[Peace-discuss] Jeremiad— Chris Hedges

[ewj at pigsqq.org]

following from Jeremiah 12.4

 What a beautiful thought I am thinking
 Concerning a great speckled bird...

 All the other birds are flocking 'round her
 And she is despised by the squad ...

 Desiring to lower her standard
 They watch every move that she makes
 They long to find fault with her teachings
 But really they find no mistake...

 Very interesting this fellow Mr Hedges.
 Just a little while ago he was lambasting the apodeictic bigotry of the
 conservative Christians and now he bemoans the
 moral decay and general dissipation of the jaded amerikan society.

It's coming down pretty much the way that MLKJr said it would...
The backbone of Amerikan power, it's money, is being broken,
and it's being broken because that something there is that hates a wall
also hates the wars.


 > -------Original Message-------
 > From: Brussel Morton K. <mkbrussel at comcast.net>
 > To: Peace-discuss Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
 > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jeremiad— Chris Hedges
 > Sent: Oct 17 '13 11:27
 >
 > In my opinion, somewhat "over the top", but basically describes our
 > situation. He's characterizing the U.S. "empire", but not only.
 >
 > The Folly of Empire
 >
 > [LINK:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_folly_of_empire_20131014/]
 > http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_folly_of_empire_20131014/
 >
 > Posted on Oct 14, 2013
 >
 >
 > By Chris Hedges
 >
 > The final days of empire give ample employment and power to the
feckless,
 > the insane and the idiotic. These politicians and court propagandists,
 > hired to be the public faces on the sinking ship, mask the real work of
the
 > crew, which is systematically robbing the passengers as the vessel goes
 > down. The mandarins of power stand in the wheelhouse barking ridiculous
 > orders and seeing how fast they can gun the engines. They fight like
 > children over the ship’s wheel as the vessel heads full speed into
a
 > giant ice field. They wander the decks giving pompous speeches. They
shout
 > that the SS America is the greatest ship ever built. They insist that it
 > has the most advanced technology and embodies the highest virtues. And
 > then, with abrupt and unexpected fury, down we will go into the frigid
 > waters.
 >
 > The last days of empire are carnivals of folly. We are in the midst of
our
 > own, plunging forward as our leaders court willful economic and
 > environmental self-destruction. Sumer and Rome went down like this. So
did
 > the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. Men and women of stunning
 > mediocrity and depravity led the monarchies of Europe and Russia on the
eve
 > of World War I. And America has, in its own decline, offered up its
share
 > of weaklings, dolts and morons to steer it to destruction. A nation that
 > was still rooted in reality would never glorify charlatans such as Sen.
Ted
 > Cruz, House Speaker John Boehner and former Speaker Newt Gingrich as
they
 > pollute the airwaves. If we had any idea what was really happening to us
we
 > would have turned in fury against Barack Obama, whose signature legacy
will
 > be utter capitulation to the demands of Wall Street, the fossil fuel
 > industry, the military-industrial complex and the security and
surveillance
 > state. We would have rallied behind those few, such as Ralph Nader, who
 > denounced a monetary system based on gambling and the endless printing
of
 > money and condemned the willful wrecking of the ecosystem. We would have
 > mutinied. We would have turned the ship back.
 >
 > The populations of dying empires are passive because they are
lotus-eaters.
 > There is a narcotic-like reverie among those barreling toward oblivion.
 > They retreat into the sexual, the tawdry and the inane, retreats that
are
 > momentarily pleasurable but ensure self-destruction. They naively trust
it
 > will all work out. As a species, Margaret Atwood observes in her
dystopian
 > novel “Oryx and Crake,” “we’re doomed by
hope.” And absurd
 > promises of hope and glory are endlessly served up by the entertainment
 > industry, the political and economic elite, the class of courtiers who
pose
 > as journalists, self-help gurus like Oprah and religious belief systems
 > that assure followers that God will always protect them. It is
collective
 > self-delusion, a retreat into magical thinking.
 >
 > “The American citizen thus lives in a world where fantasy is more
real
 > than reality, where the image has more dignity than the original,”
[LINK:
 > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Boorstin] Daniel J. Boorstinwrote
in
 > his book “The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America.”
“We hardly
 > dare face our bewilderment, because our ambiguous experience is so
 > pleasantly iridescent, and the solace of belief in contrived reality is
so
 > thoroughly real. We have become eager accessories in the great hoaxes of
 > the age. These are the hoaxes we play on ourselves.”
 >
 > Culture and literacy, in the final stage of decline, are replaced with
 > noisy diversions and empty clichés. The Roman statesman [LINK:
 > http://www.iep.utm.edu/cicero/] Ciceroinveighed against their ancient
