with Chris Hedges
RT America on Aug 21, 2016
On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges enters the capitalist labyrinth with Rob Urie, author of Zen Economics. Urie says the destructive way capitalism has harnessed natural resources and the political system makes it time to reimagine the way we understand and relate to the world around us, while RT correspondent Anya Parampil explores wealth disparities across the United States.
From the archives:
Ralph Nader: The Road to Corporate Fascism (must-see)
Abby Martin: Chevron vs. The Amazon – Inside the Killzone, Part 1
Michael Parenti: The 1% Pathology and the Myth of Capitalism
Chris Hedges and Richard Wolff: Capitalism in Crisis
Noam Chomsky: Climate Change and Nuclear Proliferation Pose the Worst Threat Ever Faced by Humans
Chris Hedges and Tim DeChristopher: Coping with the Reality of Climate Change Destruction
Dandelion Salad 
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‘Unnatural’ neoliberal capitalism is an ideological apotheosis that delivers humanity to the lord of the slums. It has hijacked authentic American values like independence, free thought, ethical justice and community. It generates urban congestion, over consumption and normalizes mass social control through pseudo-science.
This trend is not exactly new, but it is a reductionist ideology that has been driven by huge energy excesses, indigenous suppression, gender prejudice, indoctrination through false education and the hereditary consolidation of imperialist “wealth” as power.
What has really changed is our ecological perspective.
The only way to unblock the exponential log jam, is to rethink distribution and relationship on every level; reinvent settlement, redefine work, and totally reconceptualize human activity, species difference, and aspiration.
The problems we have created are not just political, “religious” and economic, but also architectural and biological. Completely redesigning cities is one approach that is necessary. If climate change continues, many cities will become uninhabitable with sea-level rise.
The ethical food web is our master key. We need big ideas, freedom to experiment, and considered, intelligent action; not just blag and bullshit from talking monkeys with unearned & undeserved, inflated incomes.
Thanks, David. What I can’t believe is why aren’t more people, farmers in particular, not protesting more? Climate change is ruining our food production. Just in my little backyard garden this season we’ve had drought, followed by flooding and now insects are taking over.
Good question. I follow this quite closely, and I think there are several factors.
Number one is fear about loss of subsidies & livelihood.
2 is climate denial, or that it is not up to us to presume to fix anything, that it is biblical and out of our hands.
3 may be just agronomist conservatism, unwillingness to be a maverick figure like Joel Salatin is, for example.
4 next comes scale, as there is a world of difference between the big players & local, often community supported, smallholding.
5 is time, farmers tend to work hard & have scant energy for protest….
& (6) those (actually countless individuals) who are doing a lot are not represented politically (except by the Greens) & are not reported, supported or covered in the media.
What is really going on is what has been very adequately described as a clash of paradigms. Agroecology is actually the predominant view among those who have the capacity to reason, or have bothered to do the research; but land ownership, power relations, urban “investment” formulations etc etc corporate gridlock controls, “the market” all inhibit or actually block intelligent change.
It will get worse before it improves, because the old has to fail and break down, and inevitably will because of water wars; then the new way will have to emerge ~ as the only solution, plausible way, because it is so diverse, productive, adaptable, resourceful and far more sophisticated.
Sorry for a rather long response, but it is arguably the most fundamental issue we face…
Thanks, David, great answers. I agree that it is one of the most important issues of our time.