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<h2><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/chris-hedges-cornel-west-richard-d-wolff-respond-to-thomas-paines-question-what-is-to-be-done/"
rel="bookmark" title="Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Richard D.
Wolff Respond to Thomas Paine’s Question: What Is To Be
Done? by Jill Dalton">Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Richard D.
Wolff Respond to Thomas Paine’s Question: What Is To Be
Done? by Jill Dalton</a></big></big></h2>
<big><big> </big></big>
<div class="postinfo"><big><big>
Posted on <span class="postdate">June 5, 2014</span> by
dandelionsalad </big></big></div>
<big><big> </big></big>
<div id="attachment_161984" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption
alignright"><big><big><img class="size-medium wp-image-161984"
src="cid:part2.07000207.04020704@comcast.net" alt="Cornel
West, Chris Hedges, Richard D. Wolff: The Anatomy of
Revolution: Thomas Paine by Jill Dalton" height="224"
width="300"></big></big>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><big><big>Cornel West, Chris Hedges,
Richard D. Wolff photo by Jill Dalton</big></big></p>
</div>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>by <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/jill-dalton/"
target="_blank">Jill Dalton</a><br>
Writer, <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/chris-hedges-cornel-west-richard-d-wolff-respond-to-thomas-paines-question-what-is-to-be-done/"
target="_blank">Dandelion Salad</a><br>
<a sl-processed="1"
href="http://recoveringarmybrat.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/the-anatomy-of-revolution-part-i-thomas-paine/"
target="_blank">recoveringarmybrat</a><br>
June 5, 2014</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><em>A Report from the Left Forum (6-1-14) with: Chris
Hedges, Dr. Cornel West, and Richard Wolff</em></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><em>Moderated by: Laura Flanders</em></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>This seminar was part of the Left Forum’s three day
symposium, Reform and/or Revolution: Imagining a World with
Transformative Justice, held at the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice in New York City (May 30 – June 1). The turn
out at this conference was their largest to date, which I
consider a very good sign. <span id="more-161981"></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/chris-hedges/"
target="_blank">Chris Hedges</a>, <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/cornel-west/">Dr.
Cornel West</a> and <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/richard-d-wolff/"
target="_blank">Richard Wolff</a> began a ten-part series
starting with, according to Chris Hedges, America’s only real
revolutionist, Thomas Paine. In Paine’s three great works, <em>Common
Sense</em>, <em>The Rights of Man</em> and <em>The Age of
Reason</em>, he laid down the foundations by which rebellion
is morally and legally permissible. With the rise of the
corporate state, they ask whether the conditions set by Paine
have been met, and if Paine’s call to overthrow British
tyranny should be our own.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>I’d been warned via email the event would be crowded,
so I arrived forty-five minutes early to procure a good seat,
and after a few minutes of inquiring who was saving or sitting
in which empty seat, managed to procure myself a seat in the
front row. As predicted, the lecture hall filled to
overflowing, and the overflow was directed to another room
where the proceedings were live streamed.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>In Laura Flanders’ opening remarks she runs down a
list: 7 million in prison, the war on terror, 46 million
hungry and in poverty, and the 0.1% with 20 million or more
have doubled their wealth since the 60’s. Then she quotes
Thomas Paine,</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>These are the times that try men’s souls.</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>These are indeed the times that try men’s souls, but
the question Paine asks is,</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>What is to be done?</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Flanders asked the crowd two questions. First, do we
want change and second, are these revolutionary times? Richard
Wolff pointed out the crowd gave a strong cheer regarding
change but wobbled when asked about revolution. This is
understandable,” he continued, “as revolution is scary.” Many
of us, myself included, believe the American population is
asleep and apathetic but Wolff reminds us, “Revolution is not
limited to the U.S. Revolution is global.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><strong>Power and Language</strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/23966-thomas-paine-our-contemporary">Hedges
explained the importance of Paine.</a> “Paine understood the
monarchy. He understood British power and could explain the
structures of power. He understood what power was, and how it
functioned, and was able to write in such a way that,
according to Cornel West, “the common folk could understand
it.” Hedges continued, “Hubris blinded the British monarchy
just as our system of government is blinded now.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>West went on to say Paine was able to create a
vocabulary and write ‘as plain as the alphabet.’ Paine, a
Quaker, was opposed to power, and the rights of kings and
belonged to no political party. Born in the UK, Paine arrived
