This is a great conversation. Chris Hedges was on fire.
Enjoy.
For related articles, see:
Video of the Day – Chris Hedges on Overthrowing the Corporate Fascist State
In His Own Words: Why Chris Hedges Resigned from a “Human Rights” Organization
NDAA Update: Chris Hedges Speaks About His Day in Court
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Interesting interview.
Reich cannot give up the false dichotomy even though he knows it’s a foolish way to look at things to say you’ve GOTTA vote for the blue team or you get the red team. I will say that I give Reich credit because he has gone around actually speaking to tea party folks and was honest enough to admit that basically none of them have any interest in promoting the big banks and that basically none of them think that capitalism equals promotion of the big banks.
I would like to see Chris Hedges address that. He’s a very sharp guy and I think he has nothing but good intentions even if I disagree with him on a lot of points. But whenever I hear Chris speak I think of him (perhaps wrongly) as being the type of guy who has no understanding of why anyone could possibly be a libertarian or have some libertarian views.
In this instance, I think he’s right. Reich’s view is to say that well, we’ll vote our consciences NEXT time. Not this time because this time is too important. But if we can be assured of our choice of conscience winning NEXT time then, okay, we’ll do it then. To paraphrase Credence Clearwater Revival, Next Time never comes.
They’re both very convincing speakers. I’ve been a fan of both for some time. Chris Hedges feels that the current system is corrupt beyond saving (at least that’s my interpretation of what he’s saying), that capitalism itself has fatal flaws, and that we need a completely new political and economic system. Reich says we should elect Hillary and then over the next 4 years work to build a viable and electable third party. That’s a great goal, one that’s hopeful, but how realistic is it? Given the state of the current system, if we built a third party that looked like it could start winning elections, especially the Presidency, is it likely that big money will just stand there and watch it happen? Look what happened to M.L. King when his movement started to gain power. And R.F. Kennedy. I’m inclined to agree with Hedges, but one thing that’s not clear from him is what do we do about it?
I love the way Robert Reich says he agrees with Hedges on almost everything and then says the solution is to go with Hillary while we figure out a third party. Just nuts. He doesn’t get it. The system can’t reform internally.
It’s like saying he agrees that the Holocaust was wrong but lets go with Hitler for another term because the other guy can’t be trusted because he’s politically incorrect and not a nice person. Well, people think Obaaamaaa is a nice person yet he’s drone killing women and children every day. Hello? Anyone home upstairs? I think not.
“I love the way Robert Reich says he agrees with Hedges on almost everything and then says the solution is to go with Hillary while we figure out a third party. ”
This seems to be the new fallback position for those who are terminally compromised by the System. Since the obvious is too vividly seen even by the hoi polloi, they no longer attempt to deny. They merely say that may be true, but the insinuation is that we have to continue down whatever disastrous and discredited path that has just been disproved in the discussion.
I get the same thing with friends and family who will allow no criticism of Hillary. I send facts, links, quotes and I get responses that don’t even address what I wrote; they merely talk about how disgusting it is to denigrate someone of Hillary’s caliber. As if what I just sent was invisible to them. Absolutely incomprehensible to me, and maddening.
In the last few exchanges, I have had a very tangible–and unnerving–sense that this is what must have happened as families and friends split over The War of Southern Independence.
I feel alienated, distant and disengaged from even family members over these issues. I no longer want to talk to them, or even see them for that matter. Is this extreme?
I had to answer for myself whether freedom for future generations of Americans are more important to me than bonds of family and friendship. When I answered that in the affirmative, salvaging my relationships seemed like very poor compensation to avoid being who I am and holding what I believe in above all else.
So be it.
Awesome debate, I like both of these guys but have to side with Chris Hedges in that the system is to far gone to be reformed from within.
As a simple man and referring to my gardening experience. When your crop has been infected with a parasite, you’ve done everything you can to save your crop, nothing is working to bring the crop back to health, the crop is now systemically diseased and starting to infect the others around it, what do you do? There is only one choice, you pull up the crop by the root, burn the plants, disinfect the soil, accept the painful lose and begin again, This my friends is Washington D.C./Wall ST, etc. Its time to pull it up by the roots and burn the crop.
Thanks, Mike great post
I don’t blame Hedges for being on fire. America needs that seriousness unlike Reich who is like a lot of pussy Americans that have no imagination or agency. When the going gets tough, it’s people like hedges that are heros and true patriots. One Hedges is worth 100,000 troops and actually has a brain to think on his own! He is the real American role model. Reich needs to go back to the bar and think it over.
