Credit: Mr. Fish / Truthdig
The ruling elites are painfully aware that the foundations of American power are rotting. The outsourcing of manufacturing in the United States and the plunging of over half the population into poverty will, they know, not be reversed. The self-destructive government shutdown has been only one of numerous assaults on the efficiency of the administrative state. The failing roads, bridges and public transportation are making commerce and communications more difficult. The soaring government deficit, now almost a trillion dollars thanks to the Trump administration’s massive corporate tax cuts, cannot be eliminated. The seizure of the financial system by global speculators ensures, sooner rather than later, another financial meltdown. The dysfunction of democratic institutions, which vomit up con artists such as Donald Trump and hold as alternatives inept, corporate-indentured politicians such as Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, is cementing into place a new authoritarianism. The hollowing out of the pillars of the state, including the diplomatic corps and regulatory agencies, leaves the blunt force of the military as the […]
Imagine a world where real democracy prevails. Think of that world from several differing viewpoints of class and race. How would it be different from today?
Sometimes the quotidian choice is for the people to remember government serves them and derives all power from the people. Investing time and effort in failed models is exhausting and will not lead to the deep changes needed in what otherwise is a few remaining years.
I may not disagree with Hedges thesis and this article may well be a dose of reality.
But, if millions of people buy into this negative reality, are we then co-creating the negative reality?
Teresa —
Being aware is not the same thing as being complicit. Knowing the potential for something gives one the option, when faced with life’s hundreds of decision points each day, to choose a different option, the one that is compassionate, life-affirming, and fostering of wellbeing. The world Chris Hedges defines is a potential reality, not a predestined one.
— Stephan
Yes, Teresa, we probably are co-creating this. As Rumi says though; “Prayer is not enough; you must do something.” Chris has long written and spoken about the useless type of hope such as that with prayer accompanied with faith in the goodness of others. That’s made all the more poignant by Chris Hedges being an ordained minister.
Hedges was soundly critiqued about not having solutions, which is false as he has said on many an occasion that heros are unlikely as is a change of heart from the one big party [the slow moving corporate coup d’etat elsewhere, but solidified at your DC level and in many red value states.