Chris Hedges on "Empire of Illusion"

Social critic and author of "Empire of Illusion", Chris Hedges talks about the end of literacy and the triumph of spectacle in American culture.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Chris
• Hedges
• Empire
• Illusion
• Celebrity
• Culture
• Pornography
• Obama
• Military
• Interrogation
• Methane
• Corporate
• Totalitarianism

[Ass2mouth18]

Hedges is quickly taking Hitchens position as my favorite public intellectual. I highly recommend reading "The Death of the Liberal Class"

[skullpepper]

Hedges is brilliant - fuck the positive thinking - we need realistic thinking..

[brooklyn9847]

@Cwisiee you can't ask someone with the screen name Ass2mouth18 an intellectual question in hopes of receiving an intellectual answer

[Cwisiee]

@Ass2mouth18 Great nickname but seriously, do you also recommend the book to non-American readers as well? Do you believe there are similarities between what is going on in the US and the developed countries of the EU? And if so, how are these conditions related to each other?

[novenator]

Hedges has a unique perspective on what's wrong in America. I don't agree with him on everything, but he's spot on far more often than he is off base. Keep doing what you're doing Chris.

[aerofart]

17:56 So true, so true. Most corporations nowadays are like the Gestapo. Hedges 2012!

[ritchloui]

@ajsfa I too was initially VERY impressed by Hedges' ideas. However, notice how he seems only ever to put into relief against US criminality the Muslims, Communists and bandits in general. Strange. THIS is where his ENTIRE critique falls down. How many Arab thinkers does he quote? None. It is their generic fluent narrative of victimhood that has influenced him. Yet it is the Ancient Greeks and the British who grant him a worthwhile language about the human condition. Yet he would sell them all.

[ritchloui]

Hedges frequently talks of Shakespeare's insight into the human condition yet he NEVER acknowledges Britain's contribution to the modern world; which was NOT one of wanton genocide, ignorance and barbarity. Sorry, guys, it wasn't. Get over it. The US destroyed the British Empire with just as much enthusiasm as it destroyed the Ottomans, the Nazis and the Japanese Empires. Well done. The US owes its constitution to the British; the very ideas the US EVER valued and yet they DENY their origins!

[lazyfreedom98]

Another P honey

[AmsterdamHeavy]

@MrMweizman youre broken and deluded - did you listen to anything the man said? You just cant reconcile what hes saying and reality - that feeling in your head? Thats called cognitive dissonance