Chris Hedges: A Society of Captives

[marmar]

from truthdig:



by Chris Hedges


Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans to launch a pilot program in New York City to place body cameras on police officers and conduct training seminars to help them reduce their adrenaline rushes and abusive language, along with the establishment of a less stringent marijuana policy, are merely cosmetic reforms. The killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island was, after all, captured on video. These proposed reforms, like those out of Washington, D.C., fail to address the underlying cause of poverty, state-sponsored murder and the obscene explosion of mass incarceration—the rise of the corporate state and the death of our democracy. Mass acts of civil disobedience, now being carried out across the country, are the only mechanism left that offers hope for systematic legal and judicial reform. We must defy the corporate state, not work with it.

The legal system no longer functions to protect ordinary Americans. It serves our oligarchic, corporate elites. These elites have committed $26 billion in financial fraud. They loot the U.S. Treasury, escape taxation, drive down wages, break unions, pillage pension funds, gut regulation and oversight, destroy public institutions including public schools and social assistance programs, wage endless and illegal wars to swell the profits of arms merchants, and—yes—authorize police to murder unarmed black men.

Police and national intelligence and security agencies, which carry out wholesale surveillance against the population and serve as the corporate elite’s brutal enforcers, are omnipotent by intention. They are designed to impart fear, even terror, to keep the population under control. And until the courts and the legislative bodies give us back our rights—which they have no intention of doing—things will only get worse for the poor and the rest of us. We live in a post-constitutional era.

Corporations have captured every major institution, including the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government, and deformed them to exclusively serve the demands of the market. They have, in the process, demolished civil society. Karl Polanyi in “The Great Transformation” warned that without heavy government regulation and oversight, unfettered and unregulated capitalism degenerates into a Mafia capitalism and a Mafia political system. A self-regulating market, Polanyi writes, turns human beings and the natural environment into commodities. This ensures the destruction of both society and the natural environment. The ecosystem and human beings become objects whose worth is determined solely by the market. They are exploited until exhaustion or collapse occurs. A society that no longer recognizes that the natural world and life have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, commits collective suicide. Such societies cannibalize themselves. This is what we are undergoing. Literally. ................ (more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_society_of_captives_20141207

[bemildred]

1. "The killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island was, after all, captured on video." nt

[KingCharlemagne]

2. Another Hedges tour-de-force. Thanks for posting. The entire piece is

well worth the time necessary to read it, imo.

[handmade34]

3. k&R n/t

[marym625]

4. Just so far

Gone I don't know how we can get back to some semblance of normalcy.

Never ever should have allowed privatization of prisons.

Great article. Thank you

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Doctor_J]

6. kr

Hedges is one of the few writers left who still has a conscience and a job

[xchrom]

7. du rec.

[Dustlawyer]

8. K&R!!! This is what I have been saying, albeit ineloquently for years!

When we had both houses of Congress and the Presidency RIGHT AFTER THE CRASH, we did nothing to Wall Street reform wise or criminally. We got OBAMA care and some other goodies, but didn't even try to fix our financial sector! Why was that?
It doesn't matter which man or woman we send to the corrupt cesspool that is Washington as long as corporate money was responsible for them being there. I still believe we can fix this if we rise up and demand an end to campaign contributions, Super Pacs, and the revolving door! We need Publicly Funded Elections! Only one politician is advocating this right now, Bernie Sanders. Many more will jump on the bandwagon if we can motivate the masses to get off their couches. They already know the system is corrupt, we just have to show them the solution and spur them to action!
Otherwise, we can continue to bitch about the same old things and watch them get worse. Much like a battered spouse who wants to believe that they mean it when they say they promise to do better!

[woo me with science]

18. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Well said.

[appalachiablue]

29. Indeed. Good (if awful) battered spouse analogy. Last nite there was a Video of H. on Home Page,

an interview of him Nov. 22 at a San Fran environmental conf. Excellent but the brutal truth esp. about the reality of our future and climate change. Worth checking out, must still be posted here somewhere.

[woo me with science]

9. To the Greatest Page. This is an important, important piece.

Everyone, please read it in its entirety.

Thank you for posting it.

