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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / I Wish This Would Happen To More People

I Wish This Would Happen To More People

by John Cole|  July 23, 201212:34 am| 38 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics

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Went over to my friend Walt’s house to hang out for a little bit, and we sat on his screened in porch overlooking the creek, passed a bottle of wild turkey, and I smoked a Marlboro red that made me dizzy and sweat and think I was going to throw up. At any rate, he mentioned he watched a Bill Moyers episode, and Moyers had a guest on who “spoke to his heart.” He said that he was talking about the need for a new American revolution and for a need to overthrow corporate power, and that he was such a powerful guest that Walt immediately ordered his book.

Without missing a beat, I said- “the guest was Chris Hedges.” I tried to explain to him that while Hedges is viewed as the extreme fringe by our establishment media, if his message were not fully embargoed, more than half the country would agree with it. I didn’t want to be too pessimistic, because Walt was so hopeful, but I knew the reality of the situation.

At any rate, it just seemed to me, despite my pessimism, to be a very positive thing. If my pretty much apolitical friend can find value in Hedges and see the logic in his message, maybe more will, too.

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Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    cat

    July 23, 2012 at 12:37 am

    link be broken

  2. 2.

    amk

    July 23, 2012 at 12:42 am

    your linky going nowhere. symbolic of ‘murka ?

  3. 3.

    freelancer

    July 23, 2012 at 12:45 am

    http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_on_moyers_company_20120722/

  4. 4.

    jwb

    July 23, 2012 at 12:47 am

    Old-style Marxist rhetoric is often surprisingly effective these days as well. You can sometimes cut through to the lizard brain with that in a way that you’ll never be able to with policy arguments.

  5. 5.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion

    July 23, 2012 at 12:59 am

    Somewhat OT, but another hopeful sign. As California goes, so goes the nation? The Republican party in California is in serious trouble for embracing all the same values currently being embraced by the national Greedhead Obsolence Pathology party.

  6. 6.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    July 23, 2012 at 1:02 am

    I’m kind of gobsmacked, I actually ran across someone on Twitter who says that he has examined All of the issues, and agrees with Barack Obama on ALL OF THEM, some guy who goes by Ronc99. Amazing.

  7. 7.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion

    July 23, 2012 at 1:02 am

    Additionally, I think we forget this at our peril. People are always figuring things out. There will always be some people who wake up at some point in their political evolution and go “I don’t believe this anymore.” Our gracious host is a sterling example of the many ways people wake up to their own and the national interest. We often talk about the political divide in this country as if it were a basic fact of geology, without giving Grace room to work. I think our failure to give human beings credit for being able to figure things out eventually often makes our situation appear darker than it may actually be. Or I could just be high.

  8. 8.

    amk

    July 23, 2012 at 1:04 am

    Unbridled capitalism has met the end of the road just like any other ism. With ‘free trade’, – you can’t re-bottle that genie anymore, former slave wage countries aren’t willing to put up with ‘let them eat cake’ mentality of western world anymore because they now have the technology edge which the west has been milking fully for nearly a century. Wage levels will find a sorta near equilibrium all over the world in may be two decades. By which time, every one will be working for shitty pennies. Yay, for middle class for they can now go anywhere they want to and work for pittance.

  9. 9.

    PeakVT

    July 23, 2012 at 1:05 am

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion: Even if the Cali GOP were to disappear tomorrow it would still be running the state via Prop 13 and other parts of the state constitution.

  10. 10.

    Jager

    July 23, 2012 at 1:15 am

    Re: Prop 13, when people in California learn the burden of property taxes has shifted from commercial property to residential because of Prop 13 they are stunned. The backside of 13 was a gift to developers. There are high rise office buildings on Wilshire Blvd in LA and shopping centers all over SoCal that pay a fraction in property tax compared to what the building is worth. Prop 13 was sold by Howard Jarvis and his developer cronies as a plan to “keep grandma in her home”. Total bullshit. Ca is the only state in the country where the developers are still in deals decades after the property has been developed.

  11. 11.

    James E. Powell

    July 23, 2012 at 1:17 am

    I’ve spent the last few years trying to convince my friends and acquaintances to listen to or read Hedges. “Just try it,” I say, “Forget what you already know or believe.” It’s almost impossible. I really appreciate Moyers having him on because Moyers is like tote-bagger mainstream. I guess we can hope.

    I saw the show and have to say I share Hedges’s pessimism about the ability of our society to make changes.

  12. 12.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    July 23, 2012 at 1:18 am

    @Jager: My mom pays a fraction of the property tax her next door neighbors do, when the houses are comparable, and the same age. The difference? My mom’s owned the house since 1967, the neighbors bought it after Prop 13 was passed.

  13. 13.

