why liberals are useless hits right at the core of this identity crisis。 mr.

hedges writes liberals are a useless lot。

为什么自由主义者是无用的，正是这场认同危机的核心
they're defeated and self-absorbed。
他们被打败了，全神贯注
their cynicism as a cloak for their cowardice and impotence。
他们的愤世嫉俗是他们懦弱无能的外衣
they use inaction and empty moral posturing， not to affect change but to engage in
an orgy of self adulation and self-pity。
他们利用无为和空洞的道德姿态，不是为了影响改变，而是为了自我陶醉和自怜
the gravest danger we face as a nation is not from the far right but from a
bankrupt liberal class that has lost the will to fight and the moral courage to
stand up for what are the spouses。 Hedges unapologetically asked at what point do
we stop being dormant at what point do we fight back。 we may lose if we step
outside of the mainstream but at least we salvage our self esteem and integrity。
mr. hedges words have been published in the nation mother jones harper's and the
new york times where his correspondence from the middle east won him the Pulitzer
Prize in 2002 for explanatory journalism and an amnesty international global award
for human rights journalism， but mr. hedges his career the New York Times would
be short-lived， when in 2003 hedges delivered a commencement address in Illinois，
where he criticized the US invasion of Iraq。 mr. hedges argued we are embarking on
an occupied that if history is any guide we'll be as damaging to our souls as it
will be to our prestige power and security。 members of the audience booed and
jeered him， although some applauded。 hedges microphone was cut twice and two young
men even rushed the stage to prevent him from speaking。
作为一个国家，我们面临的最严重的危险不是来自极右翼，而是来自一个破产的自由阶级，他们已经失去了战斗
的意志和为配偶而战的道德勇气。赫奇斯毫无歉意地问我们什么时候才能停止沉睡，什么时候才能反击。如果我
们脱离主流，我们可能会失败，但是至少我们挽回了我们的自尊和正直。赫奇斯先生的话已经发表在《国家母亲
琼斯哈珀》和《纽约时报》上，在那里，他来自中东的信件为他赢得了 2002 年普利策解释性新闻奖和大赦国际全
球人权新闻奖，但是赫奇斯先生他的职业生涯《纽约时报》将是短暂的，2003 年，赫奇斯在伊利诺伊州发表毕业
典礼讲话，批评美国入侵伊拉克。赫奇斯认为，我们正在开始一个被占领的时代，如果历史是任何指南，我们将
损害我们的灵魂，因为它将损害我们的威望、权力和安全观众对他嘘寒问暖，但也有人鼓掌。赫奇斯的麦克风被
切断了两次，两个年轻人甚至冲上台阻止他讲话
subsequently the New York Times criticizes statements and the editors demanded
hedges see speaking about the Iraq war。 hedges refusing to accept such
restrictions left the New York Times to become a senior fellow at the nation
Institute where he now writes and teaches at Princeton。 hedges his books I don't
believe in atheist、 American fascists the Christian Right in the war on America、
losing Moses on the freeway、 war is a force that gives us meaning and now Empire
of illusion challenged and provoked。In “war is a force that gives us meaning”。
03:05
后来《纽约时报》批评了这些言论，编辑们要求赫奇斯看《谈论伊拉克战争》。赫奇斯拒绝接受这样的限制，离
开《纽约时报》成为国家研究所的高级研究员，他现在在普林斯顿写作和任教。赫奇斯的书《我不相信无神论者、
美国人》法西斯基督教右翼在对美国的战争中，在高速公路上失去摩西，战争是一种赋予我们意义的力量，现在
幻觉帝国受到挑战和挑衅
hedges describes war as the most potent narcotic invented by humankind subsequently
as war poverty and conflict escalate as we learn an empire of illusion and
increasingly disjointed an intoxicated population will seek comfort in celebrity
culture trivial gossip pseudo events and illusion。 thus it seems at both war and
the illusions we exalt work in tandem to destroy what it means to be an engaged and
informed citizenry。 now here to talk more on this the new school is very proud to
welcome mr. Chris Hedges。
赫奇斯把战争描述为人类发明的最有效的麻醉剂，后来随着战争贫穷和冲突的升级，当我们了解到一个幻觉帝国，
并且越来越脱节时，陶醉的人们会在名人文化中寻求安慰，琐碎的流言蜚语，虚假的事件和幻觉。因此，无论是
战争还是我们所推崇的幻觉，似乎都是如此齐心协力，摧毁作为一个积极参与和知情的公民的意义。现在在这里
谈更多关于这个新学校非常自豪地欢迎克里斯·赫奇斯先生
03:44
Thank You Nick
03:46
and I want to first salute all those students at the new school who were not asleep
in standing up to their president and I hope that campaign is not over。
04:05
secondly I want to remind anyone who hasn't heard or has heard about the event on
December 12th 11 o'clock in the morning next Saturday
04:20
Lafayette Park, in front of the White House anti-war protest demonstration. which I
will be speaking at Senator Mike Gravel will be speaking at Dennis Kucinich will be
speaking at Cynthia McKinney will be speaking at and as snick read and you can read
that column on TruthDig today. I think that line has been crossed by Barack Obama
04:50
and it is time for all of us to step out of the mainstream to give up on the
Democratic Party which has betrayed us and in particular betrayed the working
class. and fight for what is left of our anemic democracy.
