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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
informative
sad
medium-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage
Hedges offers a fiery, depressing evisceration of the Left's feckless descent into a "lesser of two evils" state. For progressives who feel powerless to do much beyond wag fingers at their supposed allies in the Democratic Party - and take some measure of absolution from participating in that charade - this book will land a few body punches. Hedges, as always, writes particularly forcefully about the ravages of war. On the flip side, there are a few lulls, like a so-so chapter on protest art (although I enjoyed the shot at [b:Siddhartha|52036|Siddhartha|Hermann Hesse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320519981s/52036.jpg|4840290]).
Hedges: "The liberal class has ossified. It has become part of the system it once tried to reform. It continues to speak in the language of technical jargon and tepid political reform, even though the corporate state has long since gutted the mechanisms for actual reform... The failure by the liberal class to articulate an alternative in a time of financial and environmental collapse clears the way for military values of hypermasculinity, blind obedience, and violence. A confused culture disdains the empathy and compassion espoused by traditional liberalism."
Hedges: "The liberal class has ossified. It has become part of the system it once tried to reform. It continues to speak in the language of technical jargon and tepid political reform, even though the corporate state has long since gutted the mechanisms for actual reform... The failure by the liberal class to articulate an alternative in a time of financial and environmental collapse clears the way for military values of hypermasculinity, blind obedience, and violence. A confused culture disdains the empathy and compassion espoused by traditional liberalism."
Chris Hedges argues that six pillars prop up the liberal establishment: the press, culture, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities, and the Democratic Party. These institutions, according to Hedges, are vital to a functioning democracy—they offer a “safety valve” for popular frustrations and discontent by discrediting those who talk of profound structural change as well as advocate the interests of the poor, working, and middle classes against the exploitation of the corporate state. As Hedges states:
“The loss of the liberal class creates a power vacuum filled by speculators, war profiteers, gangsters, and killers, often led by charismatic demagogues. It opens the door to totalitarian movements that rise to prominence by ridiculing and taunting the liberal class and the values it claims to champion. The promises of these totalitarian movements are fantastic and unrealistic, but their critiques of the liberal class are grounded in truth.”(21)
The Death of the Liberal Class discusses the breakdown of these various institutions over the last 100 years, beginning with America’s involvement in World War 1. WW1, a conflict in which the primary benefactor of America’s involvement in the war were bankers and industrialists. These groups wanted to ensure that their massive loans to the European powers would be repaid, which would not happen if Germany won the war. The best way to ensure America’s war involvement would be through a massive propaganda campaign, persuading the population to be enthusiastic war supporters. This propaganda campaign prompted the corporate takeover of America and resulting decline of the liberal class.
Over the next century, Hedges describes how anti-communist witch-hunting grinded down the liberal class until it because a cog in the capitalist machinery, cannibalizing any dissenting voices. Hedges mentions a few exceptional individuals who maintained their integrity despite such strong external pressure (i.e. Noam Chomsky, Howard Zimm, Ralph Nadar, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X). For the exception of these few extraordinary individuals, the liberal class has largely sold out their constituents as they grew more and more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress.
“The loss of the liberal class creates a power vacuum filled by speculators, war profiteers, gangsters, and killers, often led by charismatic demagogues. It opens the door to totalitarian movements that rise to prominence by ridiculing and taunting the liberal class and the values it claims to champion. The promises of these totalitarian movements are fantastic and unrealistic, but their critiques of the liberal class are grounded in truth.”(21)
The Death of the Liberal Class discusses the breakdown of these various institutions over the last 100 years, beginning with America’s involvement in World War 1. WW1, a conflict in which the primary benefactor of America’s involvement in the war were bankers and industrialists. These groups wanted to ensure that their massive loans to the European powers would be repaid, which would not happen if Germany won the war. The best way to ensure America’s war involvement would be through a massive propaganda campaign, persuading the population to be enthusiastic war supporters. This propaganda campaign prompted the corporate takeover of America and resulting decline of the liberal class.
Over the next century, Hedges describes how anti-communist witch-hunting grinded down the liberal class until it because a cog in the capitalist machinery, cannibalizing any dissenting voices. Hedges mentions a few exceptional individuals who maintained their integrity despite such strong external pressure (i.e. Noam Chomsky, Howard Zimm, Ralph Nadar, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X). For the exception of these few extraordinary individuals, the liberal class has largely sold out their constituents as they grew more and more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
This book was recommended to me by a colleague, and I was fully expecting it to simply be a regurgitation of my own beliefs with nothing new for me to learn. Fortunately for me, I was mistaken. Granted that many of the ideas were not necessarily new to me, the factual evidence and anecdotal evidence opened my eyes that I don’t really pay attention to politics and the world around me as much as I thought I did. Hedges makes plain the fact that the Democratic Party has failed the people and functions as the Republican Party under a different name. I’m reading this book 15 years after it was published and it is shocking how well he predicted the future of America. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to begin understanding the political climate we are in and how it came to be.
Generally speaking, I agree with about 95% of what Hedges has to say. My problem isn't what he says, but how he says it. Sandwiched between a diatribe at the beginning and another at the end is about 175 pages argument so scattershot, it's akin to trying to fire a shotgun out of the window of a 747 in-flight. Jumping between topics and time periods at random and without much explanation behind the sudden shifts, the book barely makes a compelling case to its central argument: that so-called "liberals" say one thing and do another. Perhaps if it had followed either a chronological history of the evolution of liberalism from progressivism OR a topic-by-topic analysis of different areas where liberals have failed, it might have been successful. Instead, it tries to do both at once with limited results.
Overall, it's a disappointment, but perhaps, based on similar reads from other writers, not a surprise.
Overall, it's a disappointment, but perhaps, based on similar reads from other writers, not a surprise.
To me, this was the other half of the story Democracy In Chains told. In DiC, libertarians and the radical right was explored through political movements and clandestine meetings. In this book, the liberal political class’s evolution is detailed through labor movements, political betrayals, and a steady march toward corporate oligarchy.
Hedges takes a photograph of American politics in 2010 and warns of the potential far right tyrant being elected to the glee of the business class.
Hedges takes a photograph of American politics in 2010 and warns of the potential far right tyrant being elected to the glee of the business class.
informative
sad
medium-paced
medium-paced
When I bought this book I thought I would read it, absorb the knowledge within and then pass it on to someone else instead, I am keeping this to revisit for inspiration.