We live in an oligarchic state where we’ve been rendered utterly powerless. The judiciary, the legislative, the executive branch is all subservient to an oligarchic corporate elite. And the press is owned by an oligarchic corporate elite which makes sure that any critique of them is never broadcast over the airwaves. Chris Hedges, interview Paul Jay 2014, ‘The Pathology of the Super-Rich
Donald Trump is the result of a long process of decay, of democratic institutions, an assault against the economy, and the culture by corporate power, he’s the natural consequence of a degenerate society; he is the symptom not the disease. Chris Hedges, lecture Centre for International Governance Innovation August 2018, ‘The Collapse of the American Empire’
On the eve of World War I we had very powerful radical movements that were on the cusp of taking power and they were effectively crushed during the War. ibid.
Our moment of distress began – or let’s say it was accelerated – by the betrayal of the Democratic party under Clinton which knew that if it did corporate bidding, it would get corporate money. ibid.
The democratic charade that exists, the political theatre that has replaced our democratic process. And is just one more step towards this corporate totalitarianism which no-one seems willing or able to stop within the ruling elite. Chris Hedges, lecture Seattle University 2018, ‘Corporate Totalitarianism: The End Game’ *****
The diseases of despair that have plagued American society, the patholgies that rise out of a decaying culture. ibid.
At the end of empire as you begin decay they engage – historians call it micro-militarism – they carry out suicidal military fiascos. ibid.
We’re going to tax them at 91% like we used to … [and] destroy the military machine in this country which is the greatest enemy of democracy. ibid.
We lost control of our government, we lost control of our economy, and this isn’t unique to the United States. ibid.
Everything becomes tribal, truth no longer matters, the rights of the citizenry no longer matter. ibid.
The liberal class functions as a kind of safety valve in moment of distress … They never critique the system. ibid.
We have enough cumulative evidence to say that it was stolen from him [Bernie Saunders]. ibid.
We’re going to have to walk out into the wilderness for a long time. ibid.
So we saw that period in the ’70s when corporations organised. ibid.
The system only wants people who will perpetuate it. ibid.
What they are doing is extracting from us. ibid.
It has the capacity to commodify everything. ibid.
They are taking from us our constitutional rights by judicial fiat i.e. re-interpreting the right of unlimited corporate power through a distorted interpretation of the constitution. ibid.
Jesus didn’t come to make us rich. ibid.
There used to be a liberal wing of the Democratic Party but it’s long gone. ibid.
You can’t maintain a democracy in an oligarchy. ibid.
They are playing a very dangerous game by refusing to address the fundamental issues that have distorted our society. ibid.
You’re not going to rationally argue these people out of their world-view. ibid.
He [Trump] is the classic con artist that rises up out of a decayed state. ibid.
You’ve created fertile ground for the rise of American fascism. And our only response now is sustained mass acts of civil disobedience. ibid.
The state will be viscous … They will throw everything at us … We have no time left just from climate change, we have no time left, and in that sense resistance becomes a moral imperative. We have to stop being constrained by the tyranny of the practical. ibid.
Revolution is what I’m calling for … I’m calling for the overthrow of the corporate state. ibid.
But if we don’t stand up, it can’t be seen and we can’t use the word hope. I don’t know if we will win. I don’t even know if we will survive as a species. But these corporate forces have us by the throat and they have my children by the throat. And in the end, I don’t fight fascists because I will win, I fight fascists because they are fascists. ibid.
The disintegration of these social bonds plunges individuals into deep psychological distress. Chris Hedges, Sanctuary for Independent Media lecture New York 2018, ‘American Anomie’, Youtube 2.01.07
Our corporate coup d’etat and failed democracy has freed the oligarchic elite from all legal and moral constraints. ibid.
Mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence ... The electoral process is a facade. ibid.
A third of the American workforce earn less than $12 an hour and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. ibid.
Empires in decay embrace an almost wilful suicide. Blinded by their hubris and unable to face the reality of their diminishing power, they retreat into a fantasy world where hard and unpleasant facts no longer intrude. They replace diplomacy, multilateralism and politics with unilateralism, bombastic threats and the blunt instrument of war. ibid.