现在是我们大家走出主流，放弃背叛我们，特别是背叛工人阶级的民主党的时候了。为我们贫乏的民主所剩的东
西而战。
in celebrity culture, we destroy what we worship. the commercial
exploitation of Michael Jackson's was orchestrated by the corporate forces that
rendered Jackson insane. Jackson robbed of his childhood and surrounded by vultures
that preyed on his fears and weaknesses, was so consumed by self-loathing.
在名人文化中，我们破坏我们崇拜的东西。对迈克尔·杰克逊的商业剥削是由使杰克逊精神失常的公司势
力策划的。杰克逊被夺走了他的童年，身边的秃鹫捕食他的恐惧和弱点，让他是如此自我厌恶消耗。
he carved his african-american face into a Caucasian death mask. he hid his
apparent pedophilia behind a Peter Pan illusion of eternal childhood. he could not
disentangle his public and his private self. he became a commodity. a product .one
to be sold sed and manipulated. he was infected by the moral nihilism and personal
disintegration that is at the core our corporate culture.
他把自己的非洲裔美国人的脸刻在一个白人的死亡面具上。他把自己明显的恋童癖隐藏在彼得·潘对永恒
童年的幻想背后。他分不清自己的工作和隐私。他成了商品，一种产品，一种出售和被操纵的产品。他被道德虚
无主义和个人分裂所感染，这是我们企业文化的核心。
and his fantasies of eternal youth delusions of majesty. and desperate
disfiguring quests for physical transformation, or an expression of our own
yearning. he was a reflection of us in the extreme. his memorial service a variety
show with a coffin, at an average of 31 point 1 million television viewers. it was
the final episode of the long-running michael jackson series, the stories that
enthrall us are real-life stories. early Fame wild success and then a long bizarre
and macabre emotional train wreck. Oh Jay Simpson offered a tamer version of the
same plot so does Britney Spears and Tiger Woods Jackson. by the end was heavily in
debt and had weathered a 22 million-dollar
out-of-court settlement to Geordie Chandler, as well as seven counts of child
sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to
commit a felony.
以及他对青春永驻的幻想，对威严的幻想。拼命地毁容寻求身体的转变，也许也是我们自己的渴望。他是
我们极端的反映。他的追悼会是一个带棺材的综艺节目，约有 3110 万电视观众。这是迈克尔杰克逊系列的最后一
集，吸引我们的故事都是真实的故事。早年的成名狂野的成功，然后是漫长离奇而令人毛骨悚然的情感火车失事。
杰伊·辛普森为同一个情节提供了一个更温和的版本，布兰妮·斯皮尔斯和泰格·伍兹·杰克逊也是如此。到最后，
他负债累累，经受住了乔迪·钱德勒 2200 万美元的庭外和解，以及 7 项儿童性虐待罪和两项为犯重罪而使用毒药
罪。

Jackson reflected back to us, our own physical and psychological

disintegration, especially with many Americans struggling with overwhelming debt,
loss of status and deep personal confusion. the lurid drama of Jackson's personal
life meshed with the ongoing dramas in television in movies in the news. news
reports on television our many dramas they provide a star a villain a supporting
cast a good-looking host in a dramatic if often unexpected ending. in Fahrenheit
451 ray Bradbury's novel about a future dystopia, people spend most of the day
watching giant television screens that show endless scenes of police chases and
criminal apprehensions. life Bradbury understood once it was packaged scripted
given a narrative and filmed,became the most compelling form of entertainment.
杰克逊向我们反映出我们自己的身体和心理崩溃，特别是许多美国人挣扎在压倒性的债务，地位的丧失和
深刻的个人困惑。杰克逊个人生活中骇人听闻的戏剧与新闻中正在上演的电视剧、电影剧交织在一起。电视上的
新闻报道我们的许多电视剧都提供了一个明星，一个恶棍，一个配角，一个漂亮的主持人，一个戏剧性的结局。
在华氏 451 度的雷·布拉德伯里（ray Bradbury）关于未来反乌托邦的小说中，人们花了一天的大部分时间观
看巨大的电视屏幕，屏幕上显示了无尽的警察追捕和犯罪逮捕的场景。布拉德伯里明白，生活一旦被包装、编剧、
叙事和拍摄，就成了最引人注目的娱乐形式。
08:31
and Jackson was a great show he deserved a great finale. those who created
Jackson's public persona and turned him into a piece of property first as a child
and finally as a corpse encased in a $15,000 golden casket, are the agents
publicist promoters script writers advertisers video technicians recording
executives public announcers and television news personalities who orchestrate the
vast stage of celebrity for profit.
杰克逊是一个伟大的表演，他应该得到一个伟大的结局。那些创造了杰克逊的公众形象并把他变成了一件
财产的人，首先是在他还是个孩子的时候，最后是把他变成了一具装在价值 15000 美元的金棺材里的尸体，是经
纪人、公关人员、促销人员、脚本作者、广告商、视频技术人员、录音主管、公共播音员和电视新闻职员，他们
为牟利而精心策划了一个庞大的名人舞台。
they are the puppet masters no one achieves celebrity status, no cultural
illusion is swallowed as reality. without these armies of cultural enablers and
intermediaries. the producers at the Staples Center in Los Angeles made sure the
18,000 810 DS and television audience and even the BBC devoted three hours to the
tribute, watched a funeral that was turned into another maudlin form of uplifting
popular entertainment. the memorial service for Jackson was a celebration of
celebrity. there was the queasy site of groups of children including his own,
singing over the coffin. Brooke Shields fighting back tears recalled how she and a
33 year old Jackson who always maintained that he was a straight male. broke into
Elizabeth Taylor's room the night before her wedding, because Michael was too
excited to wait until morning to see the wedding gown. shields and Jackson at
Taylor's wedding then quote pretended to be the mother and father of Elizabeth
Taylor. it sounds weird she'll said but we made it real.
