Tag Archives: Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges the Prophet: Liberal Democracy Headed for Breakdown

Posted on April 25, 2012 by

Chris Hedges thinks the writing is on the wall, Nebuchadnezzar. In his most recent essay at Truthdig (“The Globalization of Hollow Politics”), he writes the following: A breakdown of liberal democracy [in the United States], which seems to be where we … Continue reading →

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Humanism vs. Nihilism: Has the Occupy Movement Gotten Away from Chris Hedges’ Nonviolent Vision for It?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

From its inception, Chris Hedges has been a key intellectual supporting the Occupy movement, and he sees its lineage in the nonviolent tradition of Tolstoy, Thoreau, Gandhi, and King: absorb blows without returning them. This (presumably) arouses the conscience of … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges: The Three Hour C-SPAN Interview

Posted on January 2, 2012 by

Chris Hedges was interviewed in-depth at C-SPAN recently. Here’s the link.

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Occupy Wall Street: The Left’s Answer to the Tea Party?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by

My guess is that the “occupiers” of Wall Street are on the cusp of an activist movement that will rival the Tea Party in influence: the right has its contemporary movement for underground men and the left now has its equivalent. … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges 101: Resisting the Moloch of American Plutocracy

Posted on April 25, 2011 by

In his most recent TruthDig column, former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, observes that reform in America via personality-based electoral politics has “become a form of magical thinking.” He is, of course, alluding to the hope that accompanied Barack … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges the Prophet on Print Culture Turning to Image Culture

Posted on March 17, 2011 by

Former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, has, over the past couple of years, taken on the mantle of a secular prophet—an emperor has no clothes truthteller—writing scathing (and I think powerful) books and essays documenting the messes that we find ourselves … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges the Prophet

Posted on March 15, 2011 by

Former New York Times war correspondent, Chris Hedges, has, over the past couple of years, taken on the mantle of a secular prophet—an emperor has no clothes truthteller—writing scathing (and I think powerful) books and essays documenting the messes that we find ourselves … Continue reading →

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Deconstructing Barack Obama (the Brand) and America (the Plutocracy)

Posted on March 13, 2011 by

Lifting the Veil is an unusually well done compilation documentary. Though long, I ended up watching the whole thing at YouTube, and found it so compelling I’m posting it here. You might find yourself unable to stop watching it as well. I can’t … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges on the Tea Birchers

Posted on October 11, 2010 by

In a recent TruthDig essay, Chris Hedges (I think accurately) sizes up the Herderian Tea Party movement in America, and where it is moving us: There is a yearning by tens of millions of Americans, lumped into a diffuse and fractious movement, … Continue reading →

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The Prodigal Son (and Daughter) Culture

Posted on September 21, 2010 by

Should we call our time the era of the prodigal sons and daughters? Chris Hedges, from page 44 of his book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle  (Nation Books, 2009): We are a culture … Continue reading →

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The Decline and Fall of the Reason Empire

Posted on September 21, 2010 by

Chris Hedges, from page 44 of his book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle  (Nation Books, 2009): We are a culture that has been denied, or has passively given up, the linguistic and intellectual … Continue reading →

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Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, and Critical Thinking

Posted on April 28, 2010 by

At TruthDig last week, Chris Hedges reported on his interview with Noam Chomsky. Here’s what Chomsky told Hedges about the importance of critical thinking: “I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions,” Chomsky said when … Continue reading →

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The Rational, the Irrational, and the Nonrational: Are These the Right Categories for Meaningful Distinctions?

Posted on September 14, 2009 by

In a Chris Hedges talk that I recently listened to (on my iPod), Hedges made, in passing, a critique of the New Atheists that they frequently fail to make distinctions between: the rational the irrational the nonrational In atheist terms, according … Continue reading →

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Get out of Afghanistan Now?

Posted on July 21, 2009 by

That’s former NY Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges’s advice in an essay posted yesterday at TruthDig.com. Chris Hedges thinks that we’re in a quagmire in Afghanistan, and that we are, by meeting violence with violence, creating more problems for ourselves … Continue reading →

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On Saturday, I Saw Chris Hedges, One of My Favorite Authors, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Posted on April 26, 2009 by

I admit it. If Chris Hedges had a fan club, and sent its members David Cassidy-like studio photos and groovy stickers for your school folders, I’d join it. And on Saturday, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA, he … Continue reading →

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Who Made the First Agnostic Statement in Recorded History?

Posted on March 18, 2009 by

Probably the 5th century BCE pre-socratic Greek philosopher, Protagorus, who said (at the beginning of his treatise on the gods): Regarding the gods, I am not capable of knowing whether they exist or whether they do not exist, or what … Continue reading →

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If America’s Economic Retraction Becomes Even Worse, Will We Behave Like the Waltons—or the Nazis?

Posted on February 4, 2009 by

In a recent essay, former NY Times foreign correspondant, Chris Hedges, asks what kind of America will evolve, should our current economic contraction prove to be the harbinger of America’s general decline as a world power. Will we see reactionary “Father … Continue reading →

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“People wanted an administration that was much more ruthless than the one they’d had on September the 10th”: Christopher Hitchens on Bush, Torture, and “Harsh Measures” Populism (Authoritarianism from Below)

Posted on January 20, 2009 by

This weekend, Christopher Hitchens was asked whether Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes, in particular with regard to authorizing torture in interrogations, to which Hitchens gave a shocking answer. His argument was, essentially, no (unless it was clearly demanded … Continue reading →

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Former NY Times Foreign Reporter, Chris Hedges, Knew the Hamas Leader Recently Killed, and Explains and Contextualizes the Gaza Situation with Admirable Clarity

Posted on January 4, 2009 by

Chris Hedges begins his article thus: I often visited Nizar Rayan, who was killed Thursday in a targeted assassination by Israel, at his house in the Jabaliya refugee camp when I was in Gaza. The house is now rubble. It … Continue reading →

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The Literate v. The Illiterate: Chris Hedges on the Real American Divide

Posted on December 2, 2008 by

Money quote from Chris Hedges’s recent thought provoking article: We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. … Continue reading →

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