Chris Hedges - The Last Gasp of American Democracy

[n2doc]

This is our last gasp as a democracy. The state’s wholesale intrusion into our lives and obliteration of privacy are now facts. And the challenge to us—one of the final ones, I suspect—is to rise up in outrage and halt this seizure of our rights to liberty and free expression. If we do not do so we will see ourselves become a nation of captives.

The public debates about the government’s measures to prevent terrorism, the character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters, the assurances by the powerful that no one is abusing the massive collection and storage of our electronic communications miss the point. Any state that has the capacity to monitor all its citizenry, any state that has the ability to snuff out factual public debate through control of information, any state that has the tools to instantly shut down all dissent is totalitarian. Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive.

The most radical evil, as Hannah Arendt pointed out, is the political system that effectively crushes its marginalized and harassed opponents and, through fear and the obliteration of privacy, incapacitates everyone else. Our system of mass surveillance is the machine by which this radical evil will be activated. If we do not immediately dismantle the security and surveillance apparatus, there will be no investigative journalism or judicial oversight to address abuse of power. There will be no organized dissent. There will be no independent thought. Criticisms, however tepid, will be treated as acts of subversion. And the security apparatus will blanket the body politic like black mold until even the banal and ridiculous become concerns of national security.

I saw evil of this kind as a reporter in the Stasi state of East Germany. I was followed by men, invariably with crew cuts and wearing leather jackets, whom I presumed to be agents of the Stasi—the Ministry for State Security, which the ruling Communist Party described as the “shield and sword” of the nation. People I interviewed were visited by Stasi agents soon after I left their homes. My phone was bugged. Some of those I worked with were pressured to become informants. Fear hung like icicles over every conversation.


more

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_last_gasp_of_american_democracy_20140105

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[woo me with science]

2. K&R. THIS CANNOT BE IGNORED.

This is what we face. This needs to stay on top.

[Doctor_J]

3. Yep, we're in our death throes

You can look no farther than DU. This should be the last bastion of resistance, hope, liberalism. Instead we have great numbers of members cheering torture, spying, and corporation of essentials like health care and education. The propaganda apparatus and what Parenti calls "fascism in a pin-striped suit" has won. Regardless of what happens, it won't get fixed in my lifetime. We should have started fighting back in a meaningful way about 2 years into Limpballs' reign. We'll now have to hope for intervention from some outside force.

rec for Hedges

[MNBrewer]

14. Lots of this in DU

"character assassination of Edward Snowden and his supporters".

[snot]

21. "outside force" -- are you kidding?

What happened to we are the ones we are waiting for?

It's never too late to start making a difference for the better.

Helping to spread understanding is essential. But don't stop there.

[Doctor_J]

34. Any suggestions?

[snot]

82. Sure.

Go to http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1011 and do everything there that you can and that you think sounds like it might possibly have some helpful effect.

I believe you're the best expert on you, and I wouldn't want to contradict you about yourself; but I confess that I suspect that you could probably think of some things to do, too.

PS: Just came across this:

[Enthusiast]

63. I would love to hear

your solution. Seriously.

[snot]

83. I don't have a total "solution."

All I have is all I need: an opportunity to help shape the world. No one does it alone; and no one fails to do it, by act or omission, every day.

Please see my reply to Doctor_J above.

[pothos]

59. yes

i used to post a lot here back in the early/mid 2000s, under a different username which i lost access to. after huffington post went to hell i came back here late last year. i had no effing clue there would be people here throwing stones at snowden, greenwald, chelsea manning, etc. bizarre and scary.

[L0oniX]

4. It's already a zombie democracy and it's zombie voters are just that.

This is why "IMO" 3rd way corporate centrists are the enemies of this party.

[PowerToThePeople]

24. So many of us think the same.

I just came over from xchrom's Seattle 99 protests to this thread. I see the exact wording and phrases I used in my post in this thread. Dead, Zombie, last breath, death throws,... So many of us appear to have come to the same conclusions.

