Chris Hedges speech Union Square NYC - April 15th 2011

[judirusso]

Thanks for posting this great video. A great man of great courage and so inspiring. If you look at what makes up a psychopath fits the personality of so many people that are in power today.

[STeLLaLuNOra]

i like him<3 vote him for president!!!

[Jpom22]

eloquence and intelligence personified. run for prez before it's too late.

[ymatmband]

Who says that that necessarily follows? You don't pat armed thugs take your freedom away. Money is a social creation, it can't "run out" so to speak. And you still didn't answer my question. How do we prevent monopolies in an unregulated capitalist system? I am open to ideas but I don't think it can be done. And if you are going to allow regulations, then where is the limit? How much regulation is ok before it is no longer capitalism and it becomes socialism? I honestly want to know. Convert me.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband Money is an accepted medium of exchange that facilitates the trade or transfer of products, goods and services between individuals/businesses/countri­es. It is only dependable when the quantity and value aren't manipulated. If it can't run out, you're doing it wrong. In a given system, the amount in circulation should approximate the combined wealth, assets, goods and materials of its participants. The amount of money you have doesn't matter. What each monetary unit can buy you does.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband You haven't answered a few of mine either. The real question is: how do you prevent monopolies in any system? The best chance is a combination of sound money, limited central government, market competition and enforcement of property rights and contracts. As long as the human animal is involved, there will never be utopian, social perfection.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 Ok. So if your argument is you can never have utopia ever, I agree with you. But I disagree that capitalism is automatically the next best choice. There have been plenty of other societies that have thrived in socialism, or even anarchism, The modern day scandinavian countries are doing quite well with socialism. Spain during the spanish civil war was doing fine with an anarchist movement until the communists came in. So to say for some reason capitalism is the default is bogus.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband I respect your right to disagree. But that doesn't change my opinion.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 Well, I think there is a way to remove corrupt power systems. It's called anarchistic syndicalism, or also called libertarian socialism. It's the kind of system offered by Hedges, and Noam Chomsky. It has worked before and will work again. As long as you have capitalism, you will have wage slavery, which in many cases is worse then chattle slavery, because when you rent someone your less likely to treat them with respect then when you own them.

[cosmicviewer477]

@ymatmband You're right about Capitalism. I believe, also, that in contemporary American society the line between public and private is slowly being rubbed out, so the two are increasingly becoming indistinguishable. In other words, here we are faithfully paying our taxes to prop-up corporations which are increasingly controlling many aspects of our lives, from the quality of our air and water to the ingredients in our foods and medicines. I am deeply concerned about this "corporatization".

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 Who determines the value of gold? I mean, if i had a bar of gold, how much fruit and vegetables would you barter me for it? How much is a piece of music worth? Human beings determine value, value is not an intrinsic thing that some how exists out there. Furthermore, I don't think that any system that makes human beings a commodity that need to rent themselves to corporations in order to survive is a good one. And that is how capitalism works.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband 100 ounces of gold would have bought you the best Cadillac in 1950. 100 ounces of gold today would buy you the best Cadillac and a foreclosed home. The value of gold is irrelevant. The amount of dollars needed to buy an ounce is what changes.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 So, if I may reiterate, how within a capitalist framework can you prevent people from buying the system? Without regulating it and thus leading to some form of socialism?

[vman0310]

@ymatmband The "systems" can be bought no matter what form of government. Unless you can prevent power hungry people from gaining power, there is no prevention. The only option is revolution for any failed system. I'd at least prefer a system where I have a chance to prosper, not the corrupt government.

[ThunderDog97]

Thank You Chris Hedges, excellent speech, excellent humanitarian.

--

[wadehwallace]

The Capitalist system encourages those who rip communities apart, and rewards those who destroy individuality. They leave us with nothing more than need, and conflict with our neighbors. And yet, we don't even discuss alternatives! All Socialism is State Socialism, I guess. Nobody considers Democratic Socialism....the same system that has led the nordic countries to become the heart of Western civilization.

[vman0310]

Capitalism isn't necessarily evil. It is a vehicle for bad people to do bad things and for good people to do good things.

Greed is the motivation for us all to do work that bores us, for the benefit of people we don't necessarily like, so we can buy things that we don't necessarily need. It's never you that's greedy, it's always the guy with more than you, right?

If you want to end the evil corporations, stop buying their products and services. And stop living your life indebted to banks.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 To live in a capitalist society you need to buy things. In order to buy things you need to work. This whole idea of voting with your wallet is useless when your only option is voting for the thing that is killing you. You are right though capitalism isn't evil, some people with in a captialist system are evil. So how do we prevent the evil ones among us fom ruining things... regulations? laws? is this socialism? HIDE YOUR KIDS!!!

