Pulitzer-prize winning journalist (don’t hold that against him!), author and activist Chris Hedges discusses modern day consumerism, totalitarianism, and how corporate power introduces culture dominated by pervasive illusion. The film explores the fragility of society before and during collapse as well as how dissent is shut down under totalitarian systems. Hedges also explores the deep national misunderstanding Americans have about who they are and how they are perceived by their allies and enemies alike.
Basically, Hedges suggests consumerism and corporatism have changed what it means to be human, causing a collective psychosis on humanity. He doesn’t offer a lot of hope, suggesting that hope based on fantasy is evil. Therefore, we are living in a time when optimism is a sign of disease, because it is not backed by reality. In spite of the bleak tone, there is a lot to think about in this short summary of societal collapse.
This wonderful short film was produced by American Canary / Cinematic Whistleblowing. Subscribe to them at their YouTube channel: Reflection of Passion. This film has been included in a Collapse-Aware learning series produced by www.LivingResilience.net/DeepAcademy . The purpose of Deep Academy is: To offer transformative support and resources to people bravely facing human-caused collapse of Earth and Human Systems.
Mostly on target but he misses the etiology of the consumer culture itself as one not born from powerful corporations but from immoral individuals, communities, and governments. At least one should conclude that there is a symbiotic romance among those entities. The solution is renormalization. Unfortunately, there is an insidious anti-white force that has control over the narratives and wields the government and corporate authoritarianism. Hopefully, the good people will battle that cancer and win. That could be the beginning of Western Renaissance that could be the formation of many new high-trust nations.
Hedges is quite left-leaning, but has really fine reasoning and writing skill. This interview, in particular, informed me about several issues from a point of view I would not normally see.
If this cues at the 8 minute point, it did what I wanted. It is a good example of why I listen to Hedges. I feel that it is important to be able to listen to well-thought out arguments I disagree with on a basic level. (For example, around the 12 minute point he criticizes Thoreau for his focus on individualism over social contract. Around the 16 minute point he discussion the corporatism of the university system.
Hedges comes at all issues from an intellectual level, being self-aware of his own self-awareness, I think. At one point, he talks about the lunatic fringe, obviously pointing toward the Trump voters in the original video I posted. I have a hard time thinking of all of the folks here at TBP as the lunatic fringe. In spite of there being regional differences in our outlooks, I believe most of the people here recognize and respect those differences because of the individualism we each value. Anyway, listening to Hedges forces me to think.
It was this interview and a couple others like it that got me interested in Hedges. At the 20 minute point, Hedges names Thomas Paine as the greatest founding father. LOL… Hedges knows the power of the propagandist, doesn’t he?
For anyone willing to take a look at the “intelligentsia” driving the current ideology? This doctoral dissertation is available for perusal online.
I don’t think you will enjoy it, but I think there are some interesting things of which you should be aware:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=etd2020
#1. This is a dissertation for a PhD in Sociology: Race and Ethnicity Studies, which has suddenly become a very highly prized doctorate to have in the new political climate.
#2 Take a look at the abstract below.
I don’t want to link it directly. I think that would be reckless. I may be impulsive and given to flights of fancy, but I ain’t reckless.
The study of white supremacy may become a real booming business in the days to come.
Consider yourselves artifacts for study.
Are societies in Africa Black supremacist? Is China Yellow supremacist? I have a hard time respecting anything any of these anti-white groups or people have to say. I have always noticed whites have to “give up” where they are the majority and the same people say for instance, whatever the majority group is anywhere else has an absolute right to rule.
Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear knows this is all anti-white racism. The US is still majority white and I am baffled by and entirely done with any conversation as to why this entitles anybody to anything, especially special rights to disenfranchise a majority, and do it only here.
HR, this is my point… this is the trollop being passed around as doctoral dissertation material!
It really is baffling how the propaganda has spread to the upper echelon of our intelligentsia class! They will be destroyed by the uprising they are promoting!
I saw “Dr.” Jill Biden’s dissertation. Looked like it was written by a 7th grader. A doctorate used to mean something but now there are doctorate mills just so teachers can get mandatory raises for added “qualifications.”
Kinda like Mile Obama’s dissertation. Painful to read.
Corr: Mike
I have no idea how Big Mike passed the Illinois Bar. Special people get special consideration I guess. She didn’t last long. Criminals don’t make good attorneys.
FUCK!!!
I recently (this morning) realized I am a sheep.
I now see, thank you Mr. Hedges, that I’m psychotic.
M. Snyder says I’m just a cog in the system because I don’t live “off grid”
I apparently support pedophilia because I question some of the astronomical stats.
I believe the Earth is round which makes me a fucken moran according to an actual Mr. Moran.
I’m not sure about one aspect of 9-11 … the controlled demolition aspect … which makes me a dumbfuk asshole cocksucker lover of government.
I reject the Apostle Paul and also the King James Bible as the best version to read … which makes me a god damned (literally) god-less heretic bastard who will burn burn burn in hell forever.
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I’m not having a good day.
I recently spoke to God, and HE assured me that there is a separate level of heaven for the stupid, the stupid with good intentions, Karens and thinking folks. Many that have actually done reading of other tomes written in biblical times that were cast out in Nicea share similar views as your own. Nonetheless God is still up there, watching, laughing, nudging and sorting out the destinations of a half million souls each day.
I can assure you, having been the guy standing up screaming “controlled demolition” in real time as the 1st tower collapsed into its own footprint, that both were controlled demolition.
I have flown in many planes all across the world – never once did I see the edge of a pancake Earth. Never in my travels moving floating drilling rigs did I see an edge on this Earth…
Those stats for pedophilia, as with all stats found on the internet, are unlikely to be accurate. When simply looking for the stats of the number of FBI/ATF agents, there are 3-4 different numbers given. But to cheer you up, those numbers are well below 20,000, and with the adult male population being around 160,000,000, that means each field agent has to confiscate from 8000 adult males and do nothing else….
A review of the published articles by M. Snyder will reveal that he NEVER lets a good fear porn angles run free. He monetizes it every single time, hyping it with the most dire of consequences. He is rarely (never?) correct…
M. Hedges, as you acknowledge, is a bona fide member of the elite intelligentsia. Their mission in life is always to ‘surf above the fray’ and make everyone else feel stupid and ignorant. If you review his works, this is readily apparent – he is all talk and no action, all hat and no cattle, incredibly similar to everything we see emanating from our overlords.
Now Mr. Stucky, I do not know if what I wrote will soothe you, as there is an epidemic of redass going round many non-progressive types, but I can assure you that when things get truly dire – TS will HTF. But we are not even close to that based on my living in several totalitarian regimes in my life.
I think the best thing to hope for is secession, balkanization and many millions just giving a big middle finger to obeying laws. The truth is there are millions more of us than there are of them, which is why there is so much effort to convince us otherwise….
Now, get out there and have a GOOD day and exercise freedom you want.
I’m with you on 9-11 and Paul. My day is sucking because I have to go get a shingles shot and it is windy and about zero degrees out and of course the country is going to hell in a handbag and I have no access to people like Jake Tapper who needs to be strangled or bludgeoned beyond repair.. Pretty good otherwise. LOL!
Comparing wokesters to drug addicts is pretty accurate. I suspect that it is easier to clean up a heroin addict than to clean up a wokeium addict. In either case a cure is few and far between and very difficult. We had better find another way than to switch wokeium addicts to our way of thinking.
Don’t like him, one bit. A fricking Communist. He starts out identifying the issue, and if you follow him to the conclusion, it’s always a GOP/Republican as the core of heartless ‘capitalism.’