by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig July 2, 2012
Image by Mike Tigas via Flickr
Native Americans’ resistance to the westward expansion of Europeans took two forms. One was violence. The other was accommodation. Neither worked. Their land was stolen, their communities were decimated, their women and children were gunned down and the environment was ravaged. There was no legal recourse. There was no justice. There never is for the oppressed. And as we face similar forces of predatory, unchecked corporate power intent on ruthless exploitation and stripping us of legal and physical protection, we must confront how we will respond.
The ideologues of rapacious capitalism, like members of a primitive cult, chant the false mantra that natural resources and expansion are infinite. They dismiss calls for equitable distribution as unnecessary. They say that all will soon share in the “expanding” wealth, which in fact is swiftly diminishing. And as the whole demented project unravels, the elites flee like roaches to their sanctuaries. At the very end, it all will come down like a house of cards.
[…]
via Truthdig
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig
From the archives:
Chris Hedges: All Energy Should Be Spent On Building Movements
American Autumn: an Occudoc (In Other Words: F*ck You, Gordon Gekko!)
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i love&admire chris very much,and all his words go deep into my soul!!!!! that said my friends,if we ever want to truely break free of our insane/evil system,we need to study&adopt the natural lifestyles of the redman,who lived mostly at peace with all tribes,lived simply with what grandmother/nature gave them,lovd&respected their wemon,all decisions were talked over by the whole tribe&never made final till all had had their say and all agreeded!!yes this took a long time but so what!!!natives knew that the world they lived in was an illussion,so they would go away from the tribe,fast,chant,do sweat lodges&dream them self into the “real world” when ever a major change i their life confronted them!!!whew,what a beautiful people& we savages slaughtered about 8 million of these so called “inferior” people!!! so my friends,the time has come for each&everyone of us to cleanse our minds&bodies that we have aquired living in “the matrix” before we all crash&burn when this rotton society crumbles into dust!! ho ka hey/it is a good time to live
Just a meditated post-script to my first comment…I really agree with your position Keeper of the Fire, and totally support your advocacy for right remembrance of our indigenous ancestral spirits, only I do think we must be cautious about over-romanticising ancient cultures. We have everything to learn from Native traditions, but must also embrace the best of our own “insane” world. Let’s keep everything in proportion, absorb everything in time. Nobody has yet mentioned the profoundly significant vision of Crazy Horse, his “great hoop” of the peoples and the new Tree of Life. This is real “biblical” stuff, prophetic and life changing. This world must evolve, change, reinvent itself or perish. There is no great secret to discover, only the realisation that Life itself is sublimely mysterious. Real life is beautiful, sacred and indestructible; it may be transient, but it is also significant. We must remember everything; but if we do not learn from that memory, we shall only perpetuate the pain and injustice that is so anathema to a life lived well.
Mr. Hedges, despite your prodigious skills as a writer, is this the time to be reminding people to be Kamikazes? That, with slightly different images, is John Wayne. Because, as with the Native Americans, they were so outgunned from the beginning that they might as well have jumped from a cliff holding hands, sans parachutes. Is it possible to conceive of a Ghandi leading this country to separate itself from Empire as he did with the Brits, despite the fact that an assassin’s bullet took him in the end. But so much less blood was shed. And, as with MJK, who followed Ghandi’s lead, though he, too, met with an assasin’s bullet, this was after making significant strides towards arriving at a measure of freedom and dignity for his people. That’s my modest proposal for you to ponder, if that’s not too much to ask. Bravura is simple. The non-violent resistance that your favorite activists and mine, Occupy Wall Street, practice, is so much more difficult, but very effective in waking up people and presenting the dire issues that beseige them. I rest my case and praise your passion.
Your article is sadly true in every aspect. If we had been taught the true, brutal history of this country from day one perhaps we would have gone down a different path. I agree that President Obama has disappointed us on numerous fronts but I ask you how one man, even POTUS can overwhelm all the mighty powers that have run our country for years? They would simply murder any POTUS that got too close to robbing their power. That said, what is our option? With Supreme Court nominations coming up in the next 4 years would you prefer that Romney be elected? There is no viable 3rd party and votes that don’t go to Obama will elect Romney and give total power to the GOP. This is a very serious question for you. All my friends quote you constantly and I agree with them about the failings but I ask you what good it will do to put Obama so far down that Romney is elected? I respect your opinion and await your response. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, drbella7.
Chris doesn’t respond to comments, but I know his viewpoint on this issue: Vote 3rd Party or not at all. Don’t be fooled into thinking “the lesser of two evils” as we already know Obama is a war criminal (how much more evil can one be?)
In this particular race, I’d have to say Romney is the “lesser of two evils”.
Why vote for evil at all?
We do have choices. We can educate ourselves on the candidates’ platforms from the various third parties.
Some of the choices are:
Stuart Alexander – Socialist Party
Jill Stein – Green Party
Rocky Anderson – Justice Party
Gary Johnson – Libertarian Party
David Brownlow – Constitution Party
Sorry, Dandelionsalad, but even if Cris thinks a third party vote is smart, I disagree. Remember what the third party vote did for us when Gore just barely beat the true war criminal? I remember the Supreme Court anointing George Bush into office and all the misery that followed. I will be voting for Obama so we have a better chance of getting better Supreme Court justices if for no other reason. Who knows . . . President Obama may surprise us in a number of pleasant ways in his second term. Peace.