My conclusion: 3rd way is REPUBLICAN. 3rd way is not what we spent 8 years of hell fighting for.

We fought a life-ending disease for 8 years on our own, then finally were told there was a cure available. We drank it down, only to find out it was poison.

[L0oniX]

27. Got to wonder what side the opers of this website are going to take.

I guess we will find out soon enough because there's going to be a lot of fighting over which candidates the party should back. We will see who gets purged. I know I will not go zombie lock step. If this place steers to the right I will go zombie and not post anymore ...of course that will make a lot of people happy ....and gladly embrace their hatred. I will not help or vote for 3rd way, centrist corporate weasels. I made my home under the bus.

[Enthusiast]

64. Enemies of this party

and of the nation. Any entity that seeks to compromise democracy is an enemy of the nation.

[mindwalker_i]

5. "But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption"

That's what happened with Occupy. The veneer of democracy was pulled aside when the state and corporations were threatened, and we saw the grenades fly.

[sabrina 1]

49. Yes, that is exactly what happened with OWS. They panicked then put their security apparatus into

full effect and what did they accomplish, nothing but a confirmation to the world, that this is no democracy. I doubt there are too many thinking people who believe that anymore. Robo Cops, militarized weapons against unarmed citizens, secret courts, false arrests, massive surveillance of every single citizen in the country.

You are correct, whatever veneer was left after the coup in 2000 and the following eight years of the illegitimate administration, was pulled aside when the people showed signs of having had enough.

[Enthusiast]

65. I thought the very same.

All Occupy did was point out the criminality of the Wall Street fraudsters. Look how the media responded. Look how the nation coordinated the police assault on Occupy.

[cantbeserious]

6. The Empire Is Dying - Rotting From Within

eom

[tk2kewl]

7. They already took a test drive against Occupy

nt

[Doctor_J]

12. And that was pretty tame and yet highly effective

[snot]

22. Yes!

[L0oniX]

28. Yea ...the snipers on the roof tops in Texas said a lot. Our wonderful cops are going to kill us.

[ctsnowman]

8. Nailed it.

Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression.

[840high]

9. k/r

[Ron Green]

10. Kick - Maybe this thread can grow as big as the rock singer

or the woo ones.

[Mojorabbit]

45. + a gazillion. nt

[drynberg]

11. This is a sad but true set of circumstances described by Mr. Hedges. Made to travel on FB, etc.

Hedges says were at in the "last gasp of democracy", and I have to agree, sadly. Question is, what exactly, can we do right now? Let's brainstorm, folks, as we ain't got a lotta time...

[snot]

23. GOOD QUESTION!

[Octafish]

36. Hedges says mass protest and civil disobedience.

I'd add do it peacefully and show Them the what's for.

[niyad]

13. a very sad k and r for a very depressing truth

[Octafish]

15. The goal of wholesale surveillance, as Arendt wrote in ''The Origins of Totalitarianism''...

...is not, in the end, to discover crimes, “but to be on hand when the government decides to arrest a certain category of the population.” -- from Chris Hedges/OP.

[Titonwan]

73. RIGHT HERE!

That's the main message I've been trying to explain to the 'party loyalists' (e.g. cheerleaders for Obama, Clinton et alia) that this isn't about fighting terrorism!
This is massive scale full spectrum dominance done by collecting and storing metadata for DOSSIERS. "Your papers please" (h/t the Gestapo).

If you piss them off, or as you say are a 'certain category of the population'- you will be made to disappear.
Game over man!

Sound simplistic? I bet they over thought it back in Germany during the 30's, too.

