From the book Jacket and back cover of "Empire of Illusion" by Chris Hedges.
According to Chris Hedges here' s whats goin down, and the reason it's goin down.
According to Chris Hedges here' s whats goin down, and the reason it's goin down.
"A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now.
We will either wake from our state of induced childishness, one where trivia and gossip pass for news and information, one where our goal is not justice but an elusive and unattainable happiness, to confront the stark limitations before us, or we will continue our headlong retreat into fantasy.
We will either wake from our state of induced childishness, one where trivia and gossip pass for news and information, one where our goal is not justice but an elusive and unattainable happiness, to confront the stark limitations before us, or we will continue our headlong retreat into fantasy.
Those who cling to fantasy in times of despair and turmoil inevitably turn to demagogues and charlatans to entertain and reassure them. And these demagogues, as they have throughout history, lead the crowd, blinded and amused, towards despotism.
" It reminds us of that part of American constitution that says, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, envinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security". This applies to any government that continues to tolerate the huge disparity and imbalance that exists between the so called priveleged and under-privileged, and the widespread feeling of resentment of the poor and middle class.
"The New York Times bestselling author of American Facists and the NBCC finalists for "War is a Force That Gives us Meaning travels in Empire of Illusion to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to Academic conferences held by positive Psychologists--who claim to be able to engineer happiness--to chronicle our terrifying flight as a culture into a state of illusion.
Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political and moral collapse around us. He attacks the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire.
Reality, we are assured, is never an impediment to human wishes. It can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealized version of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become.
The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets, to create fictional wealth for us, and vast wealth for our elite.
Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class.
The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions through the mass media, the entertainment industry and popular culture". and here's more good news, this from the back cover by Chris Hedges.
The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world-- a world of complexity and naunce, a world of ideas--for one informed by comforting reasuring images, fantasies, slogans, and a celebration of violence, the more we implode. We ask, like the wrestling fans or those who confuse love for pornography, to be fed lies. We demand lies. The skilfully manufactured images and slogans that flood the airwaves and infect our political discourse mask reality. And we do not protest.
The lonely Cassandras who speak the truth about our misguided imperial wars, the global economic meltdown, and the imminent danger of multiple pollutions that are destroying the ecosystem that sustains the human species, are drowned out by arenas full of fans chanting "Slut! Slut! Slut!" or television audiences chanting "Jer - ry! Jer - ry! Jer - ry!"
The worse reality becomes, the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it and the more it distracts itself with squalid pseudo - events of celebrity breakdowns, gossip, and trivia. These are the de-bauched revels of a dying culture".
Secrets of violence applauds Chris Hedges, and welcomes your feedback if you are curious or driven to find an identity and a road ahead. The road that leads back to civilization and the pursuit of "truth" as it twists and turns and makes sudden leaps to new heights.
Thur. 01/21/2010
" It reminds us of that part of American constitution that says, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, envinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security". This applies to any government that continues to tolerate the huge disparity and imbalance that exists between the so called priveleged and under-privileged, and the widespread feeling of resentment of the poor and middle class.
"The New York Times bestselling author of American Facists and the NBCC finalists for "War is a Force That Gives us Meaning travels in Empire of Illusion to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to Academic conferences held by positive Psychologists--who claim to be able to engineer happiness--to chronicle our terrifying flight as a culture into a state of illusion.
Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political and moral collapse around us. He attacks the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire.
Reality, we are assured, is never an impediment to human wishes. It can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealized version of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become.
The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets, to create fictional wealth for us, and vast wealth for our elite.
Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class.
The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions through the mass media, the entertainment industry and popular culture". and here's more good news, this from the back cover by Chris Hedges.
The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world-- a world of complexity and naunce, a world of ideas--for one informed by comforting reasuring images, fantasies, slogans, and a celebration of violence, the more we implode. We ask, like the wrestling fans or those who confuse love for pornography, to be fed lies. We demand lies. The skilfully manufactured images and slogans that flood the airwaves and infect our political discourse mask reality. And we do not protest.
The lonely Cassandras who speak the truth about our misguided imperial wars, the global economic meltdown, and the imminent danger of multiple pollutions that are destroying the ecosystem that sustains the human species, are drowned out by arenas full of fans chanting "Slut! Slut! Slut!" or television audiences chanting "Jer - ry! Jer - ry! Jer - ry!"
The worse reality becomes, the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it and the more it distracts itself with squalid pseudo - events of celebrity breakdowns, gossip, and trivia. These are the de-bauched revels of a dying culture".
Secrets of violence applauds Chris Hedges, and welcomes your feedback if you are curious or driven to find an identity and a road ahead. The road that leads back to civilization and the pursuit of "truth" as it twists and turns and makes sudden leaps to new heights.
Thur. 01/21/2010
No comments:
Post a Comment