[WillyT]

10. K & R !!!

[Octafish]

11. Too bad NYT and the rest of Corporate McPravda no longer carry Hedges' words.

Thank Elvis for Truthdig and DU.

[dixiegrrrrl]

19. But ain't it grand that the internet lets us hear him?

The day is rapidly coming when MSM tv and radio will be a minor voice, as more and more people turn to the Internet for information.

Knowing this, MSM has also turned to the Internet, but has actual real competition there.

Altho...if illiteracy in schools continues under Republican influenced education, the Internet might have to contain more pictures than words.

[woo me with science]

21. That's why corporations want the internet.

And lots and lots of surveillance of it.

[Enthusiast]

12. I hate this...............

but it's true.

[raouldukelives]

13. Huge K&R. Hedges always tells it like it is.

One can stand against it or one can be complicit. Sadly, most seem to choose the latter. Hard to blame them, that side has all the money and lord knows, they love that money. They have been well programmed to love it. Like the chiming of a Pavlovian dinner bell they come a running. Like submissive dogs they roll over and prostrate themselves at the feet of corporations. May the remain ever ignorant of the horrors they help unleash on the voiceless & powerless of our world.

[me b zola]

14. We must demand cameras on every police officer

The fact that Eric Garner's death was captured on video and the police were not held accountable does not change how important these cameras would be. This video didn't result in justice for Eric, but it did show the world just how out of control the police are. And every time a person speaking on tv to support the outcome, people have that video to look at to know just how far down the rabbit hole we are.

Without the killing of Micheal Brown on video, police are able to say anything they want about why Brown was shot, and can place doubt in the general public's mind. Try as they might, they could not get away with that with Garner's death. This is why the protests have grown and spread.

We NEED cameras on cops.

[jalan48]

15. National Security State

The National Security State continues to exist, unchanged, regardless who gets elected. The public still buys the two party system charade, unable to see what Mr. Hedges describes so well.

[zeemike]

16. "We live in a post-constitutional era."

Spot on...and now I am going to read the rest of it...which could not get any more to the point.

PS...I read it all.
And he lays it out clearly...we are a nations of captives....well worth reading it all.

[woo me with science]

32. ^^^^^^^^^^^

You always pick out the most important part.

+10000000000000000000000

[chervilant]

17. This:

A society that no longer recognizes that the natural world and life have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, commits collective suicide.

There are those of us who are striving to effect a sea change en masse, but cognitive dissonance remains an impermeable barrier. I get what I call "deer in the headlights" reactions from many of the poor souls who live in the extremely poor county I call home. They don't want to hear "all that bad stuff," especially at Christmas, when mass consumerism is ramped up to hedonistic levels.

I vacillate between fascination and despair, watching our species self-destruct.

[deutsey]

26. +1

[woo me with science]

20. Kick. This needs to stay on top.

[woo me with science]

22. A corporate police state is being constructed around us, and it's used to suppress dissent

and defend our corporate oligarchy and its corruption.

We hear the incessant denials of the corporate propaganda machine:

There's no Hitler, we're not being burned alive in ovens, or we're still typing on the internet, or we aren't being lined up in the streets and shot (well, that one's certainly debatable, isn't it...).

As though the corporate owners of the United States of America, who rely on its reputation as the beacon of freedom and democracy in the world, can't find more effective and less politically damaging means to make sure dissent never materializes into anything seriously threatening to the PTB.

Psst. Our president has a "Kill List." And indefinite detention. And a surveillance state. And an entire secret government, secret laws and secret courts, operating alongside the one we are taught about in school. And all it takes to become part of that is for someone to invoke the word, "terrorism" and relate it to you.

"But that's a high bar!" all the sensible woodchucks will protest. "I TRUST my president! And it's only for TERRORISTS!"

Really? And do you trust the next one?

Actually, we're all being spied on. And "terrorism" is being invoked as a weapon against political dissent.

Report Details How Counter Terrorism Apparatus Was Used to Monitor Occupy Movement Nationwide
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12527647

Whoop, There It Is... 'Evidence Homeland Security Coordinated Occupy Crackdown' -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002462465

ACLU discovers FBI is labeling peace activists as 'potential terrorists'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4500788

And the most sinister aspect of all of this is the fact that the language of terrorism and espionage is being actively expanded to include whatever citizens or groups the corporatists consider to be irritants: political enemies, protesters, even journalists.

