Chris Hedges' warning, in case you missed it

Submitted by MarilynW on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 3:44pm

because he wrote an essay in TruthDig that is very compelling right now.
Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease

Forget the firing of James Comey. Forget the paralysis in Congress. Forget the idiocy of a press that covers our descent into tyranny as if it were a sports contest between corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats or a reality show starring our maniacal president and the idiots that surround him. Forget the noise. The crisis we face is not embodied in the public images of the politicians that run our dysfunctional government. The crisis we face is the result of a four-decade-long, slow-motion corporate coup that has rendered the citizen impotent, left us without any authentic democratic institutions and allowed corporate and military power to become omnipotent. This crisis has spawned a corrupt electoral system of legalized bribery and empowered those public figures that master the arts of entertainment and artifice. And if we do not overthrow the neoliberal, corporate forces that have destroyed our democracy we will continue to vomit up more monstrosities as dangerous as Donald Trump. Trump is the symptom, not the disease.

Our descent into despotism began with the pardoning of Richard Nixon, all of whose impeachable crimes are now legal, and the extrajudicial assault, including targeted assassinations and imprisonment, carried out on dissidents and radicals, especially black radicals. It began with the creation of corporate-funded foundations and organizations that took control of the press, the courts, the universities, scientific research and the two major political parties. It began with empowering militarized police to kill unarmed citizens and the spread of our horrendous system of mass incarceration and the death penalty. It began with the stripping away of our most basic constitutional rights—privacy, due process, habeas corpus, fair elections and dissent. It began when big money was employed by political operatives such as Roger Stone, a close Trump adviser, to create negative political advertisements and false narratives to deceive the public, turning political debate into burlesque. On all these fronts we have lost. We are trapped like rats in a cage. A narcissist and imbecile may be turning the electric shocks on and off, but the problem is the corporate state, and unless we dismantle that, we are doomed.

[...]

The corporate elites, however, frightened by what the political scientist Samuel Huntington called an “excess of democracy” that originated in the 1960s, methodically destroyed the democratic edifice. They locked the citizens out of government. And by doing so they made sure that power shifted into the hands of the enemies of the open society. When democratic institutions cease to function, when the consent of the governed becomes a joke, despots, cranks, conspiracy theorists, con artists, generals, billionaires and proto-fascists fill the political void. They give vent to popular anger and frustration while arming the state to do to the majority what it has long done to the minority. This tale is as old as civilization. It was played out in ancient Greece and Rome, the Soviet Union, fascist Germany, fascist Italy and the former Yugoslavia.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/15/trump-symptom-not-disease

I'm glad to forget the coverage of our descent into tyranny. It's getting more tedious than frightening if that's possible. Where's the way out?

Tags:

Chris Hedges

Tyranny

corporate political parties

Trump

Abu-Jamal

deep state

Vote

Comments

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 3:46pm

Chris Hedges is always welcome

But I think someone already posted an essay about this.

Submitted by MarilynW on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 4:01pm

Thanks g, a search revealed a video and an interview

@gjohnsit
and lots more but I couldn't see a duplicate of this. The search is not organized by date so I might have missed it.

I guess it won't hurt to leave it up

—

To thine own self be true.

Submitted by dharmasyd on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 6:36pm

Leave it up !

@MarilynW Good! Leave it up !

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 05/22/2017 - 1:29pm

Yes. Of course leave it up.

@MarilynW

You picked some provocative passages.

This time, Hedges is reaching further back into history to see where the mistakes began. Hindsight is one way to get some clarity and consolidate wisdom and experience. But when people turn around and face forward again, they don't see a clear path. I don't know when Americans stopped making plans, and why. It's been a long time since the nation shared a vision for the future. Americans no longer talk about what is possible, but what is impossible. If there is a vision, it is "too hard" and must be approached "incrementally." It is too soon to discuss and it doesn't work. We tried that. It's a moral hazard.

So, without a moral compass and no vision of the future and no real respect for human life and no demand for the basic human rights that the rest of the world enjoys — we wait for someone to come along and lead us to a better place.

I try to imagine what the Elite Establishment sees and thinks when they look out over this austerity-bound herd.

I imagine Plato doing the same in a different time. He once said "This city is what it is because its citizens are what they are."

There's a way out is for the individual, who can migrate to a better place where the people are in charge, or return to his indigenous home to be restored and reconnected. For society, there's only learning, adjusting, and adapting to the corporate plantation. Take joy in looking inward and pleasure in the simple things.

Plato and the early Greek political theorists... you know the ones who first talked about democracy while owning slaves? Well, they wrote it down for us. They argued that democracy was an unstable form of government. It would inevitably be co-opted by a rising oligarchy. They give us the vote and tell us we are free.