in the United States in 1774 and in 1776 wrote Common Sense,
which was read far and wide including by George Washington to
his troops, and this work inspired people in the Thirteen
Colonies to stand up and fight for their independence from
Great Britain. Paine gave them the language to understand what
was actually going on, and why they needed to fight for their
freedom from British rule.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Later West gave us some language to explain what’s
truly going on today. “Poverty is the new slavery,” he tells
us. “Prison is the new Jim Crow. Economic inequality is
slavery. The plutocrats, oligarchs, banks, Wall Street, and
corporations are the monarchy.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Richard Wolff pointed out, “We now face more than
enough evidence, outrage, injustices, attacks on our freedoms,
and rights on our security.” Our system is unequal, unjust,
and intolerable. “Reform?” he asks. “Been there/done
that/doesn’t work. They undo our reforms. They spent forty
years undoing the New Deal.” Thomas Paine concluded, “We’ve
got to change the system. Revolution means tell the King of
England to go home. You’re out of here.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Wolff maintains it’s the same for us. He mentions the
economist Thomas Piketty, who in his 700-page book, <a
sl-processed="1"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomas-piketty-capital-surprise-bestseller">Capitalism
in the 21st Century</a>, concludes capitalism always
produces growing inequality of wealth and income. Wolff
continues, “We’ve got to have the courage to make systematic
change.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>If ye love wealth better than liberty, the
tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest
of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your
counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed
you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity
forget that ye were our countrymen. — Samuel Adams</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>West challenged us, “We must be willing to die. We must
act humanely, think critically, and that means sacrificing
popularity.” He pointed out how many intellectuals today have
been seduced by power, prestige and money. Not willing to take
a risk but rather hide behind a veneer of being cynical and
despairing.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Hedges again emphasized how important language is.
Paine reclaimed words like democracy that, at the time, was
considered a very negative term. Today the elites have crafted
a specialized vocabulary we can’t penetrate. Paine gave them
the vocabulary. We too must search for language and call
things by their real name.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>West reiterated the need for “righteous anger and
indignation. Speech that is unafraid.” This is what Malcolm X
did and he suffered the consequences. Truth tellers are pushed
to the margins, vilified, assassinated or all three. This is
what happened to Thomas Paine when he peeled off the cover and
gave a scathing critique of George Washington. He called
America a bastion of capitalism and white supremacy. Paine
also said indigenous people were wiser than white people. West
reminds us that today, “We’re isolated from each other. We’re
separated from our red, black, yellow, and white brothers and
sisters.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Wolff pointed out, “All the people who stood against
Paine are now forgotten but Thomas Paine survived.” Thomas
Paine addresses, “What is to be done?” and gives us insight
into what we face now. Wolff reiterates, “Democracy was a very
negative term but now is the holy of holies.” “Our democracy,”
Wolff points out, “is a fake–a complete fantasy. We live in
the opposite of a democracy. Our institutions are
undemocratic. We pretend we live in a democracy. We need to
shock the population. We’re not treated like human beings.”
Wolff continued, “Paine teaches us to think about revolution
as a way to change a system.” “We permit institutions to be
organized in an undemocratic way. We leave decisions to the
few people at the top–the corporations. We have to be in
charge of them. We must reorganize production.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><strong>Vilification and Historical Amnesia</strong></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Hedges explained the two weapons used against Thomas
Paine were: vilification and historical amnesia. Paine was
followed, slandered, libeled, marginalized, arrested, pushed
to the margins, narrowly escaped execution, and they finally
broke him. He died a pauper in Greenwich Village. “Six people
attended his funeral. Two of them were black.” But even as
Paine was prosecuted and vilified he preached we must protect
our enemies. Hedges went on to illustrate our historical
amnesia by asking, “Where are the monuments to him? He was an
important founder. He’s been ignored. The establishment works
hard to erase our radical tradition.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is
a revolutionary act. — George Orwell</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Truth telling is very dangerous business indeed, and
certainly not for the faint of heart. West points out, “most
of our friends are cowards.” I’ll add most of us are too
cowardly and lazy to get off the couch let along stand up to
the system that enslaves us, call it out, and ultimately
change it. But according to West, “The truth has to emerge.”