[Eleanors38]

16. The time for a boat accident draws near.

[arcane1]

17. Powerful, and worth reading in its entirety.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. LALALALALALALALALALA

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. "The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants

"The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” Albert Camus (1913-1960)

[Dustlawyer]

25. The way we need to combat this is to attack the root cause

of the problem. Since the 1% control the politicians through the campaign money, we need to cut it off. I would suggest we fight for Complete Campaign Finance Reform (CCFR), including Publicly Funded Elections! We should not water down the fight with other issues that are symptoms of this problem. I would think that we could get a fair amount of Republicans to join this fight since it is about Representative government. This is the fight of our time, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to be able to say we stood up for our country and way of life. If we don't we sentence ourselves to a bleak and oppressive future!

[woo me with science]

31. Thank you for continuing this message.

I think you are exactly right.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2852587

Our government, both parties, was purchased by the one percent, and 99 percent of us have been disenfranchised. They are not running Republicans and Democrats for office anymore. All major party candidates are corporatists, or they do not have the money to compete.

We are ALL being played and exploited by the one percent. The corporate media has been systematically divided so that we have our channels and pundits, and they have their channels and pundits, and we are each fed lies and propaganda to make us hate and fight each other rather than the ones who are impoverishing ALL of us.

The big unacknowledged secret on DU is that Republicans across the country are just as angry as we are.

Just as our politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education and the social safety nets and unions and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties. Yet no matter which party is elected, we get the same corporate direction of larger, more oppressive and authoritarian government, assaults on and privatization of public services, and more warmongering.

If we could agree across party lines on just one thing....that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by the corruption of money in the system....we could join together as the 99 percent to get the corporate money out and demand our representation back. When elections are for the people again, and corporations are not allowed to select our candidates, we can have a real fight in the public square about Democratic versus Republican philosophy. And real Democrats will win.

Right now, we don't get any choice at all. We get two candidates pushing essentially the same corporate agenda, by and for the one percent.

[Dustlawyer]

32. All we can do is to keep pointing it out. I hope each time we do we get at least one new convert

that realizes that our 2 parties are nothing more than the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals (no disrespect to those great entertainers) who follow a predetermined script and try to make us believe it is all real! Their job is to keep us mad and blaming the other party for all of the problems all of us in the 99% have to deal with.
While eating lunch in a restaurant today I saw the crawl under Wolf Blitzer state that Obama is going to enact some NSA reforms. They will throw us a bone and lie to us (again) and keep on collecting, listening, and spying on us while still saying Snowden was wrong to leak to us the proof of their lying, Constitutional violations. Sheeple will say "ok" and move back to trying to survive. If it were not for the bloated, humongous Defense budget, and corporations not having to pay taxes, our country would be prosperous. Our educational system would be the envy of the world, infrastructure up to date, and great health care for all!
Thanks for helping to spread the truth!

[Enthusiast]

66. + a shit load!

[Egalitarian Thug]

35. That would be a very good start, I just don't see how it can be made to

happen in this environment. We'd need some kind of national stealth campaign as any candidate seriously proposing any effective steps in this direction will be eliminated by their own party.

[Dustlawyer]

51. I think it will have to be an organic thing starting with the people. There will be some

trigger that sets it off down the line. Hopefully, enough people will realize that this is what is required to save our Democracy. When the triggering event happens the people will demand that the money be taken out of our elections. This would be one hell of a fight b/c the 1% will not give up power willingly. The more they fight, the more determined we would need to be. I hope things don't have to get much worse before we get to this point, but I think they will. The fire is just not there yet. If the Plutocracy keeps going after the poor and middle class for ever more of the pie we will get there. I guess we can count on their greed.

[Egalitarian Thug]

53. I hope and fear that you are right. The thing that makes me, I guess cynical is the word, is the

structure in place at even the lowest levels that keeps good people out.

[sabrina 1]

50. I agree. Focus on the root cause and be relentless. Do not vote for corporate candidates no matter

what they drag up to try to try convince us that there is 'no other choice'.

Make Corporate Money for Candidates poison. All election signs should have the amount of money each candidate is receiving from corporations with the question 'who will this candidate be fighting for'?