—

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato

Submitted by Azazello on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 5:58pm

I know what "ungowa" means,

or at least I know where it may have come from. We used to watch these stupid movies when we were kids, Bomba the Jungle Boy. Bomba was white, just like Tarzan, and he could talk to the animals. He had a chimpanzee named Makimba for his sidekick. In just about every movie he would say to the chimp, "Makimba, ungowa, una toda beebee." We never knew what it was supposed to mean but we ran around saying it anyway.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VgdGn3JcbE width:500 height:300]

—

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 9:37pm

Bomba looks to have been quite the media franchise in the 1950s

@Azazello https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba%2C_the_Jungle_Boy

A lot of books, a lot of movies, and repackaging for television.

Submitted by Azazello on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 10:00pm

A local independent station

@lotlizard
used to run Bomba movies on Saturday morning, back when TV was free. And I think the chimp's name was Kimba, not Makimba. It was a long time ago.

—

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Submitted by dkmich on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 6:07pm

Tedious to say the least.

It's grinding. They are like one of those prank candles you can't blow out. No matter how hard or how often you snuff them out, they never stay snuffed. We can make progress because we can't keep it.

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 10:29pm

Every thing he mentioned is true

We know what happened and what is continuing to happen, the question is what can we do about it and take our power back from them?
First thing we need to do is get more people to see what he's talking about and then find a way to fight back.
But this is the reason that they militarized the police and gave them all their military equipment. They knew that one day we were going to rise up against them and now they are ready for us.
The cops are getting away with murdering us and when they do, most people just shrug their shoulders and say that they deserved to be shot.
Look at how many cheered when OWS, DAPL and BLM were brutally taken down. Especially the DAPL protests. How many people were even aware that they hired private mercenaries to police that protest? They were the ones who let their dogs bite unarmed protesters. Then we saw what the cops did. And not one member of congress spoke out against their actions.
So yeah, lots of people know what the problem is, but what we need is how to fix it.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Submitted by Pricknick on Sun, 05/21/2017 - 10:50pm

It's impossible.

@snoopydawg

but what we need is how to fix it

Can you make the majority not believe in what six companies own ninety percent of? The MSM?
Nope.
Can you make even fifty percent of our population read and understand why the fall of Rome happened?
Highly unlikely if not impossible.
We are not doomed by our future. We are doomed because we have laid waste to the past.
Yesterday.
[video:https://youtu.be/lH5x1ChYhcI]

—

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 05/22/2017 - 11:30am

@Pricknick That is not necessarily

@Pricknick That is not necessarily true. But we are not doing the work which would allow us to figure out any solutions (what I mean by "solutions" is not the one big answer to how to get these bastards off our backs, but the multiple small solutions that would improve our position and build alternative infrastructure, which would at least put us into a position to contribute to an effort to get the bastards off our backs, should the opportunity arise. And without the small-s solutions, we'll never get to a big-S Solution).

Most of America believes that the media are corrupt liars. That's not the problem. The problem is that, as long as there's no easily available alternative, they're going to keep tuning in.

We are not an easily available alternative. You have to have the initiative to come on the web and go looking for us. That selects for a certain type of person.

Encouraging Americans to back away from the media, or at least from the "news," would not be impossible at all, but bumper stickers announcing "Kill Your Television" are not sufficient to break the hold. Nor are indie media like this site, which is serving an important function in terms of providing a haven for those already in the know--but the simple fact of our existence is not going to have an effect on the cynical and demoralized American public which keeps watching the news even though they know it's full of lies the same way people use the town well even though they know people get sick when they drink from it. They don't know where another source of better water is, and they don't have the time or cojones to go out in the desert looking for a better water source. It takes a particular kind of person to do that.

"What makes the desert beautiful, is that somewhere it hides a well."

--The Little Prince

If we wanted to, we could build an alternative that could lick the MSM hollow--but there are one or two serious logistical difficulties.

When I bother being angry at Bernie Sanders, which is not often, my anger revolves around two things, and this is one of them: he could have mobilized his supporters, and their money, toward creating the network of indie media I imagine like snapping his fingers. For unknown schlumps like me, it's not so easy.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 05/23/2017 - 6:56pm

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

i think one thing with Bernie is, if you recall his insistence on 'us, not me' and 'change comes from the bottom up', with a united public, was that he was trying to get us away from our reliance on a 'savior' and start doing things for ourselves, something essential that must be accepted, especially since people like JFK and Bernie tend to not live very long once they start getting somewhere and any group which depends upon a leader can potentially be scattered by the disposing of that leader.

There was talk at one point of a spontaneous association in creating a network of indie media, but unless it's in progress where I've heard nothing of it (not surprisingly possible; I don't get around much) and if enough of the public can't get together for independent action in such areas as this at what appears to be this last moment in time, we're kinda out luck.