他们是傀儡大师，没有人达到名人地位，没有文化幻觉被现实吞没。没有这些文化推动者和中介的大军。
洛杉矶斯台普斯中心（Staples Center）的制片人确保 18000 名 810 名 DS 和电视观众，甚至英国广播公司
（BBC）花了三个小时来悼念，观看了一场葬礼，葬礼变成了另一种令人伤感的大众娱乐形式。杰克逊的追悼会是
对名人的庆祝。那里有一群孩子，包括他自己的孩子，在棺材边唱歌，令人恶心。布鲁克·希尔兹忍住眼泪回忆起
她和一个 33 岁的杰克逊是如何坚持他是一个直男。在伊丽莎白·泰勒婚礼的前一天晚上，他闯进了她的房间，因
为迈克尔激动得等不到第二天早上才去看婚纱。希尔兹和杰克逊在泰勒的婚礼上假装是伊丽莎白·泰勒的母亲和父
亲。听起来很奇怪，她会说，但我们把它变成了现实。
there were photo montages in which a shot of Michael Jackson, shaking hands
with Nelson Mandela. was immediately followed by one of him with Kermit the Frog.
celebrity culture reduces all of the famous to the same level. fame is its own
denominator and every anecdote told about Jackson, seemed to confirm that when you
spend your life as a celebrity, you have no idea who you are. and yet we measure
our lives by these celebrities, we seek to be like them we emulate their look and
behavior. we escape the messiness of real life through the fantasy of their
stardom. we too long to attract admiring audiences for our grand ongoing life
movie. we try to see ourselves moving through our life as a camera would see us.
mindful of how we hold ourselves, how we dress what we say. we invent movies that
play inside our heads with us as stars. we wonder how an audience would react,
celebrity culture has taught us, almost unconsciously to generate interior personal
screenplays.
有照片蒙太奇，其中一个迈克尔杰克逊，与纳尔逊曼德拉握手的照片。他和青蛙克米特紧随其后。名人文
化把所有的名人降到了同一水平。名声是它自己的分母，每一个关于杰克逊的轶事，似乎都证实了当你以名人的
身份度过一生时，你根本不知道自己是谁。然而，我们用这些名人来衡量我们的生活，我们追求像他们一样，模
仿他们的外貌和行为。我们通过幻想他们的明星身份来逃避现实生活的混乱。我们太长时间来吸引观众欣赏我们
正在进行的盛大生活电影。我们试着看到自己在生活中移动，就像照相机看到我们一样。注意我们如何把握自己，
如何穿着我们所说的。我们发明的电影在我们的脑海里播放，我们作为明星。我们想知道观众会有什么反应，名
人文化教会了我们，几乎是无意识地生成内部的个人剧本。
12:02
we have learned ways of speaking and thinking that grossly disfigure the way
we relate to the world. and those around us. kneel Gabler who has written wisely
about this argues that celebrity culture is not a convergence of consumer culture
and religion. so much as a hostile takeover of religion by consumer culture.
我们学会了说话和思考的方式，这些方式严重破坏了我们与世界的联系方式。还有我们周围的人。盖伯勒
对此颇有见地，他认为名人文化并不是消费文化和宗教的融合。甚至是消费者文化对宗教的敌意接管。
12:27
Jackson desperately feared growing old, he believed he could manipulate race
and gender. he transformed himself through surgery and perhaps female hormones,
from a brown-skinned african-american male to a choc faced and drogynous figure
with no clear sexual identity. and while he pushed these boundaries to the extreme.
杰克逊极度害怕变老，他相信自己可以操纵种族和性别。他通过手术和可能的女性荷尔蒙改变了自己，从
一个棕色皮肤的非洲裔美国男性变成了一个没有明确性别身份的巧克力脸和滑稽的形象。当他把这些界限推向极
端的时候。
12:53
he only did what many Americans do. there were 12 million cosmetic plastic
surgery procedures performed last year in the United States, they were performed
because in America, most human beings rich and poor famous and obscure have been
conditioned to view themselves as marketable commodities. they are objects like
consumer products, they have no intrinsic value they must look fabulous and live on
fabulous sets. they must remain young, they must achieve notoriety and money. or
the illusion of it, to be a success. and it does not matter how they get their.
celebrity culture licences, a dark voyeurism into other people's humiliation, pain,
weakness and betrayal .
