Chris Hedges has declared his choice for the upcoming American elections. He's voting Green. You should too. Here's why.
"The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats.
It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle
between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage
in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I
will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my
energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in
defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope."
You just can't put it any plainer than that. Hedges is right. Certainly in his homeland but also in Canada it's time to take the tough decision whether to back corporatist politics or stand for your country and people.
8 comments:
Love Chris Hedges. He's a modern day messiah, who speaks truth to power.
A lot of people hate him, John. And, at times, he can seem a bit over the top even to people like me. But, like the climate science community, you just wait a couple of years and you find out what you thought was hyperbole is understated.
I don't know how this one plays out, John. Will corporatism win? Will we slide into a 21st century form of neo-feudalism that supplants the democracy we can't be bothered to defend? Or will we descend into chaos and then revolt, a modern version of the French Revolution?
One thing has become increasingly clear to me. If we don't move soon and powerfully to restore the middle class, we invite a future of extremism.
I hear ya, but having read several of his books (including several he has referenced like the one I am reading now that is a real eye-opener to the real world we are living in called 'The Power Elite' by C. Wright Mills, I can honestly say I am a more knowledgeable and self-aware person because of it.
Revolt is the only answer as corporatism is devouring us all day by day but how do you organize little publics when today we are nothing but masses?
Awareness is the only answer and people like Hedges are opening our eyes to the real world we live in like Morpheus in the sci-fi flick.
As it has been said "A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions." We all need to do what we can to expand human consciousness... "The Sleeper must Awaken!" Loved this flick Dune. In so many ways it is our reality too!
Best!
JP
In university I had a chance to study the subject of revolution. It's something of a social science. If you can find a copy read Crane Brinton's 1934 classic, "The Anatomy of Revolution."
Revolutions are invariably messy, chaotic events and, like mega-earthquakes, they're usually followed by severe aftershocks. That's how the Menshevik revolution was swept aside by the Bolshevik revolution.
Unlike the classic revolutions of history, it will be more challenging and dangerous to stabilize and rebuild a society in the aftermath of a 21st century uprising because of factors like climate change.
If we an engineer it at all, we're far better off sparking a Reformation to forestall a Revolution.
Have already read 'The Anatomy of a Revolution' thanks again to Chris Hedges. Good book!
If we an engineer it at all, we're far better off sparking a Reformation to forestall a Revolution.
Which can only come about by 'public awareness' to their plight. Corporatocracy run governments, schools, mass media, etc. and for all intents and purposes we are no longer looking at individual countries rising up in revolution as was the case with Brinton's four example's for we are now in a world of globalization, and like the internet closing one portal still leaves many others open.
Global consciousness is the only answer. As with climate change, the world as one must awaken to the fact changes must be made to regulate and reign in corporatism on a global scale. Otherwise, Oswald Spengler's 'The Decline of the West' will yet again see a repeat of the rise and fall of civilizations.
The Power Elite are organized. "The top of modern American society is increasingly unified, and often seems willfully co-ordinated: at the top there has emerged an elite of power. The middle levels are a drifting set of stalemated, balancing forces: the middle does not link the bottom with the top. The bottom of this society is politically fragmented, and even as a passive fact, increasingly powerless: at the bottom there is emerging a mass society."
JP
Further to our conversation with respect to action that can be taken, here are some notes of mine you might find interesting:
Achilles heel of these massive companies is in their articles of incorporation. Under the law, a company's articles can be revoked and it has to cease doing business. Should 'three strikes' be applied to corporations as well? Some corporations do damage. Some are persistent violators of the public trust. Perhaps three convictions (or three public interest law suits lost) should be the limit, and their corporate articles revoked.
Think BP or Shell for example, as companies that have run amok of the "three strikes rule".
I don't know, John. Dissolution of a company could be rife with perils and pitfalls. I can imagine how some bright corporation law types would find ingenious ways to game that too.
It could cause havoc with creditors' rights and employees' rights not to mention innocent investors including charities, pension funds, etc.
Perhaps what might suffice would be new, stricter rules of management accountability including greater criminal liabilities. It's all too common for corporations to be found guilty of serious crimes yet be let off with a "cost of doing business" fine. Serious jail time for corporate directors involved in clear corporate criminal acts along with personal, civil liability would seem like a good start.
You've made some good points for against 3 strikes but I'm afraid the solution you offer is simplistic. The fox is already in the hen house asking him nicely to behave is not gong to work because he already controls government who are the ones who make the rules. Something more radical is required here.
We live in a mass society and as such "individuals are held together by a culture industry that serves the interests of capitalism". This I believe is the root of the problem... and where the answers lie.
JP
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