That was a major part of the purpose in the subverting of so much once-independent media and in the intensive discrediting of Bernie among the left by the apparent left, especially on the internet - to kill faith and hope, to divide and thereby individually conquer allies, to encourage the progressives to sink into isolated despair and suspicion of everyone once trusted while all avenues of action or escape from the encroaching fascism are closed off and the propaganda mill set into full gear.

It's working because we fell for it again, because we let it steal our energy and imagination, because we fail to understand or forget what we're dealing with and too-often think of the situation in normal terms which no longer obtain.

This isn't a legitimate, Constitutionally sound, democratic American government in a country of laws, not men; think of 1930s Germany on technological steroids and you'll be much closer than anyone would ever want to be even thinking, that being why we don't.

And that's what happened to the Germans back then, left still thinking that 'this can't happen in our democracy' long after it was already in place.

#4.1 That is not necessarily true. But we are not doing the work which would allow us to figure out any solutions (what I mean by "solutions" is not the one big answer to how to get these bastards off our backs, but the multiple small solutions that would improve our position and build alternative infrastructure, which would at least put us into a position to contribute to an effort to get the bastards off our backs, should the opportunity arise. And without the small-s solutions, we'll never get to a big-S Solution). Most of America believes that the media are corrupt liars. That's not the problem. The problem is that, as long as there's no easily available alternative, they're going to keep tuning in. We are not an easily available alternative. You have to have the initiative to come on the web and go looking for us. That selects for a certain type of person. Encouraging Americans to back away from the media, or at least from the "news," would not be impossible at all, but bumper stickers announcing "Kill Your Television" are not sufficient to break the hold. Nor are indie media like this site, which is serving an important function in terms of providing a haven for those already in the know--but the simple fact of our existence is not going to have an effect on the cynical and demoralized American public which keeps watching the news even though they know it's full of lies the same way people use the town well even though they know people get sick when they drink from it. They don't know where another source of better water is, and they don't have the time or cojones to go out in the desert looking for a better water source. It takes a particular kind of person to do that. "What makes the desert beautiful, is that somewhere it hides a well." --The Little Prince If we wanted to, we could build an alternative that could lick the MSM hollow--but there are one or two serious logistical difficulties. When I bother being angry at Bernie Sanders, which is not often, my anger revolves around two things, and this is one of them: he could have mobilized his supporters, and their money, toward creating the network of indie media I imagine like snapping his fingers. For unknown schlumps like me, it's not so easy.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 05/22/2017 - 2:41am

thanks for posting Hedges article

He remains for me the author I learn the most from, so far. And wow, the parapgraph with the quotes from Abu Jamal ...

In Abu-Jamal’s book “Live From Death Row,” he recounts his protest at a 1968 rally in Philadelphia held by the segregationist George Wallace during one of the Alabama governor’s runs for the Democratic presidential nomination. It is a reminder that Trump’s racism and lust for violence have long been part of the American character.

Abu-Jamal writes of attending the rally with three other black teenagers:

We must’ve been insane. We strolled into the stadium, four lanky dark string beans in a pot of white, steaming limas. The bank played “Dixie.” We shouted, “Black Power, Ungowa, black power!” They shouted, “Wallace for president! White power!” and “Send those niggers back to Africa! We shouted, “Black power, Ungowa!” (Don’t ask what “Ungowa” means. We didn’t know. All we knew was that it had a helluva ring to it.) “Black power!” They hissed and booed. We stood up in our seats and proudly gave the black power salute. In answer, we received dubious gifts of spittle from those seated above. Patriots tore American flags from their standards and hurled the bare sticks at us. Wallace, wrapped in roars of approval, waxed eloquent. “When I become president, these dirty, unwashed radicals will have to move to the Sov-ee-yet Union! You know, all throughout this campaign these radicals have been demonstrating against George Corley Wallace. Well, I hope they have the guts to lay down in front of my car. I’ll drive right over ’em!” The crowd went wild.

“Some police and other security came,” Abu-Jamal told me about the incident. “They escorted us out. We thought hey, we had a little fun. Our voices were heard. We went to the bus stop. And two or three of us were on the bus. A young guy named Alvin and a young guy named Eddie. I was usually the slowest, so I was behind them. A guy walked up and hit me with a blackjack. Knocked me down. Pulled Eddie and Alvin off the bus. We were getting our asses kicked. It never dawned on us these were cops. They can’t just walk up to us and beat us up [I thought].”