他只做了很多美国人做的事。去年在美国进行了 1200 万次整容手术，这是因为在美国，大多数富人、穷
人、名人和不知名的人已经习惯于把自己视为适销对路的商品。它们是像消费品一样的东西，没有内在价值。它
们必须看起来很漂亮，生活在漂亮的环境中。他们必须保持年轻，他们必须获得名声和金钱。或是幻想成功。不
管他们怎么得到他们的钱。名人文化牌照，把一种黑暗的窥视变成了对他人的羞辱、痛苦、软弱和背叛。

education building community honesty transparency and sharing are qualities

that will see you ridiculed and voted off any reality show. fellow competitors for
prize money and a chance for fleeting Fame, elect to disappear the unwanted. in the
final credits of the reality show America's Next Top Model. a picture of the woman
expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. those
cast aside become, at least to the television audience, non persons, celebrities
that can no longer generate publicity good or bad, vanish ,life these shows teach
is a brutal world of unadulterated competition and a constant quest for notoriety
and attention. and our self exaltation permit suss\us to humiliate those who oppose
us. those who win are the best those who lose deserve to be erased. those who fail
，those who are deemed ugly, weak or poor, are belittled and mocked human beings
are used betrayed and discarded in a commodity culture ,which is pretty much
教育、社区建设、诚实、透明和分享，这些品质会让你在任何真人秀节目中遭到嘲笑和否决。为了奖金和
一个短暂的名望，选择消失不受欢迎的竞争对手。在真人秀节目《美国下一个顶级模特》的最后一集里。在这一
集中被驱逐的女人的照片从屏幕上的集体肖像中消失了。那些被抛弃的人，至少对电视观众来说，变成了不再能
引起公众注意的非个人、名人，不管是好是坏，都消失了，这些节目所教授的生活是一个残酷的世界，一个纯粹
的竞争，一个不断追求名声和关注的世界。我们的自尊心允许我们羞辱那些反对我们的人。赢的人是最好的，输
的人应该被抹去。那些失败的人，那些被视为丑陋、软弱或贫穷的人，被轻视和嘲弄人类被用来背叛和抛弃在商
品文化中，这是相当严重的
15:19
the story of Jackson's life. the cult of the self with Jackson embodied dominates
our culture .this cult has within it the classic traits of Psychopaths.
杰克逊一生的故事。杰克逊所体现的对自我的崇拜支配着我们的文化，这种崇拜具有精神病患者的典型特征。
15:35

superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance, a need for constant

stimulation, a penchant for line deception and manipulation and the incapacity for
remorse or guilt.

15:56
Jackson from his phony marriages to the portraits of himself dressed as royalty to
his insatiable hunger for new toys to his questionable relationships with young
boys. had all these qualities. and this is also the ethic promoted by corporations.
it is the ethic of unfettered capitalism. it is the misguided belief, that personal
style and personal advancement mistaken for individualism. are the same as
democratic equality, it is the celebration of image over substance.
肤浅的魅力，浮夸和自我重要性，需要不断的刺激，对线欺骗和操纵的嗜好和悔恨或内疚的能力。
15:56
从他虚假的婚姻到他自己打扮成皇室成员的肖像，到他对新玩具的贪得无厌的渴望，再到他与年轻男孩的可疑关
系。拥有所有这些品质。这也是企业提倡的伦理。这是自由资本主义的伦理，一个错误的信念，个人风格和个人
进步被误认为是个人主义。与民主平等一样，它是对形象高于实质的颂扬。

16:31 we have a right in the cult of the self to get whatever we desire. we can do
anything even belittle and destroy those around us including our friends, to make
money to be happy and to become famous.
在自我崇拜中，我们有权得到我们想要的任何东西。我们可以做任何事情，甚至轻视和摧毁我们周围的人，包括
我们的朋友，赚钱，快乐和成名。
16:50
once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification. their own
morality, how one gets there is irrelevant. it is this perverted ethic that gave us
Wall Street bankers and investment houses that willfully trashed the global
economy, stole money from tens of millions of small shareholders who had bought
stock in these corporations for retirement or college. the heads of these
corporations like the winners on a reality television program, who lied and
manipulated others to succeed. walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars in
bonuses and compensation.
一旦名利双收，就成了自己的正当理由。他们自己的道德，一个人如何到达那里是无关紧要的。正是这种
反常的道德规范，使我们华尔街的银行家和投资公司肆意破坏全球经济，窃取了数以千万计的小股东的资金，这
些小股东购买了这些公司的股票以供退休或上大学。这些公司的负责人就像电视真人秀节目中的赢家，他们撒谎
并操纵他人取得成功。带着数亿美元的奖金和报酬离开了。

17:38 the ethic of Wall Street is the ethic of celebrity, but the tantalizing
illusions offered by our consumer culture are vanishing, as we head towards
collapse.
华尔街的道德就是名人的道德，但当我们走向崩溃时，我们的消费文化所提供的诱人的幻想正在消失。
17:51
the ability of the corporate state to pacify the country by extending credit and
providing cheap manufactured goods to the masses is gone. the jobs we are shedding
are not coming back, as Lawrence Summers tacitly acknowledges when he talks of a
jobless recovery. the belief that democracy, lies in the choice between competing
brands, and the freedom to accumulate vast sums of personal wealth at the expense
of others has been exposed as a fraud.
18:27freedom can no longer be conflated with the free market, and the
travails of the poor are rapidly becoming the travails of the middle class,
especially as unemployment insurance runs out class warfare once buried under the
happy illusion that we were all going to enter an age of prosperity with unfettered
capitalism is returning.
18:53
how will we cope with our decline, will we cling to the absurd dreams of imperial
power and the fantasies of a glorious tomorrow. or will we responsibly
19:07
face our stark
19:08
new limitations. will we heed those who
19:12
are sober and rational, those who speak
19:15
of a new simplicity and whom
19:17
in an age of imperial as well as
19:20
material decline, or will we follow the
19:23
demagogues and charlatans who rise up in
19:26
moments of crisis, to offer fantastic
19:29
visions of new glory. will we radically
19:33
transform our system to one that
19:35
protects the ordinary citizen and
19:38
fosters the common good, that defies the
19:41
corporate state that dismantles Empire.