    Jager

    July 23, 2012 at 1:24 am

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    The developer’s have the same deal, stay in for a tiny per centage and the buyer gets the old rate. Your Mom is a rarity, my house was built in ’87, I’m the 5th owner. Nobody in my area has owned any of the the houses since they were new in the mid to late 80’s.

  14. 14.

    Spaghetti Lee

    July 23, 2012 at 1:26 am

    I do think, although sometimes I can’t tell if it’s based on demonstrable evidence or to keep myself from going insane, that there are more of “us”, or at least people who would side with us given the choice between us and the Tea Party. I understand the feeling that we’re irrevocably surrounded by idiots, assholes, and psychos. There are a lot of them, but they’re also just louder than average and are backed by lots and lots of money. Most people don’t think that people without health insurance should die, most people don’t think that Wall Street financiers are the most noble people in America, most people don’t think that Barack Obama is a communist-these are just the beliefs of the hard right’s long tail that’s scrabbled and grabbed onto more power than it should.

    As long as we’re talking about mass consciousness raising, I think the active contempt towards moderates here has to stop, both for practical reasons-you’re not going to win a fight with only people who are naturally drawn to and instinctively understand social liberalism-but also because I think it’s self-defeating. It seems to me that some liberals that the whole idea of political centrism is some kind of scam, a group of double agents tasked with running interference for conservatives. Well, maybe on the opinion pages of the NYT or the WaPo, sure, but most moderates you meet in real life don’t belong to that group. Help them. Show them the right books, the right thinkers, the right data. Most people are not beyond reach.

  15. 15.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    July 23, 2012 at 1:28 am

    @Jager: Yes, the house was built in 1967, and has not changed ownership. The neighboring house was built at the same time, and has changed hands several times. It’s stupid.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    July 23, 2012 at 1:34 am

    @Jager:

    Yep. I’m sure that the Giant Evil Corporation I work for pays a ridiculously tiny amount of their income in property tax, because they’ve owned big chunks of Burbank/Glendale and Anaheim since well before Prop 13 passed.

    Prop 13 was a HUGE giveaway to commercial property owners and people are still completely oblivious to that aspect of it.

  17. 17.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2012 at 1:38 am

    Bach is irrefutable evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    July 23, 2012 at 1:50 am

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    My mom pays a fraction of the property tax her next door neighbors do, when the houses are comparable, and the same age. The difference? My mom’s owned the house since 1967, the neighbors bought it after Prop 13 was passed.

    And so, you want your mother’s taxes increased to the same level as your neighbors?

    He said that he was talking about the need for a new American revolution and for a need to overthrow corporate power

    I’m down with the overthrow of corporate power thing. But what do you want to replace it with?

  19. 19.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    July 23, 2012 at 2:04 am

    @Brachiator:

    And so, you want your mother’s taxes increased to the same level as your neighbors?

    Yes, they should be; hers should be higher, but the neighbors’ should be lower. She agrees with me.

  20. 20.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    July 23, 2012 at 2:27 am

    @Brachiator: Do you think Prop 13 was a good idea or something? If not, I’m not sure what you think you’re proving.

  21. 21.

    Citizen_X

    July 23, 2012 at 2:28 am

    Yes, we need revolutions–worldwide–against unrestrained corporate power. (And no, they don’t have to be violent.) I’ve been thinking that for a while now.

    @Brachiator:

    what do you want to replace it with?

    Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

  22. 22.

    Cain

    July 23, 2012 at 2:36 am

    I posted this in another thread:

    healthcare

    It talks about a die hard conservative learning the joys of universal healthcare. Her background though is really interesting as she comes from some fundie christian background that sounds like the christian version of wahabism.

  23. 23.

    Jewish Steel

    July 23, 2012 at 2:41 am

    and I smoked a Marlboro red that made me dizzy and sweat and think I was going to throw up

    I went out with a friend tonight and we had no cigarettes and agreed that was probably a good thing that we had no cigarettes but goddamn nicotine addiction is a hellofathing, no?

    J Steel +3 (which is 2 more than J Steel can handle in his dotage)

  24. 24.

    Nancy Irving

    July 23, 2012 at 2:43 am

    I just checked Hedges’ book on Amazon, and it’s currently at #8.

    Sounds like it’s getting through to some people.

  25. 25.

    wasabi gasp

    July 23, 2012 at 4:50 am

    Boooiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnggggg!!

    Best to bring some Dramamine (and a ceiling tile) when messing with the Moyer’s bump.

  26. 26.

    Joey Maloney

    July 23, 2012 at 5:33 am

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion: No, California is a special case. The Republican party’s problem there has less to do with them being greedheaded, obsessed and pathological, than being greedheaded, obsessed and pathological and unable to get their shit together. The various factions spend all their efforts on making each other look ridiculous, rather than uniting to fight a common enemy.