[vman0310]

@ymatmband Assuming you cause no harm to anyone else, capitalism encourages hard work so that you have more wealth to trade/buy with a higher number of other producers. It also increases the amount of producers that create the same products. This allows you to chose the best one. Socialist, government intervention reduces the competition (through regulations and laws) so that only corruption and cronyism thrive (GE, JPM, Halliburton, Goldman Sachs...should I go on?)

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 so you are saying the reason why we have corruption now is because we have government? Hows Norway doing? what about sweeden? I think they are a couple of thriving socialist countries. Your utopian vision of capitalism only works if 1. every individual makes rational choices or 2. everyone in that society is a saint. Without those two things capitalism creates a system thats only motivated by profit, which is not only unsustainable but harmful to human beings.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 There is this lie that sustains both extreme communists and capitalists. This idea that "well we have never had perfect capitalism before! Therefore the problems now are still because of government intervention." Then the communists exclaiming the same except, " too much capital in the world still!" Utopian ideas are dead. They don't work. Partly because people aren't rational, we make choices based on how we feel, not what will logically be the better choice.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband The closest we've had is the first 100 years of the nation's history. Those were what made America the greatest, most prosperous nation. Perfect? No, but still pretty good. And let's not forget how sound money factors in. We had it for the first 150+ years and haven't for 40. Just look at historical gold prices from 1792-2011.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 You are right, it was not perfect. You think back then is better then today though? By what standard? You realize they had a great depression caused by market speculation right? The same crap that is happening now. Plus their wealth came from owning slaves... Also women had no rights. Have you ever read the history on oil production? Your country was built on the backs of slaves and your industry has been run by speculators.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband So, it's not possible to have free markets, no slavery, and women's rights? What preceded the great depression, and every other severe downturn in our history, was the establishment of a central bank and/or currency debasement. Where would we be now if we had sound money, not irredeemable paper fiat dollars?

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 You would still have extreme inequality of opportunity. A system where power is determined by capital will always leave few in charge of the many. That why democracy is in a sense anti-capitalist. It establishes that the people should decide how things are ran, not based on what sells better, but by what they want. Wage slavery and monopolies have existed well before the creation of a central bank.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband Democracies always implode, and that's why we were given a constitutional republic. There will always be inequality. And the more powerful the central government, the less powerful the people will be...regardless of which type of government.

To you last sentence: Yes, but with sound money, you could live on slave wages. With inflationary fiat currency, the poor always get poorer.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 It's not like the past where you could go outside and aquire new wealth, or steal it from someone else. Everything is now a commodity and is owned by someone. Democracy always implode? Republics always collapse. At least under democracy my voice matters, under capitalist my wallet does. And frankly a wallet lacks a moral sensibility.

[vman0310]

@ymatmband Democracy is 51% mob rule. In a republic, 100% have a voice. Republics collapse when hijacked by democracy or when the value of money can be manipulated by a small, elite minority.

Your labor is a commodity that you trade for money. You can always create wealth with it. Democratic socialism steals it and gives it to someone else. To say that you can't "go outside and acquire new wealth" is like saying every piece of music has already been written, so there's no use composing.

[ymatmband]

@vman0310 Your country was built on stolen land. Theft is only theft when you take something without permission. tax is an understanding between people for social welfare. What about externalities? Corporations love them, it's where you defer the cost of something onto a third party. The oil sands in my home country of Canada is a great example of that. I do wonder though... how do you prevent monopolies in a republic? regulation? and isn't regulation ... socialism?

[vman0310]

@ymatmband An understanding? I understand that if I don't pay up, armed thugs take all my wealth and imprison me. Not my idea of freedom.

Isn't social welfare deferring the cost the cost of something on a third party? What happens when the money runs out?

How have monopolies been prevented under socialism? As long as it's a GSE it's okay?

[moogoonghwa]

Speeches alone will not achieve our goal, but they can surely provide us insight into what needs to be done. Look for "The Coming of the 2nd Republic" on Facebook.

[PeterHebert123]

God bless Chris for speaking truth. May God condemn all on Wall Street. May we see it completely up in flames with no hand of mercy, help, or pity extended when they burn alive in the vengeance of fire that surely will come. May they all be trapped in Manhattan and unable to escape to Bermuda for the weekend. Again, may we see it in our day in the name of the living God. I will do as instructed in Revelation 18:1-24. I will rejoice at the ultimate justice that is long over due.

[chi8cago]

why isn't this man in office.....because he's too smart.

[fccukthebanks]

what an amazing inspirational speech

[MrKramer13]

with all the Chemtrails of Barium and Aluminum in the sky and HAARP and others heating the ionosphere, global warming is becoming man made.