19:44
or will we employ the brutality and
19:47
technology of our internal security and
19:50
surveillance apparatus to crush dissent
19:52
and drive us into a new Dark Age. in his
19:59
book democracy incorporated Sheldon
20:01
Wolin who taught political philosophy at
20:04
Berkeley and later at Princeton.

20：08
uses the phrase inverted totalitarianism to describe our political system。
inverted totalitarianism unlike classical totalitarianism， does not revolve around
a demagogue or charismatic leader。 it finds expression in the anonymity of the
corporate state， it purports to cherish democracy patriotism and the constitution
while manipulating internal levers to subvert and thwart democratic process，
political candidates are elected in popular votes by citizens but are beholding to
armies of corporate lobbyists in Washington or state capitals who authored the
legislation and get the legislators to pass it a corporate media controls nearly
everything we read watch or hear it imposes a bland uniformity of opinion it
diverts us with trivia and celebrity gossip.
in classical totalitarian regimes such as Nazi fascism or Soviet Communism
economics was subordinate to politics. under inverted totalitarianism the reverse
is true woolen rights economics dominates politics and with that domination comes
different for forms of ruthlessness the Obama brand offers us an image that appears
radically individualistic and new this image inoculates us from seeing that the old
engines of corporate power and the vast military-industrial complex continue to
plunder the country brand Obama is about being happy consumers we
21:59
are entertained we feel hopeful we like
22:02
our president we believe he is like us.
22:06
but like all branded products spun out
22:09
from the manipulative world of corporate
22:11
advertising, we are being duped into
22:15
doing and supporting a lot of things
22:17
that are not in our interest. what for
22:21
all our faith and hope has the Obama
22:24
brand given us, his administration has
22:27
spent lent or guaranteed twelve point
22:31
eight trillion in taxpayer dollars to
22:34
Wall Street and insolvent banks in a
22:37
doomed effort to reinflates our bubble
22:40
economy. a tactic that at best for stoles
22:44
catastrophe and will leave us broke in a
22:47
time of profound crisis. brand Obama has
22:51
allocated nearly 1 trillion dollars in
22:54
defense related spending and the
22:57
continuation of our doomed imperial
22:59
project in Iraq where military planners
23:02
now estimate that some 70,000 troops
23:06
will remain for the next 15 to 20 years.
23:10
brand Obama has expanded the war in
23:13
Afghanistan including the use of drones
23:16
set on cross-border bombing runs into
23:19
Pakistan's that have left over 700
23:22
civilians dead since Obama took office.
23:26
brand Obama has refused to ease
23:29
restrictions so workers can organize and
23:32
because of pressure from the for-profit
23:35
health care industry will not consider
23:38
single-payer not for-profit health care
23:40
for all Americans. and brand Obama will
23:43
not process
23:44
cute the Bush administration for war
23:46
crimes, including the use of torture and
23:49
has refused to dismantle Bush's secrecy
23:52
laws or restore habeas corpus.
23:58
corporations which control our politics
24:01
no longer produce products that are
24:04
different but brands that are different
24:06
and brand Obama does not threaten the
24:09
core of the corporate state any more
24:12
than did brand george w bush. the bush
24:15
brand collapsed we became immune to its
24:19
studied folks enos, we saw through its
24:22
artifice and this is a common deflation
24:25
in the world of advertising so we have
24:28
been given a new obama brand with a an
24:31
exciting and faintly erotic appeal
24:34
Benetton and Calvin Klein were the
24:37
precursors to the Obama brand, using ads
24:41
to associate themselves with risque
24:43
style and progressive politics, it gave
24:47
their products an edge. but the goal as
24:50
with all brands was to fool passive
24:53
consumers that a brand is an experience.
24:59
the decline of American Empire began
25:02
long before the current economic
25:04
meltdown or the wars in Afghanistan and
25:07
Iraq. it began before the first Gulf War
25:11
or Ronald Reagan it began when we
25:14
shifted in the words of the Harvard
25:16
historian Charles Mayer from an empire
25:19
of production to an empire of
25:22
consumption. by the end of the Vietnam
25:25
War when the costs of the war ate away
25:28
at Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and
25:30
domestic oil production began its steady
25:33
inexorable decline. we saw our country
25:37
transformed from one that primarily
25:40
produced to one that primarily consumed.
25:43
we started borrowing to maintain a
25:47
lifestyle as well as an empire we could
25:51
no longer afford. we began to use force
25:54
especially in the Middle East to feed
25:57
our in
25:58
satiable thirst for cheap oil and the
26:02
bill is now due. America's most dangerous
26:05
enemies are not Islamic radicals but
26:09
those who sold us the perverted ideology
26:12
of free-market capitalism and
26:14
globalization.
26:15
they have dynamited the foundations of
26:18
our society, in the 17th century these
26:22
speculators would have been hung, today
26:25
they run the government and consume
26:27
billions in taxpayer subsidies. these
26:31
corporate forces will never permit real
26:34
reform, it would mean their extinction
26:37
the oil and gas industry will never
26:40
allow us to achieve energy independence
26:43
that would devastate their profits. real
26:46
reform would wipe out tens of billions
26:49
of dollars in weapons contracts, it would
26:52
the financial health of a host
26:54
of private contractors from Lockheed
26:57
Martin to Boeing to Northrop Grumman
26:59
Raytheon Halliburton Blackwater
27:02
now renamed Z
and it would render
27:04
obsolete the existence of the US central
27:08
command.
it was Bill Clinton who led the
27:12
Democratic Party to the corporate
27:14
watering trough .Clinton argued that the
27:17
party could ditch labor unions no longer
27:20
a source of votes or power as a
27:22
political ally workers he insisted would
27:25
vote Democratic anyway they had no
27:28
choice. it was better he argued to take
27:31
corporate money and do corporate bidding.