“I remember seeing a cop’s leg walk by,” he said. “I shouted help! Help, police! The guy looked at me. Looked down at me. He walked over and kicked me right in the face. Then it dawned on me all of these guys were cops. That was a little taste of [what would happen later in] Philadelphia. An introduction to trauma. We see it today. I can hear Trump saying, ‘Beat the hell out of them.’ It’s like the old days. Those weren’t good days. Those were ugly days. And the ugly day is today.”

“I have been thankful to that faceless cop ever since,” Abu-Jamal writes of the assault, “for he kicked me straight into the Black Panther Party.”

Abu-Jamal’s experience embodies the endemic racism and collapse of the American court system that railroad young black men and women into prison and onto death row. The Federal Bureau of Investigation placed him under surveillance when he was 15 years old. His FBI file swelled to 700 pages. His crime was to be a dissident. He was followed, hauled in for questioning at random and threatened.

And now mix this with the notion that probably the parents or some of the extended family members of this "faceless cop" have given their lives in fighting the endemic racism and collapse in the German governmental structure after the Weimar Republic. The bad cop of today living in the memories of the good cop of his parent or grand parent generation. What a total mess.

PS. I was linked to a dailykos diary of a guy named "philoguy" explaining what Neo-Liberalism is. I found that diary very good and of course then realized he was thrown to the bones and skulls. Somewhere around 2011 or so. Sigh.

Submitted by dervish on Mon, 05/22/2017 - 1:32pm

The DKos Skull and Bones Society

@mimi is filled with some really stellar people. It's an honor society of sorts.

He remains for me the author I learn the most from, so far. And wow, the parapgraph with the quotes from Abu Jamal ...

In Abu-Jamal’s book “Live From Death Row,” he recounts his protest at a 1968 rally in Philadelphia held by the segregationist George Wallace during one of the Alabama governor’s runs for the Democratic presidential nomination. It is a reminder that Trump’s racism and lust for violence have long been part of the American character.

Abu-Jamal writes of attending the rally with three other black teenagers:

We must’ve been insane. We strolled into the stadium, four lanky dark string beans in a pot of white, steaming limas. The bank played “Dixie.” We shouted, “Black Power, Ungowa, black power!” They shouted, “Wallace for president! White power!” and “Send those niggers back to Africa! We shouted, “Black power, Ungowa!” (Don’t ask what “Ungowa” means. We didn’t know. All we knew was that it had a helluva ring to it.) “Black power!” They hissed and booed. We stood up in our seats and proudly gave the black power salute. In answer, we received dubious gifts of spittle from those seated above. Patriots tore American flags from their standards and hurled the bare sticks at us. Wallace, wrapped in roars of approval, waxed eloquent. “When I become president, these dirty, unwashed radicals will have to move to the Sov-ee-yet Union! You know, all throughout this campaign these radicals have been demonstrating against George Corley Wallace. Well, I hope they have the guts to lay down in front of my car. I’ll drive right over ’em!” The crowd went wild.

“Some police and other security came,” Abu-Jamal told me about the incident. “They escorted us out. We thought hey, we had a little fun. Our voices were heard. We went to the bus stop. And two or three of us were on the bus. A young guy named Alvin and a young guy named Eddie. I was usually the slowest, so I was behind them. A guy walked up and hit me with a blackjack. Knocked me down. Pulled Eddie and Alvin off the bus. We were getting our asses kicked. It never dawned on us these were cops. They can’t just walk up to us and beat us up [I thought].”

“I remember seeing a cop’s leg walk by,” he said. “I shouted help! Help, police! The guy looked at me. Looked down at me. He walked over and kicked me right in the face. Then it dawned on me all of these guys were cops. That was a little taste of [what would happen later in] Philadelphia. An introduction to trauma. We see it today. I can hear Trump saying, ‘Beat the hell out of them.’ It’s like the old days. Those weren’t good days. Those were ugly days. And the ugly day is today.”

“I have been thankful to that faceless cop ever since,” Abu-Jamal writes of the assault, “for he kicked me straight into the Black Panther Party.”

Abu-Jamal’s experience embodies the endemic racism and collapse of the American court system that railroad young black men and women into prison and onto death row. The Federal Bureau of Investigation placed him under surveillance when he was 15 years old. His FBI file swelled to 700 pages. His crime was to be a dissident. He was followed, hauled in for questioning at random and threatened.

And now mix this with the notion that probably the parents or some of the extended family members of this "faceless cop" have given their lives in fighting the endemic racism and collapse in the German governmental structure after the Weimar Republic. The bad cop of today living in the memories of the good cop of his parent or grand parent generation. What a total mess.

PS. I was linked to a dailykos diary of a guy named "philoguy" explaining what Neo-Liberalism is. I found that diary very good and of course then realized he was thrown to the bones and skulls. Somewhere around 2011 or so. Sigh.

—

"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."