[MrGene2666]

Climate change? Climate changes daily,give it a rest all ready.The sun rises,it gets warmer,the sun goes down it gets warmer,the earth shifts a bit,we get an ice age.It shifts back,it warms up.The continents have seperated and come together through continental drift 6 times that we know of.The earth changes. Thinking that the current state of the earth is the eternal state of the planet is sheer stupidity.

[aweryuti88]

Amazing Speech. Anyone going to help get this Revolution started now? We have f***** around enough.

[siksastaka]

Chris Hedges for president.

[manelmariarodrigues]

Spot on except for the man made global warming. Anybody who knows how the world works knows it's a con.

They don't plan on decreasing emisisons, only taxing you for them making prices higher and you poorer. A Natural cycle of global warming was started in the begining of the 19th century, before we were emitting CO2. In the medieval warm period CO2 levels were the same as now and again we were not emiting CO2. Actually CO2 is makes nature prosper. Remember you exhale CO2 before you takeaside

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues So, if it is a con, who created it, and secondly, what are your sources? I think if you are going to try to influence people to ignore what the scientists are saying, furthermore, to try to suggest some sort of conspiracy it would be nice for you to back it up.

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband dude, that's the problem you depend on others to know the "truth" investigate for youerself. Google: Climate Gate; medieval warm period.

Temperatures were going up already before we started pumping CO2,,,, it's a natural cycle if we are having an impact on weather patterns I think that might be so, but I would look to HAARP and chemtrails ask more probable causes for that..

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues Don't you also depend on others? I mean I don't think you or I as individuals have the ability to make such judgements. For one I don't have all the data sets. And frankly my knowledge of statistics is good, but for psychology, not for climate science. But what I do know is how science works, and i don't think that such a thing can be a giant conspiracy by almost every scientist. Because for human made climate change to be a hoax, would require such a large scale conspiracy.

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband I do depend on others, But I am awake now. I realise I was deceived for 25 years. What everybody on this lpanet calls democracy isn't really that. We live in a form of crony supercapitalism, fascism is a step away.....

There are now free speech zones, how about that for FREE speech...... Think ok ?

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues I agree that we live in a time of crony capitalism. I live in Canada, it is not as bad. And if the election goes the way I want it tonight, we will be electing a leftest government (polls show it is pretty close). But when it comes to science, I don't think you can argue that scientists all over the planet are conspiring that the planet is warming. One of the first steps towards fascism is a denial of science.

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband do you know anything about harper and how is trying to take you into the NAU ? you better not elect him.......

I completely agree with you on what you say about science. The problem is you have been fooled into believing there is a consensus. It's really easy. TV just shows you one side of the argument. Have you ever watched a show with a "credible" (man made) global warming sceptic ? The mainsteram media is controlled by a small group of people, they dictate what you get to see.

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband and you believe it all just like I did, because you have no reason to believe it's not true, you were born in a lie, how would you know it's not the truth !? everybody seems to accept it, so you do too. But if you go outside the mainstream media to outlets that are not in the business of news but give you the news as a hobby, for passiom, not for money you will start to understand some basic dynamics that weren't taught to you at school. /watch?v=fOygATEabIk

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband /watch?v=FfHW7KR33IQ&feature=r­elated please watchi some videos on youtube like these. All you are hearing is the IPCC's vision. just like mainstream media wil never tell you about the thousands of architects and engineers that have enlisted in that organization of the same name, for 9/11 truth.......

Reality is stranger than fiction, and our inability to not betray imparcial thinking keeps us in desbilief......

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues And what would it take for you to believe the opposite? I study the philosophy of science. I know what it takes for something to be scientifically accurate and true (scientifically true). Plus I go to university, and talk frequently with people in the field, actually studying the effect of human caused climate change. Why should I distrust them? It is not a mainstream source, it is THE source, scientists in the field. Now tell me why I should distrust them?

[manelmariarodrigues]

@ymatmband Dude, that's the problem. I'm not all about BELIEFS & DOGMA.That may just causes cognitive dissonance and therefore ignorance. I'm more of a dynamic opinion, out of the conditioning box, we are all human stop killing each other and lets explore space together, but then again "they (might) live" among us how would you know ?! type of guy. Hope you don't get a job and join the future system

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues I can't comprehend what you just said. who is "they". You make it sound like I am a bad person. I didn't vote for Harper. Though, people who don't believe in climate change voted for him. They are the same people who criticize evolution... so what system am I joining? I am fighting against popular opinion. I also study psychology, I am doing a joint honours psych/phil, and how you used cognitive dissonance does not make sense.