27:35
by the 1990s the Democratic Party under
27:38
Clinton's leadership had virtual
27:40
fundraising parity with the Republicans.
27:43
today the Democrats get more, the
27:47
legislation demanded by corporations
27:50
including the North American Free Trade
27:51
Agreement, thrust a knife into the back
27:55
of the American working class. NAFTA was
27:58
peddled by the Clinton White House as an
28:00
opportunity to raise incomes and
28:03
prosperity of the citizens of the United
28:06
States Canada and Mexico. NAFTA would
28:09
also we were told staunch
28:11
Mexican immigration into the United
28:13
States, but NAFTA which took effect in
28:17
1994, reversed every one of Clinton's
28:21
rosy predictions. once the Mexican
28:24
government lifted, price supports on corn
28:27
and beans grown by Mexican farmers. those
28:30
farmers had to compete against the huge
28:33
Agra businesses in the United States.
28:35
many Mexican farmers were swiftly
28:38
bankrupt, at least two million Mexican
28:41
farmers have been driven off their land
28:44
since 1994. and guess where many of them
28:48
went this desperate flight of poor
28:51
Mexicans into the United States is now
28:53
being exacerbated by large-scale factory
28:57
closures along the border as
28:59
manufacturers pack up and leave Mexico
29:01
for China. but we were assured that goods
29:05
would be cheaper, workers would be
29:08
wealthier everyone would be happier. I'm
29:11
not sure how these contradictory things
29:14
were supposed to happen, but on a sound
29:16
by society reality no longer matters.
29:22
NAFTA was great if you were a
29:25
corporation, it was a disaster if you
29:29
were a worker and we are now getting a
29:31
taste of Clinton's draconian welfare
29:34
reform bill, signed in 1996 as tens of
29:38
millions of people faced the prospect of
29:41
losing their unemployment benefits and
29:44
attempting to survive on a hundred and
29:47
forty three dollars a month from welfare.
29:52
it was the Clinton administration led by
29:55
Summers which signed into law the
29:57
financial services Modernization Act of
29:59
1999. the Act ripped down the firewalls
30:03
that that had been established by the
30:05
1933 glass-steagall Act, designed to
30:09
prevent the kind of meltdown we are now
30:11
experiencing, glass-steagall established
30:15
the Federal Deposit Insurance
30:16
Corporation, it's set in place banking
30:19
reforms to stop speculators from
30:22
hijacking the financial system.
30:24
with glass-steagall demolished and the
30:27
passage of NAFTA the Democrats led by
30:30
Clinton tumbled gleefully into bed with
30:33
corporations and Wall Street speculators.
30:35
and many of the architects of this
30:38
deregulation economists such as summers,
30:41
have come back again to service these
30:45
corporations in the Obama White House.
30:49
the cost of our Empire of illusion is
30:54
not being paid for by corporate Titans,
30:58
it is being paid for on the streets of
31:01
our inner cities, in former manufacturing
31:04
towns and in depressed rural enclaves.
31:08
human beings are not commodities, they
31:12
are not goods their misery is not the
31:16
regrettable price of globalization and
31:18
the free market. they grieve and suffer
31:23
and feel despair, they raise children and
31:28
struggle to maintain communities. and the
31:32
growing class divide is not grasped.
31:36
despite the glibness of many in the
31:39
media by complicated sets of statistics
31:42
lines on a graph the chart stocks or the
31:46
absurd utopian faith and unregulated
31:49
globalization and complicated trade
31:52
deals. it is understood in the eyes of a
31:55
man or woman who is no longer making
31:58
enough money to live with dignity and
32:01
hope. the growing desperation across the
32:05
United States is unleashing not simply a
32:08
recession, we have been in a recession
32:11
for some time now. but a depression
32:14
unlike anything we have seen since the
32:16
1930s. it has provided a pool of broken
32:20
people willing to work for low wages and
32:23
to do without unions or benefits, for the
32:27
bottom 90% of Americans annual income
32:31
has been on a slow steady decline for
32:35
three decades, there are 50 mill
32:38
in Americans in real poverty and tens of
32:41
millions of Americans in a category
32:44
called near poverty. and our elites
32:47
meanwhile manipulate statistics and data
32:50
to foster illusions of growth and
32:53
prosperity to mask the damage. they
32:57
refuse to admit at least to us that they
33:00
have lost control since to lose control
33:03
is to concede failure. they contribute
33:06
instead to the collective denial of
33:09
reality by insisting that another
33:12
multi-billion dollar bailout her
33:14
government loan will prop up the
33:16
shattered edifice. the well paid
33:19
television pundits and news celebrities
33:23
The Economist's and the banking and
33:25
financial sector leaders, see the world
33:29
from inside the comfort of the corporate
33:31
box and they are loyal to the corporate
33:34
state. the assault on the American
33:38
working class, an assault that has
33:41
devastated members of my own family in
33:43
the former mill towns in the state of
33:45
Maine, shows no sign of abatement in the
33:49
past three years nearly one in five US
33:52
workers was laid off, among workers laid
33:56
off from full-time work roughly
33:58
one-fourth were earning less than
34:00
$40,000 a year. and there are whole
34:03
sections of the United States that now
34:05
resemble the developing world there's
34:08
been a violation of the American working
34:11
class and the assault on the middle
34:14
class is underway, anything that can be
34:17
put on software from finance to
34:19
architecture to engineering can and is
34:23
being outsourced to workers in countries
34:25
such as India or China who accept pay a
34:29
fraction of that of their Western
34:31
counterparts and work without benefits.