 > equivalent—the arena. Cicero, for his honesty, was hunted down and
 > murdered and his hands and head were cut off. His severed head and his
 > right hand, which had written the Philippics, were nailed onto the
 > speaker’s platform in the Forum. The roaring crowds, while the
Roman
 > elite spat on the head, were gleefully told he would never speak or
write
 > again. In the modern age this toxic, mindless cacophony, our own version
of
 > spectacle and gladiator fights, of bread and circus, is pumped into the
 > airwaves in 24-hour cycles. Political life has fused into celebrity
 > worship. Education is primarily vocational. Intellectuals are cast out
and
 > despised. Artists cannot make a living. Few people read books. Thought
has
 > been banished, especially at universities and colleges, where timid
pedants
 > and careerists churn out academic drivel. “Although tyranny,
because it
 > needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples,”
Hannah
 > Arendt wrote in “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” “it
can stay in
 > power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its
own
 > people.” And ours have been destroyed.
 >
 > Sensual pleasure and eternal youth are our overriding obsessions. The
Roman
 > emperor Tiberius, at the end, fled to the island of Capri and turned his
 > seaside palace into a house of unbridled lust and violence.
“Bevies of
 > girls and young men, whom he had collected from all over the Empire as
 > adepts in unnatural practices, and known as spintriae, would copulate
 > before him in groups of three, to excite his waning passions,”
[LINK:
 > http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/571641/Suetonius]
Suetoniuswrote
 > in “The Twelve Caesars.” Tiberius trained small boys, whom
he called
 > his minnows, to frolic with him in the water and perform oral sex. And
 > after watching prolonged torture, he would have captives thrown into the
 > sea from a cliff near his palace. Tiberius would be followed by Caligula
 > and Nero.
 >
 > “At times when the page is turning,” [LINK:
 > http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/101393/Louis-Ferdinand-Celine]
 > Louis-Ferdinand Célinewrote in “Castle to Castle,”
“when History
 > brings all the nuts together, opens its Epic Dance Halls! hats and heads
in
 > the whirlwind! Panties overboard!”
 >
 > The anthropologist Joseph Tainter in his book “The Collapse of
Complex
 > Societies” looked at the collapse of civilizations from the Roman
to the
 > Mayan. He concluded that they disintegrated because they finally could
not
 > sustain the bureaucratic complexities they had created. Layers of
 > bureaucracy demand more and more exploitation, not only of the
environment
 > but the laboring classes. They become calcified by systems that are
unable
 > to respond to the changing reality around them. They, like our elite
 > universities and business schools, churn out systems managers, people
who
 > are taught not to think but to blindly service the system. These systems
 > managers know only how to perpetuate themselves and the system they
serve,
 > although serving that system means disemboweling the nation and the
planet.
 > Our elites and bureaucrats exhaust the earth to hold up a system that
 > worked in the past, failing to see that it no longer works. Elites,
rather
 > than contemplate reform, which would jeopardize their privilege and
power,
 > retreat in the twilight of empire into walled compounds like the
Forbidden
 > City or Versailles. They invent their own reality. Those on Wall Street
and
 > in corporate boardrooms have replicated this behavior. They insist that
 > continued reliance on fossil fuel and speculations will sustain the
empire.
 > State resources, as Tainter notes, are at the end increasingly
squandered
 > on extravagant and senseless projects and imperial adventures. And then
it
 > all collapses.
 >
 > Our collapse will take the whole planet with it.
 >
 > It is more pleasant, I admit, to stand mesmerized in front of our
 > electronic hallucinations. It is easier to check out intellectually. It
is
 > more gratifying to imbibe the hedonism and the sickness of the worship
of
 > the self and money. It is more comforting to chatter about celebrity
gossip
 > and ignore or dismiss what is reality.
 >
 > Thomas Mann in “The Magic Mountain” and Joseph Roth in
“Hotel
 > Savoy” brilliantly chronicled this peculiar state of mind. In
Roth’s
 > hotel the first three floors house in luxury the bloated rich, the
amoral
 > politicians, the bankers and the business owners. The upper floors are
 > crammed with people who struggle to pay their bills and who are steadily
 > divested of their possessions until they are destitute and cast out.
There
 > is no political ideology among decayed ruling elites, despite
choreographed
 > debates and elaborate political theater. It is, as it always is at the
end,
 > one vast kleptocracy.
 >
 > Just before World War II, a friend asked Roth, a Jewish intellectual who
 > had fled Nazi Germany for Paris, “Why are you drinking so
much?” Roth
 > answered: “Do you think you are going to escape? You too are going
to be
 > wiped out.”
 >
 > U.S. Air Force/Yasuo Osakabe
 > --------------------
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