[ymatmband]

@manelmariarodrigues In fact a good example of cognitive dissonance is the fact that we are ruining our enviornment by our use of fossil fuels, and we have the evidence to suggest that this is true and yet we all drive our cars and buy are snacks and big screen tv's and heat our homes. Even when we know we are reaching or have surpassed peak oil. We hold two beliefs, suburia good, climate change bad. So we ignore climate change, that is what cognitive dissonance is.

[TheVideoRepo]

A fine speech, but with perhaps too many literary allusions. Dante, Dostoevsky, John and Plato in less than ten minutes

[lolakissx]

@TheVideoRepo I had 2 read those books,they were mandatory in year 5, 6 and 7 in primary school. I also had 2 give oral n written examinations about these books n many others. They were very long books, with words I didn't understand. I kept asking my literacy teacher, why the hell do we have 2 read these heavy books when u are 11yrs old???? She said, these books will illuminati us one day, and will give us power, never imagined. I thought, she was crazy. But never stopped reading the real stuff

[toscadonna]

What an awesome speech! Everyone should watch this and stand up to the tyrants!

[enkelin32]

Chris hedges is my new HERO!

[BanksterSlayer]

Thank you for posting the clip. Let's hope that this is just the first organized protest of many to follow.

[tommybass40]

Chris Hedges for PRESIDENT.

[brossen99]

Spoilt the whole thing by mentioning the Climate Scam ( Goldman Sachs baby )

[Pertemba40]

@brossen99 Climate change is real, we can see it happening all around us, around the world. What I think is a scam is the so called CO2 man made Global Warming which now they switched to call it "Climate Change", a catch all phrase for convenience. It definitely is the "new religion" to make us accept their even bigger scam Cap &Trade which they already started experimenting in countries like Australia, etc. But hey, Chris is not perfect, no one is.

[brossen99]

@Pertemba40 its all bolocks climate change is natural

[Pertemba40]

@brossen99 Then we agree, that's what I meant by climate change is happening, but their "official" propaganda is using it to implement financial trade scams like Cap & Trade to trade permits for profit which will only benefit Wall Street, Goldman Sucks, etc.

[ymatmband]

Alex Jones is not an appropriate source of information. Climate change is legit science.

[ymatmband]

@Pertemba40

Not man made? You guys do know what science is right? No, Chris isn't perfect, neither is science, but the one thing science has is that it is our only method of getting close to something that is the truth, and I am afraid to say that man made climate change is as scientifically proven as evolution and physics.

[thered702]

@ymatmband You really did not just say evolution is proven.

[ymatmband]

@thered702 I did. Because it is. Hedges thinks it is too, he writes about it specifially in American Facists: The Christian Right and the War on America. But Hedges is not a scientist. I would recomend you read Darwin's Dangerous Idea, by Dan Dennett, The greatest stroy on earth, and the selfish gene by richard dawkins, origin of species by darwin, You know books. The kind of education people lack nowadays. Or better yet, go to university and get a degree in science. see how your opinion changes

[thered702]

@ymatmband Haha you know nothing of me, or my "education". Haha. You are a troll. Why not try reading books NOT written by wealthy elitist families.School is a prison for the mind. And I have a degrees in history and law. Where are your degrees?Not that it matters what a piece of paper says, or where anyone gets them. Some people just cant see truth when it stares them in the face. Sad. And saying evolution is proven shows your ignorance.There's a reason its called "Darwin's theory of evolution"

[ymatmband]

@thered702 You do understand the definition of a scientific theory right? "A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena." You studied history, then tell me by what standard do we measure a historical fact? what comes into play in order for us to say that something happened in the past? Or are you denying we can know anything?

[ymatmband]

@thered702 Or go to your search field and type in chris hedges american facists the hour, watch the video, and get his take on people who seem to deny the validity of science.

[thered702]

@ymatmband "People who deny the validity of science". Do you even know what science IS? The entire field is based on theories. Evolution is one of them. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that man evolved from another species. Not one shred. Maybe you should go and do your own research, instead of believing the research of another? THAT'S what science is.

[bigollameo]

@brossen99

Scam? Go read the research, not just the one-liners and blog notes that confirm your view.

[Pertemba40]

@bigollameo So, what's your point, do you believe "Climate Change" is real or not? I've done plenty of research on this last year, my conclusion is what I've just stated.

[brossen99]

@bigollameo dick head !

[bigollameo]

@brossen99

Go read it!

[Lyprulz]

@brossen99 lol

[goatunit]

@brossen99 So you disagree with him on one of the twenty-odd issues that he raised, and dismiss his arguments based on that disagreement? That's kind of stupid, man.

[Pertemba40]

@goatunit No I didn't say that, and now you are becoming ad hominem, sign that you are incapable of critical thinking. Let's leave it at that. Thanks.

[lynnybee888]

CHRIS HEDGES = PATRIOT . bless his heart, he is excellent.