34:34
and both the Republican and Democratic
34:37
parties behold in two corporations for
34:39
money and power are responsible.
34:44
Washington has become our Versailles, the
34:49
media has evolved into a cloud
34:52
of courtiers . the Democrats like the
34:55
Republicans are mostly courtiers are
34:58
pundants academics economists and
35:01
experts at least those with prominent
35:04
public platforms are courtiers. we are
35:08
captivated by the hollow stagecraft of
35:11
political theatre as we are ruthlessly
35:13
stripped of power. the role of courtiers
35:17
is to parrot official propaganda,
35:20
courtiers do not defy the elite or
35:22
question the structure of the corporate
35:25
state. the corporations in return employ
35:28
them and promote them as celebrities or
35:31
elected officials. courtiers and face
35:34
powder deceive us in the name of
35:37
journalism, courtiers and our political
35:39
parties promise to look out for our
35:41
interests and then pass bill after bill
35:44
to further corporate fraud and abuse. no
35:48
class of courtiers from the eunuchs
35:51
behind the Manchus in the 19th century
35:55
to the Baghdad caliphs in the Abbasid
35:59
Caliphate has ever transformed itself
36:01
into a responsible and socially
36:04
productive class. being a courtier
36:08
requires agility and eloquence and the
36:11
most talented of them should be credited
36:13
as persuasive actors, they entertain us
36:17
they make us feel good they persuade us
36:20
they are our friends.
36:23
they are the smiley faces of a corporate
36:26
state that has hijacked the government,
36:28
and when these corporations make their
36:31
iron demands these courtiers drop to
36:34
their knees. they placate the
36:37
telecommunications companies that want
36:39
to be protected from lawsuits, they
36:42
permit oil and gas companies to rake and
36:44
obscene profits and keep in place the
36:47
vast subsidies of corporate welfare
36:49
doled out by the state. they allow our
36:53
profit driven health care system to
36:56
leave the uninsured and underinsured to
36:59
suffer and die. and over 20,000 Americans
37:04
died last year
37:05
they could not get proper medical care.
37:09
health care industry like the defense
37:12
industry profits from death it is
37:17
legally permitted to hold sick children
37:20
hostage while their families frantically
37:23
bankrupt themselves to save their son or
37:26
daughter. any discussion of health care
37:29
should acknowledge the fact that our
37:32
for-profit health care system is the
37:35
problem and must be destroyed. only then
37:38
can we have an honest debate about what
37:41
comes next, but this will never happen, it
37:46
will never happen because the industry's
37:47
money and lobbyists drive the discussion.
37:51
and the court hears in Washington and on
37:54
the television screens dance to the tune
37:57
they play. America is devolving into a
38:03
third world nation and if we do not
38:05
immediately hope our elites rapacious
38:08
looting of the public treasury and our
38:11
bizarre state socialism for corporations.
38:14
we will be left with trillions in debts
38:17
which can never be repaid and widespread
38:21
human misery which we will be helpless
38:24
to ameliorate. our anemic democracy will
38:28
be replaced with a robust national
38:30
police state, the elite will withdraw
38:33
into heavily guarded gated communities
38:36
where they will have access to security
38:39
goods and services that cannot be
38:41
afforded by the rest of us. and tens of
38:45
millions of people
38:46
brutally controlled will live in
38:49
perpetual poverty a state of neo
38:52
feudalism. this is the inevitable result
38:55
of unchecked corporate capitalism. the
39:00
stimulus and bailout plans are not about
39:03
saving us, they are about saving them. as
39:08
the economist Paul Krugman is noted
39:11
anyone who has seen how economic
39:13
statistics are constructed knows that
39:16
they are a sub-genre of science fiction.
39:19
this science fiction has been steadily
39:21
employed to camouflage our economic
39:24
decline. President Ronald Reagan included
39:27
1.5 million US Army Navy Air Force and
39:31
Marine service personnel, with the
39:34
civilian workforce to magically reduce
39:37
the nation's unemployment rate by two
39:39
percent.
39:40
President Clinton decided that those who
39:43
had given up looking for work
39:44
or those who wanted full-time jobs but
39:47
could only find part-time employment,
39:49
were no longer to be counted as
39:52
unemployed. his trick disappeared some
39:55
five million unemployed from the
39:58
official unemployment rolls, if you work
40:02
more than 21 hours a week and most
40:05
low-wage workers at places like Walmart
40:08
our average about 28 hours a week, you're
40:11
counted as employed although your real
40:14
wages put you below the poverty line. our
40:18
actual unemployment rate as the Los
40:21
Angeles Times has pointed out, when you
40:23
include those who have stopped looking
40:25
for work and those who can only find
40:27
poorly paid part-time jobs, is not 10%
40:32
but somewhere between 17 and 20 percent.