Protestors against Energy Company charged with terrorism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024175848

Mission Creep: When Everything is Terrorism
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023279560

US Uses Espionage Act To Convict Manning Using Words Added In 1990: "with a computer"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023375845

Fed Court: Just changed interpretation of Espionage Act to cover leaks that are NOT Harmful To USA
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023365713

NY Times: White House Uses Espionage Act to Silence Employees, Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101616764

Obama Has Charged More Under Espionage Act Than All Other Presidents Combined
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023080388

If you are a One Percenter trying to effectively use the government you have purchased to manage unpleasant press about what you are doing, what do you do? Well, one tactic might be to try to get the government into the business of deciding who is a journalist. That way you can claim to establish "protections" for whistleblowers, when what you are actually doing is creating categories through which you can exclude from protection those you don't want to protect.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023708417
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976082
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4976955

Yeah, journalism isn't doing too well in this country. One might say it is being murdered. There's a reason it's supposed to be protected by the First Amendment. That reason is not compatible with increasingly totalitarian corporate control.

Petition Calls On Obama Stop Intimidation Of Journalists And Whistleblowers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025509395

Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023300531

James Clapper Calls Journalists "Criminal Accomplices" -
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017174990

Reporters without Borders: 'Security interests threaten press freedom'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11333723

US Plummets In Press Freedom Rankings
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024487392

Obama's escalating war on Freedom of the Press
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023314296

Risen Case: War on Journalism coming to a head
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101699216

Government Surveillance Is Crippling Press Freedoms, Report Shows
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023902153

So....you shut up the journalists.

And you shut up the protesters.

Who else do you need to shut up?

Ah....all the people who work for the government, many of whom can be assumed to still have consciences and thus be potentially dangerous to the corporate coup of democracy. How do you handle them?

Well, you can fire them. See, it's *useful* for the government of an ostensibly free nation to have highly visible groups engaged in protest...like the Black Panthers, etc....and not to deny them employment or do anything serious to them. It gives the illusion of freedom. But look what we learned of recently, about how firings happen at the Federal Reserve:

The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025587384

But you can also wage legal war against their power to function as whistleblowers. And you assault the unions that protect them.

The Obama administration/DOJ war on whistleblowers, federal unions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5586389

You can institute draconian snitch rules to intimidate those who might be thinking about whistleblowing:

President's 'rat out your co-worker' plan unlikely to work, experts say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023214675

And you claim the right to spy on them even at home.

You let the dissent flourish, as long as it's safe dissent. But you take care of the stuff that has the potential to be truly threatening. Most importantly, you make a vicious example of those who carry through with revealing corruption:

Daniel Ellsburg: Snowden would not get a fair trial today, was right to flee US
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11784497
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023198130

Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at torture
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x871563

That includes those who whistleblow on financial institutions, not just the government. Since you're not prosecuting the banking criminals, you have plenty of time to send up a guy who tried to identify them:

Bradley Birkenfeld, UBS Whistleblower, Finds Himself in Federal Prison
http://www.cnbc.com//id/41257962

It's a delicate line to walk, all this intimidation while still claiming to be the beacon of freedom for the world. But the intimidation is necessary, because people are starting to catch on.

No, nobody has sent the jackboots to line up the protesters in front of everyone and methodically kill them. But we're seeing the next best thing.

Militarizing the hell out of the police departments. That way it's blamed on some "programs"....but it sends a clear psychological message to the upstarts.

Stopping police militarization: Once again, the solution requires confronting corporate politicians.
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/10025416709

Federal grants drive the militarization of police departments in America.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025383806

And then you get this:


And this:


Three of the five Occupy violence pics I used to use regularly now I cannot find anywhere on the internet; if I could, I'd put them here, too. The elderly woman tear-gassed, the mobs of jackbooted storm troopers surrounding a few people on a blanket...

And, meanwhile, out in the community, the militarized police are starting to terrorize ordinary citizens, mostly the impoverished and voiceless ones. But the corporate-controlled federal government keeps sending the hardware and the storm trooper uniforms, even encouraging it with grants, and they refuse to keep records on how many citizens have been murdered. How many were there this week?