And maybe the people shoulld form a Corporation, a giant Corporation, too big to fail. Membership fees should be pro rated according to how much people can afford, nothing if that's what they have.

The people need MONEY. Fight fire with fire, fight money with money.

But to get to the point where any of this is possible, people need to know what is going on. I think the younger generation already knows a lot. And probably more know today than ten years ago.

It would probably take time. It took THEM decades to achieve their goals. But we have to start somewhere.

[Enthusiast]

67. Do not vote for corporate candidates even when they are expert at hiding

their true agenda.

[struggle4progress]

26. When Hedges is good, he's very very good, and when he's bad he's horrid

This piece sits on the horrid side of his writing spectrum

Hedges, of course, is correct that privacy issues in the digital age present enormous and frightening challenges, and his concern about NSA metadata collection does not to me seem misplaced, though it is only a small piece of the puzzle, since private data collection far exceeds government data collection and poses entirely similar challenges, every bit as enormous and frightening

The task of good political writing is to provide the reader with tools for action. And here citizens need continuing analysis, based on currently available facts, that actually provides useful ideas about how to fight back against all the data collectors

Unfortunately, Hedges' thesis -- "This is our last gasp as a democracy" -- can only send the reader into despondency and inaction

[TheKentuckian]

38. Defund, criminalize, and multi - million dollar awards and medals for leakers.

No votes for anyone that fails to toe that line and fierce repudiation of back sliders/liars followed by the same for any who will not accept public financing and the same without strident pushing for publicly funded election then repeat issue for issue until the back is broken or we determine that the system is broken.

Relentless and single minded action items.

[struggle4progress]

39. That would be like climbing the north face of the Eiger with the resolute determination

never ever to switch direction

[TheKentuckian]

40. Possibly, what else is it to do but to sharpen the guillotine?

[struggle4progress]

42. i guess some folk are better at sounding mindlessly incoherent than others

[TheKentuckian]

78. We all have our gifts, I reckon.

[Titonwan]

74. Ooohh... the Murder Wall (Mordwald)

Baintha Brakk 'the Ogre', Annapurna I 'killer mountain' and K2 'the savage mountain' are where I spent this morning on Google Earth. (Is you crazy? I ain't never climbing them bitches! No.)
Especially this monster- Mount Fitz Roy- in South America. Sure, it's not near as big as K2 or Kangchenjunga, but it's got technical climbing only a handful of mountaineers would even dare.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fitz_Roy_Chalten_Argentina_Todor_Bozhinov_2013.jpg

Hey, I ride a hand built and self-designed motorcycle but just imagining being on those crags jizzes me better than my skoot! Wow! (Can you tell I like mountains?)

[JDPriestly]

55. I quote from Hedges' article:

We, like those in all emergent totalitarian states, have been mentally damaged by a carefully orchestrated historical amnesia, a state-induced stupidity. We increasingly do not remember what it means to be free. And because we do not remember, we do not react with appropriate ferocity when it is revealed that our freedom has been taken from us. The structures of the corporate state must be torn down. Its security apparatus must be destroyed. And those who defend corporate totalitarianism, including the leaders of the two major political parties, fatuous academics, pundits and a bankrupt press, must be driven from the temples of power. Mass street protests and prolonged civil disobedience are our only hope. A failure to rise up—which is what the corporate state is counting upon—will see us enslaved.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_last_gasp_of_american_democracy_20140105

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

57. Snowden, Manning, Greenwald, and Assange took "action".

Are you suggesting we need more action from heroes like them?

[sabrina 1]

81. We need to support them when they appear on the scene. Not many have the courage to

blow the whistle on wrong doing in government. But when they do, they should be supported. And I believe that is happening now more than it used to. We AND they know that taking action such as exposing the crimes, will most likely result in what happened to Manning, or worse yet that 'example' didn't stop Snowden and the reaction to Snowden must be terrifying for the criminals in power because try as they have to smear him also, it isn't working so well for them anymore.