We need courageous examples such as Malcolm X, Herbert
Harrison Victoria Garvin, David Walker and I’ll add Dr. King,
Gandhi, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. West reminds us,
“We must be courageous or we’ll go under. The people organized
are powerful, but the gangsters who run things are powerful
too. We’re up against a lot. Their crimes against humanity
include our educational system, prisons and drones” to name a
few.” “Poverty is prison, and, as West points out, “if whites
instead of blacks were in prison and poverty in these numbers
we’d be hearing a different story. “ “White supremacy, lies
and crimes,” West assures us, “the black elites will be behind
this as well.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>We thought (the United States) could lead us to
freedom, but they led us into feardom, not freedom. —
Giannina Braschi</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>Wolff contends, “We don’t know where we are in the
revolution. Be a critic. Push to see where and how far you can
go. Can’t worry about what we’re up against.” He quotes, “For
decades nothing may happen, but then in a moment decades
happen.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>The basis of a democratic state is liberty. —
Aristotle</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>“Liberty?” Wolff asks. “There is no liberty.” We live
in an NSA corporate surveillance state. He explains, “Our
problem is the economic system. Our climate situation is
another consequence of capitalism. We have obscene social
inequalities. Our economic system is dysfunctional to most of
us.”</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>Surveillance, without regard to the rule of law or
our basic human dignity, creates societies that fear free
expression and dissent, the very values that make America
strong. — Edward Snowden</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>I downloaded Paine’s <em>Common Sense</em> to my
Kindle a couple of years ago and began reading it, but never
finished it. I ordered a paperback of Common Sense along with
The Rights of Man, as it’s easier for me to study these works
with a hardcopy. I also just ordered and received <em>Democracy,
Inc.</em> by Sheldon Wolin. Hedges always mentions this
professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University, and
his work on “managed democracy and the specter of inverted
totalitarianism.” Not exactly light reading but important to
understand what’s actually going on, and perhaps gain insight
into how to change the system.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>We are the empire. — Chris Hedges</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>I’ve included a link to this amazing <a
sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/chris-hedges-cornel-west-richard-d-wolff-the-anatomy-of-revolution-thomas-paine/">ninety-minute
talk</a> with these three enlightened truth tellers. Please
check it out for yourself. Then we, like Paine, must ask
ourselves, “What is to be done?” And then go a step further.
What can I do? How can I get involved? It’s time for a
revolution. Our system no longer serves us, and is a threat to
humanity and the planet. We must stop these illegal wars of
aggression that murder millions in our names. The U.S.
military is the largest terrorist organization on the planet.
Our <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/major-study-finds-that-the-us-is-an-oligarchy-2014-4">elected
officials no longer listen to us</a>. We’re merely
commodities to the elites, as is the environment, which they
are in the process of destroying. As Hedges pointed out in his
closing comments,</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>Whites are now enduring what people of color have
already endured. The minimum wage is critical. What they’ve
done to college students is criminal. Something is coming–
no jobs, mortgage crisis, climate change. There will be
blowback.</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>According to Thomas Jefferson we need a revolution
every twenty years. I’d say we’re long overdue.</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>God forbid we should ever be twenty years without
such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well
informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in
proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive.
If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is
lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. …
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers
are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve
the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is
to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them.
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree
of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the
blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<hr width="50%"><big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/tag/jill-dalton/"
target="_blank">Jill Dalton</a> is a recovering army
brat/writer/performer who has appeared in film and television
as well as performing her solo plays in New York and around
the country. Most recently she can be seen in and consulted
for William Hurt on the HBO film, “Too Big To Fail.” Her
articles have been published on: <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Dandelion
Salad</a>, RSN, OpEdNews & <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://proactvoice.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Progressive
Activists Voice</a>. She is currently writing a screenplay.
Read Ms. Dalton’s ebook, <a sl-processed="1"
href="http://recoveringarmybrat.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/is-it-fascism-yet-is-published-on-amazon-com/"
target="_blank">Is It Fascism Yet?</a></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big>see</big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/chris-hedges-cornel-west-richard-d-wolff-the-anatomy-of-revolution-thomas-paine/">Chris
Hedges, Cornel West, Richard D. Wolff: The Anatomy of
Revolution: Thomas Paine</a></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/cornel-west-we-are-calling-for-fundamental-transformation-of-u-s-capitalist-society/">Cornel
West: We are Calling for Fundamental Transformation of U.S.
Capitalist Society (Must-see)</a></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1" title="Thoreau Is Still Relevant by
Henry Pelifian"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/thoreau-is-still-relevant-by-henry-pelifian/"
rel="bookmark">Thoreau Is Still Relevant by Henry Pelifian</a></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1" title="We Are a Movement of
Movements by Rivera Sun"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/we-are-a-movement-of-movements-by-rivera-sun/"
rel="bookmark">We Are a Movement of Movements by Rivera Sun</a></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p><big><big><a sl-processed="1" title="The Man From the North: What
Are We Waiting For? by Rivera Sun"
href="http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/the-man-from-the-north-what-are-we-waiting-for/"
rel="bookmark">The Man From the North: What Are We Waiting
For? by Rivera Sun</a></big></big></p>
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