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marmar

(76,982 posts)
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 07:00 AM Oct 2014

Chris Hedges: The Imperative of Revolt


from truthdig:


by Chris Hedges


TORONTO—I met with Sheldon S. Wolin in Salem, Ore., and John Ralston Saul in Toronto and asked the two political philosophers the same question. If, as Saul has written, we have undergone a corporate coup d’état and now live under a species of corporate dictatorship that Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism,” if the internal mechanisms that once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible remain ineffective, if corporate power retains its chokehold on our economy and governance, including our legislative bodies, judiciary and systems of information, and if these corporate forces are able to use the security and surveillance apparatus and militarized police forces to criminalize dissent, how will change occur and what will it look like?

Wolin, who wrote the books “Politics and Vision” and “Democracy Incorporated,” and Saul, who wrote “Voltaire’s Bastards” and “The Unconscious Civilization,” see democratic rituals and institutions, especially in the United States, as largely a facade for unchecked global corporate power. Wolin and Saul excoriate academics, intellectuals and journalists, charging they have abrogated their calling to expose abuses of power and give voice to social criticism; they instead function as echo chambers for elites, courtiers and corporate systems managers. Neither believes the current economic system is sustainable. And each calls for mass movements willing to carry out repeated acts of civil disobedience to disrupt and delegitimize corporate power.

“If you continue to go down the wrong road, at a certain point something happens,” Saul said during our meeting Wednesday in Toronto, where he lives. “At a certain point when the financial system is wrong it falls apart. And it did. And it will fall apart again.”

......(snip)......

Inverted totalitarianism does not replicate past totalitarian structures, such as fascism and communism. It is therefore harder to immediately identify and understand. There is no blustering demagogue. There is no triumphant revolutionary party. There are no ideologically drenched and emotional mass political rallies. The old symbols, the old iconography and the old language of democracy are held up as virtuous. The old systems of governance—electoral politics, an independent judiciary, a free press and the Constitution—appear to be venerated. But, similar to what happened during the late Roman Empire, all the institutions that make democracy possible have been hollowed out and rendered impotent and ineffectual.

The corporate state, Wolin told me at his Oregon home, is “legitimated by elections it controls.” It exploits laws that once protected democracy to extinguish democracy; one example is allowing unlimited corporate campaign contributions in the name of our First Amendment right to free speech and our right to petition the government as citizens. “It perpetuates politics all the time,” Wolin said, “but a politics that is not political.” The endless election cycles, he said, are an example of politics without politics, driven not by substantive issues but manufactured political personalities and opinion polls. There is no national institution in the United States “that can be described as democratic,” he said. ............................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_imperative_of_revolt_20141019



16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Chris Hedges: The Imperative of Revolt (Original Post) marmar Oct 2014 OP
Monday self kick marmar Oct 2014 #1
A Must Read. woo me with science Oct 2014 #2
HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!! WillyT Oct 2014 #3
zzzzzzzzzzzzz..... brooklynite Oct 2014 #4
revolutions are a constant throughout history. The only question is when. KittyWampus Oct 2014 #6
The "political process" only works when there is revolution marmar Oct 2014 #7
or thru 5-digit contributions KG Oct 2014 #12
Uh-huh. "Let them eat cake" is another way to say what you just said. nt Zorra Oct 2014 #8
No - I'm not saying we don't need reform; I'm saying it won't come from "revolution" brooklynite Oct 2014 #9
I'm pretty sure the anecdote was used to describe the Zorra Oct 2014 #13
exactly marmar Oct 2014 #14
Thank you. woo me with science Oct 2014 #16
what revolt looks like>>> changing your spending habits is a primary tactic, IMO KittyWampus Oct 2014 #5
And just say no BubbaFett Oct 2014 #11
kick to read tonight. n/t hootinholler Oct 2014 #10
Bookmarked for later. n/t Martin Eden Oct 2014 #15

brooklynite

(93,851 posts)
4. zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 09:31 AM
Oct 2014

There seems to be a new, anticipatory "revolution" thread every month or two. Hasn't happened and it won't. While people may be grumpy enough to shift their votes (in this year's case to the Republicans) because their grumpy about income, housing, health care etc., there's no class warfare division in their mindset and certainly no pool of resentment ready to bubble up into a "revolt". If we're going to fix what's wrong, we're going to have to do it the old fashioned way - through our political process, as clumsy as it is.

marmar

(76,982 posts)
7. The "political process" only works when there is revolution
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 09:57 AM
Oct 2014

Do you think Civil Rights would have become law if Martin Luther King had focused on lobbying legislators rather than getting masses into the streets?

brooklynite

(93,851 posts)
9. No - I'm not saying we don't need reform; I'm saying it won't come from "revolution"
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 11:14 AM
Oct 2014

The US is not comprised of the serf class of 18th Century France or 20th Century Russia.

Zorra

(27,670 posts)
13. I'm pretty sure the anecdote was used to describe the
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 11:56 AM
Oct 2014

French nobility's obliviousness to the desperate condition of the French people, the inevitability of revolution, and the impending demise of many French nobles at the guillotine.

 

KittyWampus

(55,894 posts)
5. what revolt looks like>>> changing your spending habits is a primary tactic, IMO
Mon Oct 20, 2014, 09:37 AM
Oct 2014

Changing what you eat.

A huge part in my eating almost no meat or dairy is because those industries are harmful to society on many levels.

Growing as much of your own food.

Recycling and upcycling.

Using as little gasoline as possible.

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