Since they went Global decades before we understood what they were up to, now the people are following and people like Snowden are becoming Global Heroes. I suppose they never expected the people to go global too such is their certainty that the people are merely fodder for their economic schemes.

[pothos]

58. I think he's given up.

I think the reason he doesn't really provide or suggest tools anymore is that he's personally given up. he was a big supporter of occupy and i believe saw that as sort of the last good chance and when that got snuffed out his writing really took an even darker turn.

[Titonwan]

75. Who knows?

Maybe he's being a realist. Short of a military coup by some left wing idealist, I don't see any way out. Do You?

[woo me with science]

29. To the Greatest Page...

...the predictable corporate whining notwithstanding...

[WillyT]

30. K & R !!!

[whatchamacallit]

33. Sorry Chris, even on DU we have people routinely supporting

the NSA, Drones, Body Scanners, CCTV, RFID, Biometric ID, State Secrets, Whistleblower Prosecution... I'm afraid we're past the last grasp.

[woo me with science]

37. On DU we have a great deal of propaganda

designed to try to give the impression that Americans agree with what is being done to us.

Do not believe the garbage for a minute.

http://election.democraticunderground.com/10023181859#post204

[whatchamacallit]

43. Certainly some of it is directed

I also think a lot of it is hypocritical wagon-circling around a democratic president, and scariest of all, people becoming inured to the new normal of the security state.

[Titonwan]

76. And that's the skeery part.

Like frogs in a pan of coooool water. Ummm... (Is that fire I smell?)

[grahamhgreen]

48. For all we know, those people are the NSA.

[Enthusiast]

68. I believe many are.

As NSA interests and corporate interests have become indistinguishable.

[Uncle Joe]

41. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, n2doc.

[farmbo]

44. You had me until this...

"Obsequious courtiers posing as journalists dutifully sanctify state power and amplify its falsehoods—MSNBC does this as slavishly as Fox News—while also filling our heads with the inanity of celebrity gossip and trivia."

Chris... How could you equate Rachael Maddow, Ed Schultz and Al Sharpton (MSNBC's prime time lineup) with the likes of Hannity, O'Reilly and Fox Commentator Sarah Palin?

Particularly three days after Rachael Maddow told attorneys for the Koch Brothers to 'go pee up a rope' on national TV after they had demanded that she read a script on the air absolving their Koch billionaire clients of any involvement in right wing "Dark Money" schemes which she had previously exposed.

If anything, Rachael is an enemy of the Corporate State. Your attempt to label her network-- and by extension, her-- as a Fox-style sycophant for Corporate power detracts from the intellectual vigor and integrity of an otherwise prescient and vitally important piece of journalism. In your headlong rush to condemn every facet of modern surveillance state, you have gone a rhetorical bridge too far.

Fox News and MSNBC are not the same. Fox strives to make lies possible. MSNBC attempts, albeit with limited effectiveness, to entertain by sometimes disclosing the lies.

So go and sin no more... and thank you for this timely and insightful call to arms.

[JDPriestly]

54. How strongly have the newscasters on MSNBC denounced the NSA surveillance?

If they are serious about defending freedom of the press, they will fight the surveillance with all their might, all their power.

"Our corporate totalitarian rulers deceive themselves as often as they deceive the public. Politics, for them, is little more than public relations. Lies are told not to achieve any discernable goal of public policy, but to protect the image of the state and its rulers. These lies have become a grotesque form of patriotism. The state’s ability through comprehensive surveillance to prevent outside inquiry into the exercise of power engenders a terrifying intellectual and moral sclerosis within the ruling elite. Absurd notions such as implanting “democracy” in Baghdad by force in order to spread it across the region or the idea that we can terrorize radical Islam across the Middle East into submission are no longer checked by reality, experience or factually based debate. Data and facts that do not fit into the whimsical theories of our political elites, generals and intelligence chiefs are ignored and hidden from public view. The ability of the citizenry to take self-corrective measures is effectively stymied. And in the end, as in all totalitarian systems, the citizens become the victims of government folly, monstrous lies, rampant corruption and state terror.