"What I've Learned from Two Years Collecting Data on Police Killings...
...I'm convinced to my core: The lack of such a database is intentional."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025429276

Twenty-Three People Killed by American Police in the Span of One Week
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025593137

We're all suspects, potential terrorists now. and the mechanisms are in place to ensure that any dissent that begins to bubble up can be handled and eliminated before it materializes in any serious way.

The truth is that you don't know what dissent may have already been cut off at the root, because of the elaborate, secret, unaccountable system that has been put into place. We know that the president has sought the power to lie in response to Freedom of Information requests. We know that data collected from NSA spying has been used to imprison Americans using false evidence trails. We know that the CIA can spy on the Senate Intelligence Committee with impunity and nothing is done about it, and that Clapper can lie to Congress and the Department of Justice can lie to the Supreme Court about spying and nothing is done. These are just the things we know.

DEA Manuals Show Feds Use NSA Spy Data, Train Cops to Construct False Chains of Evidence
http://sync.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4507611

Obama Admin Seeks Permission TO LIE In Response To Freedom of Information Requests - Even To The COURTS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2185303

DOJ lied to Supreme Court about domestic surveillance
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140514/06214727229/doj-still-trying-to-hide-fact-it-flat-out-lied-to-supreme-court-about-domestic-surveillance.shtml

The sensible woodchucks keep telling us that someone has to be actively involved in VERY SERIOUS TERRORISM against the United States of America in order for our government to start throwing *that* word around, or showing an interest in us. But we are all surveilled, and the methods for it keep expanding. If you think about it, it's GOOD for corporate control to have people posting dissent on the internet. It helps you know whom to watch. Voiced dissent is USEFUL as long as it doesn't lead to anything...you know, serious. Our corporate government is keeping an eye on us.

OKC protestors slapped with terrorism charges
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024175848

A Nation of "Suspects"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5011487
http://www.truth-out.org/nation-suspects/1314810046

American Protesters Declared Enemy for Weapons Testing Purposes; Rules of Engagement
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2132808#2139011

DoD Training Manual: Protests are "Low-Level Terrorism"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/100227662

Ridiculous FBI list: You might be a domestic terrorist if...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1790765

Doctors asked to identify potential terrorists under government plans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1261120&mesg_id=1261120

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002257966

Top US counterterrorism official: drone critics are Al Qaeda enablers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002279862

"Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/

N.S.A. Examines Social Networks of U.S. Citizens (Decision Made In Secret, in 2010)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014605329

Now, you tell me.

Why would the corporatists who have purchased into our government and rely on its reputation as the beacon of freedom and democracy for the world, use such heavy-handed and politically damaging tactics as shutting down the internet or ostentatiously lining up protesters to shoot them in the streets, when they have already put into place and legalized this elegant system to control dissent?

Yeah, I'm typing on the internet. That PROVES we're free.

[marmar]

24. Awesome post amigo.

[woo me with science]

30. Awesome, important OP, mon ami.

Thank you.

[ReRe]

34. You are the encyclopedia of DU, woo me

And yes, we need to keep this thread kicked!

[sabrina 1]

37. Incredible post! I could almost hear a drumbeat in the background.

The president has a 'kill list'! We were outraged that Bush might order the killing of an American citizen. Now we defend it since it has happened. An American teenager! And no outrage from the outraged over Bush.

These things should chills down the spines of every American.

Chris Hedges is right. A nation of captives!

[PowerToThePeople]

23. k & super r

[hifiguy]

25. Biggest possible KICK and REC!!

To the greatest page with you....

[deutsey]

27. Kick and recommend

[appalachiablue]

28. Blunt truth of how it is from Hedges. Last Nite DU Home Page had a Video Interview of H. at

a San Fran Environ. Conf. Nov. 22; excellent, must still be here somewhere. When asked H. spares nothing about the fact that the govt. is controlled by corps. and we are irrelevant. Same with Media info. On climate change, see the Video.

[malokvale77]

31. K & R

Because this is so important.

[woo me with science]

33. kick

[ReRe]

35. K&R

Thanks so much for pointing us to this Chris Hedges article at truthdig, marmar! Very few have the ability to see the "big picture" like Chris.

[woo me with science]

36. kick

[woo me with science]

38. kick