order, despite its promise to build and spread democracy, has hollowed out democratic systems to turn them into corporate leviathans.
Democracy, especially in the United States, is a farce, vomiting up right-wing demagogues such as Donald Trump, who has a chance to become the Republican presidential nominee and perhaps even president, or slick, dishonest corporate stooges such as Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and, if he follows through on his promise to support the Democratic nominee, even Bernie Sanders. The labels liberal and conservative are meaningless in the neoliberal order. Political elites, Democrat or Republican, serve the demands of corporations and empire. They are facilitators, along with most of the media and most of academia, of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of inverted totalitarianism.
The attraction of a Trump, like the attraction of Radovan Karadzic or Slobodan Milosevic during the breakdown of Yugoslavia, is that his buffoonery, which is ultimately dangerous, mocks the bankruptcy of the political charade. It lays bare the dissembling, the hypocrisy, the legalized bribery. There is a perverted and, to many, refreshing honesty in this. The Nazis used this tactic to take power during the Weimar Republic. The Nazis, even in the eyes of their opponents, had the courage of their convictions, however unsavory those convictions were. Those who believe something, even something repugnant, are often given grudging respect.
These neoliberal forces are also rapidly destroying the ecosystem. The Earth has not had this level of climate disruption since 250 million years ago when it underwent the Permian-Triassic extinction, which wiped out perhaps 90 percent of all species. This is a percentage we seem determined to replicate. Global warming is unstoppable, with polar ice caps and glaciers rapidly melting and sea levels certain to rise 10 or more feet within the next few decades, flooding major coastal cities. Mega-droughts are leaving huge patches of the Earth, including parts of Africa and Australia, the west coast of the United States and Canada and the southwest United States, parched and plagued by uncontrollable wildfires. We have lost 7.2 million acres to wildfires nationwide this year, and the Forest Service has so far spent $800 million struggling to control conflagrations in California, Washington, Alaska and other states. The very word drought is part of the deception, implying this is somehow reversible. It isnt. .............................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_great_unraveling_20150830
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
109 replies, 11672 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (119)
ReplyReply to this post
109 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"The very word “drought” is part of the deception, implying this is somehow reversible. It isn’t." <
jtuck004
Aug 2015
#4
I have thought that this may be the last time to use our pitchforks at the voting booth.
libdem4life
Aug 2015
#44
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
hifiguy
Aug 2015
#61
Never heard that one, but Amen to the wise JFK. That's why they took him from us.
libdem4life
Sep 2015
#109
Hedges just has to throw in a smear against Obama and Clinton using the same Trump broad stroke
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#9
I read the article as far as the part I quoted, isn't that enough to know for the purposes of this thread?
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#18
He's basically saying that the entire system is corrupt and beyond redemption.
PotatoChip
Aug 2015
#29
I completely agree with your post. I believe what Hedges says is right on the money.
rhett o rick
Aug 2015
#33
We are in a do or die situation. Moving to a third party is sucide. The Democratic Party
rhett o rick
Aug 2015
#37
Hedges doesn't believe we can win playing the Oligarchs game. Obama and Clinton play
rhett o rick
Aug 2015
#68
It's not a direct attack. The word IF - a big word - makes it conditional at best.
hifiguy
Aug 2015
#78
This is why I'm for Sanders, and why I'm tilting at this windmill one more time.
PatrickforO
Aug 2015
#12
Great post. I think there are a lot more like Sanders that are waiting to see if there really is
rhett o rick
Aug 2015
#40
The OP is an anti-Democratic party article that has no place on a Democratic board
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2015
#43
Hedges believes in democracy, which is the most important thing to believe in...
Octafish
Aug 2015
#55
Hedges' point is not Sanders' point; Hedges has condemned Sanders
muriel_volestrangler
Sep 2015
#101
ill-advised decision to validate the Democratic Party by becoming one of its presidential candidates
muriel_volestrangler
Sep 2015
#105
I thought 'PUMA' was a crap idea in 2008, and it would be crap in 2016
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2015
#58
As a Bernie Sanders Group host, are you happy with Hedges' remarks about Sanders?
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2015
#84
"If" he has a legit criticism of Bernie I have no problem with it being discussed.
L0oniX
Aug 2015
#85
No, I don't hang out there; but I'm surprised at a Bernie Sanders supporter
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2015
#88
Is there any proof that "Bernie is just a sheepdog to herd the gullible progressives"???
L0oniX
Aug 2015
#89
He represents the "Underground" faction of the Democratic party. I believe he does belong here.
corkhead
Aug 2015
#93
Hedges is not in any faction of the Democrats. He wants the party gone
muriel_volestrangler
Sep 2015
#102
So....you would go with Marx and Engels plan? Already tried that. Doesn't work either.
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#74
Used to be the uber-rich were content with just all the physical toys and the simple pleasures of money.
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#73
"He functions as a sheepdog to corral progressives, left-leaning progressives"
muriel_volestrangler
Aug 2015
#72
Funny how often the folks beseeching others to "read the article" have obviously not done so themselves.
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#75
On the contrary, I welcome folks educated in Marxist lore and revolutionary zeal, it is the ID of
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#87
Apologies to AOR poster for my dates of death....you make a valid point of surplus from labor. Capitalism
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#91
Gloom and doom is not for me! I remember 2008, for example. Remember that? I recall no time of economic perfection, but
Fred Sanders
Sep 2015
#108
People will get there on there own as material conditions dictate or they won't Fred...
AOR
Aug 2015
#92
I understand what you are saying, but a revolution, fascist or socialist needs one thing above all
Fred Sanders
Aug 2015
#94
Chris is correct, we must stop the neoliberalist march. Neoliberal = Nazi.
Dont call me Shirley
Aug 2015
#66