. . . ."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_last_gasp_of_american_democracy_20140105

Brilliant. Chris Hedges, like me, has seen how surveillance, a visit from the police late on the night before you are planning to travel to another country, the police knowing your whereabouts, acquaintances, travels, off-hand remarks about politics, family, religion, lovers, any complaint you have voiced about the government silences you. You don't ever have to be put in prison. It's just knowing that someone is watching that deprives you of your freedom and creativity. That is especially true when you are young and seeking to establish yourself in a career.

Americans naively think that totalitarianism, authoritarian government is necessarily violent. That is not the case. The threat of violence, fear of standing out in the crowd, it is those very subtle means of intimidation that authoritarian governments use to subjugate a people. I wondered why the American press did so little reporting on the STASI files and the STASI excesses. When I realized how far-reaching the surveillance by the NSA is, I understood. Our press is already scared numb and dumb.

[farmbo]

70. She has exposed the NSA fig leaf: "We're Just Fighting Terrorists"

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/06/maddow-think-nsa-spying-is-just-being-used-against-terrorists-think-again/

[JDPriestly]

85. Thanks. That is kind of a litmus test. I apologize for my skepticism.

[Titonwan]

77. F.O.S. n/t

[DhhD]

46. The Constitution of the US and Bill of Rights vs. The Security and Surveillance Apparatus.

Democracy vs. Totalitarianism.

[Phlem]

47. Glad to be the 100th rec.

-p

[pa28]

52. K&R

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

56. But...but...they let us vote for our masters.

[woo me with science]

60. Keep it visible. Keep reccing. Keep forwarding this to everyone. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

61. The US has been on this slow train to a Police State since WELL BEFORE 9/11/2001.

Here's some Shock Doctrine for you good people:

In 1960, America's top military brass drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in US cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662

[Enthusiast]

62. Recommended X 1000!

"Our corporate state may not use this power today. But it will use it if it feels threatened by a population made restive by its corruption, ineptitude and mounting repression. The moment a popular movement arises—and one will arise—that truly confronts our corporate masters, our venal system of total surveillance will be thrust into overdrive."

If this isn't apparent to you, sorry, but you are a fucking complacent dumb ass.

[DLevine]

69. K&R. nt

[dotymed]

71. Tennessee forces (ties you down) blood tests on all suspected impaired drivers and pedestrians.

During certain times of the year, the police in Montgomery Co. Tn. announce a "NO REFUSAL" blood test to basically whoever they choose.

If you are chosen, you are taken to the local "for profit" hospital, forcibly restrained by deputies, while your blood is drawn to determine if you are "under the influence." This is for pedestrians as well as drivers.

Americans have no rights.

Revolution? lol...it can wait.

Yes the Stasi have taken over.

[Titonwan]

72. Alrighty now! Any Snowden haters in the crowd?

Suck on it.

[djean111]

79. Glad to K & R.

All a dog and pony show now.
And the usual well, what are YOU going to do about attempted put-down does not work any more.
Remember, just a little while ago, we were admonished that what we had to do was vote as directed? and keep voting, keep clicking our heels together? Doesn't work any more, either.

Also pretty sure any real answers are not going to be posted in blind obedience/obeisance on some message board, by the way......

[woo me with science]

80. kick

[Douglas Carpenter]

84. knr

[woo me with science]

86. kick

[Solly Mack]

87. ^Up^

[woo me with science]

88. kick

[woo me with science]

89. The President is getting his FAST TRACK OF THE TPP!

WOO HOO, THIRD WAY!!!!!!!111!!!

[woo me with science]

90. kick