An aggressive criminalisation of the poor … The poor are thrown into prison and must forfeit all their property for being caught with small amounts of the same drugs. ibid.
The self-destructive pathologies that plague the United States: opioid addiction, morbid obesity, gambling, suicide, sexual sadism … hate groups and mass shootings, rise out of this anomie. ibid.
Capitalism: you don’t want this greed to dominate society. ibid.
The American empire is coming to an end. The American economy is being drained by wars in the Middle East and vast military expansion across the globe. It is burdened by growing deficits along with the devastating effects of de-industrialisation and global trade agreements. Our democracy has been captured and destroyed by corporations that steadily demand more tax cuts, more deregulation and impunity of prosecution for massive acts of financial fraud, all the while looting trillions from the US treasury in the form of bail-outs … A recipe for an emerging dystopia. Chris Hedges, lecture The Sanctuary for Independent Media, New York 10 November 2017
Empires in decay embrace an almost wilful suicide. Blinded by their hubris and unable to face the reality of their diminishing power, they retreat into a fantasy world where hard and unpleasant facts no longer intrude. They replace diplomacy, multilateralism and politics with unilateralism, bombastic threats and the blunt instrument of war. ibid.
We have replicated in the Middle East the US military’s penchant for widespread atrocities, indiscriminate violence, lies and fatal miscalculations that led to our defeat in Vietnam. The brutality abroad is matched by a growing brutality at home. ibid.
Many of our cities are in ruins, our public transportation is in shambles, our educational system is in steep decline and being privatised. ibid.
We are worldwide objects of ridicule and hatred. ibid.
The project has been for all but a handful of global elites a spectacular failure. ibid.
We are paying the price for discarding hundreds of millions of people on to the dung-heap of history. ibid.
This slow-motion march towards apocalypse is assured. ibid.
There is a inner freedom that comes from defiance … In every act of rebellion we are free. ibid.
The communal has been shattered. The concept of the common good obliterated. Greed is celebrated. The individual is a god. The celluloid image is reality. ibid.
Sadism defines nearly every cultural, social and political experience in the United States. It is expressed in the unchecked greed of an oligarchic elite that has seen its wealth increase during the pandemic by $1.1 trillion while the country has seen the sharpest rise in its poverty rate in fifty years. Chris Hedges, lecture New York Sanctuary for Independent Media 2022, Youtube 1.59.32
The leaked pictures from Abu Ghraib are the true face of America. ibid.
Laws, institutions and bureaucratic structures are formed to serve the interests of a tiny cabal, a rapacious elite which enriches itself at the expense of everyone else. ibid.
Sadism is the chief characteristic of imperialism. ibid.
Heart of Darkness: He [Kurtz] went to Africa fired by noble ideals and virtues: he ended his life as a self-deluded tyrant who thought he was a god. ibid.
Empires in the end cannibalise themselves. The tyranny we long imposed on others we now impose on ourself. ibid.
The obescene avarice of the very rich now dwarfs the hedonism and excesses of the world’s most heinous despots and wealthiest capitalists of the past. ibid.
The grinding machinery of predatory capitalism and the sadism that defines it will poison the society as mercilessly under Biden as it did when Trump was conducting his Twitter presidency. ibid.
The wreckage of this neoliberal project is appalling: endless and futile wars to enrich a military-industrial-complex that bleeds the US Treasury of half of all discretionary spending; deindustrialization that has turned US cities into decayed ruins; the slashing and privatization of social programs, including education, utility services and health care – which saw over one million Americans account for one-fifth of global deaths from COVID, although we are 4% of the world’s population; draconian forms of social control embodied in militarized police, functioning as lethal armies of occupation in poor urban areas; the largest prison system in the world; a virtual tax boycott by the richest individuals and corporations; money-saturated elections that perpetuate our system of legalized bribery; and the most intrusive state surveillance of the citizenry in our history. Chris Hedges, ‘The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save It’, 2022