  27. 27.

    redshirt

    July 23, 2012 at 9:40 am

    4 weeks smoke free! That said, the Electronic Cigarettes are what made it possible so far.

    Also: REVOLUTION!!!

  28. 28.

    handsmile

    July 23, 2012 at 9:54 am

    As it’s been more than four hours since the previous comment here, this thread has all but unspooled. However, having recommended the work of Chris Hedges a number of times on this blog, I’m pleased to learn that John Cole and a few other commenters are enthusiastic about his writings and activism.

    Hedges was a prominent voice during the Occupy Wall Street protests in NYC last year (and was arrested on at least one occasion there). Regrettably, there was a later dust-up between him and other intellectual leaders of the movement (e.g., David Graeber ) on the efficacy of “black bloc” (direct action) protests.

    Here are my two foremost recommendations among Hedges’ books:

    The Death of the Liberal Class (2010)
    A potent and insightful examination of what DougJ refers to as “totebaggers”

    War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (2002)
    A must-read book; one of the seminal non-fiction works of the past decade

    There are a number of good links, including public addresses by Hedges, if you do a Google search of either title.

    ETA: Ah, I see my friend from the GREAT state of Maine has snuck in a comment as I was typing up the above. Congratulations and keep strong, redshirt!

  29. 29.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    July 23, 2012 at 10:33 am

    I believe that no matter the outcome this fall, the Richie Riches have won. They own enough of everything that America has become the “Company Town”. You’re either one of them or you aren’t, there will be no middle ground. Most of our lower level politicians are owned by them and through them they control pretty much everything else. They have divided and conquered our country and nothing short of a bloody revolution will change that. It sounds bleak but IMO that’s the reality of it. I’m more than happy to cheer on people who want to change the mess we are in but they are fighting a losing battle. By the time people figure out that they’ve been lied to it will be too late to change anything.

    Reality may have a well known liberal bias but reality doesn’t matter any more.

  30. 30.

    muddy

    July 23, 2012 at 11:01 am

    Most people who know me would say I quit smoking 15 years ago (gave up 2 pk/day habit). I say I have not quit at all. I like the very occasional one, adds up to about a pack a year, generally much less. You get really high off it, it’s like being 12 years old again (I don’t get the nausea John got, obvs that would not be a fun high).

    The thing is, if you “cut down” and only smoke 1 butt, then people say, “Good for you!” If you quit, and only smoke 1 butt, then people scold you for it.

  31. 31.

    Havaan

    July 23, 2012 at 11:01 am

    I was a lil disappointed when he made very reactionary attacks on some more radical elements within American politics, while supporting similar actions taken in Europe.

  32. 32.

    Leeds man

    July 23, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: They have divided and conquered our country and nothing short of a bloody revolution will change that.

    As bleak as things are, I share Hedges’ flickering glimmer of optimism that the Occupy Movement was just the first intimation of something bigger, which might just lead to enough non-violent civil disobedience to change the status quo. If enough people are willing to get arrested or beaten up, just maybe…

    Also like Hedges, I’m not holding my breath, but listening to him makes me a bit more willing to get out there.

  33. 33.

    Kimberly Smiths

    July 23, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Being #8 ranking in Amazon is not bad…This just mean some are believing , some are not.

  34. 34.

    stinger

    July 23, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Why isn’t Chris Hedges/Common Dreams/Truthdig in your blogroll?

  35. 35.

    HyperIon

    July 23, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Hedges is a treasure IMO. But most people are not going to listen to him because he is a RADICAL. And not just a political radical. He says lots of things that many people (even LIBERALS) are not going to be comfortable hearing.

    He gave at talk at Seattle’s Town Hall several years ago called “Our Dying Society” that was devastating. Sadly it is no longer linked to on his wiki page.

    He has gazed into the void that is the USA today and it’s a very ugly sight. Ultimately he believes that we need spiritual reform….even less likely that tax reform, school reform, etc. He is talking about a personal revolution as well as a political. I doubt this is acceptable to most folks…even lefties.

    But yes, he always speaks to my heart as well.

  36. 36.

    JR in WV

    July 23, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Yes, and so is Beer! According to Ben Franklin!

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. See No Evil — The League of Ordinary Gentlemen says:
    July 23, 2012 at 3:57 pm

    […] J highlighted a supremely depressing Washington Post article on resurgent poverty in America, and John flagged a recent Bill Moyers episode featuring Chris Hedges, who spoke about his new book, Days of […]

  2. See No Evil « Elias Isquith says:
    July 31, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    […] J highlighted a supremely depressing Washington Post article on resurgent poverty in America, and John flagged a recent Bill Moyers episode featuring Chris Hedges, who spoke about his new book, Days of […]

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