I agree totally and completely with Hedges on this issue. I voted for Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008. Please read: http://www.cagreens.org/alameda/city/0803myth/myth.html More Democrats voted FOR Bush than voted for Nader. Gore lost his own state of TN! Many of us who voted for Nader had no intention of voting for Gore/Lieberman in 2000. Blaming Nader is irresponsible and uneducated on the facts of the race in 2000.
Also see: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/an-unreasonable-man-ralph-nader-2006/
I refuse to vote for evil. Period. Obama is a war criminal. What does that mean to you?
Interesting that you ended your comment with the word, “Peace”. Voting for a war criminal has nothing to do with peace.
Out of the 2 candidates that most people refer to as “the lesser of 2 evils”, Romney is the one who is the “lesser”, not Obama.
Have you been a reader on Dandelion Salad for very long? I have consistently posted both articles and videos on Obama’s record from the campaign in 2008 to his current position and his administration.
See: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/meet-the-new-boss-the-same-as-the-old-boss/
We do have other choices as I listed in my other comment. If you are reading this, that means you have the ability to use the Internet. It’s quite easy to find out about these third party candidates. You don’t have to play the 2-Party (Capitalist Party) game. It is set up as a divide and conquer strategy when the reality is both main parties are owned and operated by the same corporate sponsors.
You have the right to vote however you like and so do I. It is interesting that you call Obama a war criminal but don’t seem at all concerned that your third party-vote helped to elect the king of war criminals, GW Bush. I am a realist and don’t care to throw my vote away on a third party at this time in our history. None of the third party candidates will be elected. We live in a two party system with all its faults. I totally disagree with you about the disconnected Mitt Romney who may be a nice guy for someone who was born into wealth but doesn’t have a clue how average Americans live. He would probably be a better president than than Bush but that isn’t saying much. He doesn’t even know what he believes and I don’t support the lies he spews out now in his desperation to get elected.
BTW, I am fully aware of the third party candidates but they can’t win. Yes, both parties are compromised by corporate money. It doesn’t take long to be corrupted by money and power once they go to Washington. We have all seen it happen. The only way to change the system is to get the big, corporate money out of it. Oh, who do you think owns the Libertarian Party? Mother Goose Koch? 😉 Peace.
Apparently you didn’t read the first link I suggested. Voting third party in 2000 did NOT elect GW Bush. The Supreme Court elected Bush, along with many democrats. That is just plain fact.
“Throwing away your vote” is used constantly by those who still vote for the Capitalist Party (Dem and Rep) but is it true?
Nowadays we have the Internet and can be very well informed on the third party candidates. Choosing to vote for whomever is not “throwing away” one’s vote. It is voting FOR someone, instead of against the other candidate (lesser of 2 evils).
I didn’t say I support Romney, I stated that he could be the “lesser of 2 evils”. Big difference. Both Dem and Rep candidates are not worthy of my support. Ever. They are owned and operated by the exact same corporations. It’s also called Fascism. Look it up. When corporations run the government that is Fascism. We live under Fascism right now.
See: https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/fascism-on-dandelion-salad/
As far as reality goes, it is you, the voter of only candidates in the 2-party system, that perpetrate the continued “divide and conquer” strategy. We must step out of the left-right divide. The good thing is more and more people are indeed waking up to this and will vote third party.
I believe the Koch brothers are supporting Mitt Romney this election, not Gary Johnson.
Listen to what Hedges says about Nader in 2000 at around 1:03:00 in the last video on this post:
“Yemenis still remember with outrage the bloody December 2009 US cruise missile attack on the village of al-Majala in Abyan province, which killed at least 44 civilians, including 22 children and 12 women, five of them pregnant.”
This is Obama’s legacy drbella7. Think again.
Thanks, David for showing a real example of why Pres. Obama is indeed a war criminal.
you vote for Obama, drbella7 and there will be blood on your hands. Think of all the little children he has maimed and killed, and their mothers in the last 3 years in the 5 countries that he has started wars in. If you can live with that, then be fooled again.
Thanks, Rocket.
Even during the campaign in 2008, Obama stated that he would continue the war in Afghanistan and go into Pakistan, which he did on day 3 of his presidency. Some of us actually took his word on this and did NOT vote for him in 2008. He was not an “antiwar” candidate, ever.
Chris,, I admire the enormous amount of spirit and energy of your sincere indignation ,, I grow tired and more hopeless over this seemingly inevitable collapse of man following greed over wisdom. It is refreshing to see that your spirit still has the fight in it.. refreshing indeed. People have been taught that they are not smart enough to think for themselves,, and our only hope I feel is to start with the very young,, for if not,, we have little chance of ever really changing the direction of this nation. I guess one mind at a time.
Fabulous article, and stirring in its nobility. An emergent cultural theme we are hearing now that is worth emphasising, is the idea of what is really “enough.” Frances Moore Lappe explains it well, when she refers to the counter-intuitive understanding that well intended “limits to growth” actually incite lunatic pretensions to “improve upon Nature” that simply cannot ever give us “enough.” Precious Homo S. Saps. needs more than Nature can provide, according to the infallible corporatocratic ideologies of dominance. Chris hedges is 100% right, only confrontational resistance affirms the negative; best to let the inbalanced energy of the adversary induce its own collapse. The wisest among us will concentrate on building community, attending to Nature, listening to the unheard of, focusing on the possibilities.