What needs to be done is what I call AMERICAN REVOLUTION 2.0
At least Hedges realizes that regardless of who wins the election nothing of any substance will change.
Reich is just carrying the same ol’, same ol’, Hegelian Dialectic water for the Clinton and the Dems.
But Hedges needs to drop the “climate change” (formerly known as “global warming”) crap from his repertoire. As it is complete bullshit, and has nothing to do with man, and has everything to do with the SUN.
The only problem with the comments section is that I can’t up-vote Genaro’s comment above with regard to the climate. I’m not sure what it is, but get the feeling that the knowledge or ability to predict clear danger (as opposed to benefit!) of climate doomists is less than claimed, or there is less we can do about it anyway as ongoing variability and local trends are mostly the result of natural processes beyond our control. When has earth ever been “safe” to animal life?
New Mexico is going to go red this year. The New Mexico Democratic Party has burned too many bridges with the old Democratic Party Patrons and they are out for blood. These Patrons have very big voting blocks made up of old Spanish families that have been in New Mexico since the 15th century. The Democratic Party is purging the party of the old Democratic leaders and is replacing them with “New Democrats” to create a Clinton Chicago machine. I’m a native of New Mexico and the Chicago machine is child’s play compared to New Mexico’s Patron system. The race is going to look like the 2010 Dienish vs Martinez. To sum it up the race is being decided by blocks of old Spanish family voters against the Bill Richarson, Clinton, Ben Ray Lujan,
and Michelle Lujan Grisham. They are related to Manuel Lujan Jr. and they have Republicans in their family, do basically the party is in bed with Govenor Martinez and Mayor Berry.
Ben Ray Lujan, Michelle Lujan Grishman, Javier Gonzales and Marco Serna are all cousins. All these old Spainish and rancher families know the race was rigged and they have hired their relatives for the campaign. There is also the old Anglo political families that are out for revenge.
New Mexico’s Green Party is established in Santa Fe and Albuquerque so Jill Stein is on the ballot lots of voters to pull from Clinton.
The Democratic Party in New Mexico are leaving the party. I changed to Independent the weekend after the primary and I still haven’t gotten my voter registration card in the mail. Last Friday I registered my car and I revived my registration sticker on Saturday.
I am friends with an honest person that has a huge voting block of both old Anglo, Texan Spanish and New Mexican families that is going to vote Republican to get the Clinton machine out of power.
New Mexic is unique because it’s population has a high Hispanic population but this population consider themselves Spanish and they take pride of being one of the first European Colonies in the Untied States. One big mistake Mayor Javier Gonzales is making is he broke up the Santa Fe fiesta into three weekends which is messing with their tradition. The first weekend will be the burning of Zozobra, the next weekend Mayor Gonzales wants to celebrate Mexico’s Independence Day, and the next weekend is the fiesta. This is supposed to get the Spanish family blocks to vote blue. It will fail.
My theory for the take I’ve of the party is because New Mexico has one of the largest Education trust fund and the crooks are pushing for a public bank owned by the City of Santa Fe to steal the money. One of the scandal in Santa Fe is the voters voted for a park bond. None of the money was used to improve the parks. The city can’t account for the money and there aren’t any receipts to show where the money went, yet nobody’s going to jail. Santa Fe is broke. The Attorney General and the State Auditor found no laws broken, yet the Attorney General is proscuting a powerful Albuquerque School Board Membet over a $342.00 carpet cleaning bill that was done in her home. That’s another Spanish family voting block Clinton lost. Usually in New Mexico when a politician is caught the case is thrown out of court because the Attorney General delays the case until the statute of limitations running out. Google Rebecca Vigil Giron and Federal Election find thief.
Sorry for the typos I have been up the past few nights watching Japan’s Central Bank and government going against the IMF.
@ Johnathan
I find it absolutely amazing that the “global warming” alarmists changed their mantra to “climate change”, and expect this to go unnoticed. I was an earth science major. So I knew that the anthropomorphic global warming caused by carbon dioxide/ “greenhouse gases” claims were complete horseshit right from the get go.
That’s because I already knew that a single large volcanic eruption can dump enough so called greenhouse gases into earths atmosphere in a few days than all human activities could produce in a decade.
Then Gore and Goldman-Sachs et al tried to float the carbon exchange after Barry was elected and that’s when the “Always follow the money” light went off over my head.
Hedges needs to get his head out of his ass in that regard if he’s going to be credible and really get anywhere.