An interesting if rather extreme anarchist article (long)

[Locut0s]

By Chris Hedges. I'm not an anarchist myself and know little about Chris Hedges besides the fact that I like his writing style (but have not read enough of his work to know his actual views). I'm not posting this to foster the point of view he puts forth in this article. Personally I think I'm more of a traditional lefty than Hedges is while not being as extreme in terms of anarchy and his sense of dystopia. This is much more of an apocalyptic view than I take currently. Also I believe he is religious whereas I am an atheist. However I do agree with enough of this that it's still a fun read.

http://www.alternet.org/media/146005/we_stand_on_the_cusp_of_one_of_humanity%27s_most_dangerous_moments

Note: now that I've read all of it, it kind of goes off the tracks into end of the world stuff at the end which is a shame cause the rest of it is much better.

 

[StageLeft]

You're right this is very long. I almost gave up quickly into it but after reading his paragraph on violence I kept going because it put into words what I have thought about violence. What he briefly alluded to seeing is what I expected one in his role would have seen. I will keep reading the rest later tonight.

He also refers to Obama as a brand and more about marketing than substance. that's when I knew I had to finish this.

 

[yllus]

The elites have successfully convinced us that we no longer have the capacity to understand the revealed truths presented before us or to fight back against the chaos caused by economic and environmental catastrophe.

I wonder why this is repeated ad nauseum? I think it's quite the opposite. Humanity has never had the breadth, depth and ease of access to information that it has today. If anything, our issue is that we become paralyzed by the overload.

The abject failure of activists to push corporate, industrialized states toward serious environmental reform, to thwart imperial adventurism or to build a humane policy toward the masses of the world’s poor stems from an inability to recognize the new realities of power.

Bull. Copenhagen failed because it would have meant a payout of billions a year from First World nations to Third World dictatorships for absolutely nothing in return. Imperial adventurism is rooted in the voter's silent assent to keep oil, food and all the rest cheap. We, the people, are responsible.

A corporate media controls nearly everything we read, watch or hear and imposes a bland uniformity of opinion. Mass culture, owned and disseminated by corporations, diverts us with trivia, spectacles and celebrity gossip.

More of the same. The author comes at us having already decided that an us-versus-them system is in place and then reconfigures how the world works to make his model fit.

You want to know why the average American or Canadian knows more about the antics of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga than about the effects of global warming and the cost breakdown of healthcare in the United States. Because topic A) and B) are easy, and C) and D) take hard work. The average voter doesn't want to do any more work than immediately necessary.

Inverted totalitarianism my ass. There's no grand conspiracy at work - just a bunch of lazy buffoons who would (quite understandably) rather read about slutty 18-year-olds than pore over hundred-page reports from the IPCC.

The author should spend less time dreaming up conspiracies and more time sobering up and coming to terms with the fact that his agenda isn't succeeding because lots of his fellow ordinary people don't want it to.

 

[daishi5]

The guy wants people to go live in communes where they can escape the evil corporations. I think he has become a little too paranoid, and might need some professional help.

 

[Locut0s]

The guy wants people to go live in communes where they can escape the evil corporations. I think he has become a little too paranoid, and might need some professional help.

Yeah the end is like that D:. However the rest of it is quite good.

 

[StageLeft]

OK, I finished. I assume his communes are the end-game. Those aside, the rest of it is basically a critical view of much of society. I agree with many of those criticisms. I do think our society is ill. I have said this before, we seem to take for granted that more consumption makes us happy when it never does, never has or will beyond a certain level (i.e. rich are not meaningfully more happy than middle class). And the numbers show that the middle and lower class are losing ground against the rich but what do we see? Just more lobbying, as the US political system becomes increasingly controlled by nothing more than money; corruption, out in the open.

The major problems this country faces it continues to utterly fail at. Even if this health care bill passes it's going to be ineffective, far too little to do enough good. The can is endlessly kicked down the road.

 

[HGC]

An interesting view into the mind of an extremist.

His main enemies seem to be global capitalism and imperialism.

Because of global capitalism, more of humanity is out of poverty and rising in prosperity than at any time in human history. Who are the owners of capital? The largest fraction is retirement savers and retirees invested in corporate stock through pension funds and mutual funds. The capitalist oppressor is a janitor or nurse with retirement benefits, not the Monopoly man lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills.

There will be recessions, depressions, and inflations. With all of them, we are better off than living in the permanent poverty collectivism, including the anarchist forms, provides.