40:36
1/6 of the country is now effectively
40:39
unemployed, and we are shedding jobs at a
40:43
faster rate than in the months after the
40:46
1929 crash. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
40:51
recognized the danger of unregulated
40:54
capitalism, he sent a message to Congress
40:58
on April 29 1938, titled recommendations
41:04
to the Congress to curb monopolies and
41:06
the concentration of economic power. in
41:09
it he wrote this, the first truth is that
41:14
the liberty of democracy is not safe, if
41:16
the people tolerate the growth of power
41:19
to a point where it becomes stronger
41:22
than the Democratic state itself. that in
41:25
its essence is fascism, ownership of
41:28
government by an individual by a group
41:31
or by any other can
41:33
trolling private power. the second truth
41:36
is that the liberty of a democracy is
41:38
not safe, if its business system does not
41:41
provide employment and produce and
41:43
distribute goods, in such a way to
41:45
sustain an acceptable standard of living.
41:50
the rise of the corporate state has
41:53
grave political consequences as we saw
41:56
in Italy in Germany in the early part of
41:59
the 20th century, and he trusts laws not
42:02
only regulate and control the
42:03
marketplace, they serve as bulwarks to
42:07
protect democracy, and now that they are
42:10
gone now that we have a state run by and
42:13
on behalf of corporations. we must expect
42:17
inevitable and I fear terrifying
42:19
consequences. as the pressure mounts as
42:24
this despair and desperation reaches
42:27
into larger and larger segments of the
42:29
populace, the mechanisms of corporate and
42:33
government control are being bolstered
42:35
to prevent civil unrest and instability.
42:39
the emergence of the corporate state
42:42
always means the emergence of the
42:45
security state, and this is why the Bush
42:48
White House pushed through the Patriot
42:50
Act and its renewal the suspension of
42:53
habeas corpus the practice of
42:55
extraordinary rendition warrantless
42:58
wiretapping of American citizens and the
43:01
refusal to ensure free and fair
43:04
elections with verifiable ballot
43:06
counting. the motive behind these
43:08
measures is not to fight terrorism or to
43:11
bolster national security. it is to seize
43:14
and maintain internal control and it is
43:18
about control of US, Senator Frank church
43:22
as chairman of the Select Committee on
43:24
Intelligence in 1975, investigated the
43:27
government's massive and highly
43:30
secretive National Security Agency. he
43:34
was alarmed at the ability of the state
43:36
to intrude into private lives, he wrote
43:39
when he finished his investigation. that
43:44
capacity at any time could be turned
43:46
around on the American people, and no
43:48
American would have any privacy left.
43:50
such is the capacity to monitor
43:53
everything, telephone conversations
43:56
telegrams it doesn't matter. there would
43:59
be no place to hide if this government
44:02
ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever
44:05
took charge in this country. the
44:08
technological capacity that the
44:10
intelligence community has given the
44:12
government, could enable it to impose
44:15
total tyranny. and there would be no way
44:18
to fight back, because the most careful
44:21
effort to combine together in resistance
44:24
to the government, no matter how
44:26
privately it was done is within the
44:28
reach of the government to know. when
44:31
senator church made this statement the
44:33
NSA was not authorized to spy on
44:36
American citizens. today it is in his
44:42
book the great transformation written in
44:44
1944, Karl Polanyi laid out the
44:48
devastating consequences the depressions
44:52
Wars and totalitarianism that grow out
44:55
of a so-called self-regulated free
44:58
market. he grasped that fascism like
45:02
socialism was rooted in a market society
45:05
that refused to function. he warned that
45:09
a financial system always devolved
45:11
without heavy government control into a
45:14
mafia capitalism and a mafia political
45:17
system. all traditional standards and
45:21
beliefs are shattered in a severe
45:23
economic crisis, the moral order is
45:26
turned upside down, the honest and
45:29
industrious are wiped out while the
45:32
gangsters profit ears and speculators
45:35
walk away with millions. a
45:39
self-regulating market inevitably turns
45:41
human beings and the natural environment
45:44
into commodities. a situation that
45:47
ensures the destruction of both society
45:51
in the natural world the free markets
45:54
assumption that nature and human beings
45:56
are objects
45:57
whose worth is determined by the market.
46:00
allows each to be exploited for profit
46:03
until exhaustion or collapse. a society
46:07
that no longer recognizes that nature
46:10
and human life have a sacred dimension.
46:13
an intrinsic value beyond monetary value,
46:17
commits collective suicide. such
46:21
societies cannibalize themselves until
46:24
they die. we face an environmental
46:29
meltdown that is linked to our economic
46:32
meltdown .polar ice caps are melting ,sea
46:37
levels are rising the planet is warming
46:39
at an alarming rate droughts are
46:42
destroying croplands .Russia's northern
46:45
coastline has begun producing huge
46:48
quantities of toxic methane gas.
46:51
scientists with the International
46:53
Siberian shelf study, described what they
46:56
saw along the coastline recently as
46:58
methane chimneys. reaching from the sea
47:02
floor to the ocean surface, methane
47:06
locked in the permafrost of the Arctic
47:09
land masses, is being released at an
47:12
alarming rate as average arctic
47:14
temperatures rise, methane is a
47:17
greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful
47:20
than carbon dioxide. the release of
47:23
millions of tons of it will
47:25
significantly accelerate the rate of
47:27
global warming. the continued release of
47:31
large quantities of methane, some
47:34
scientists have warned could actually
47:36
asphyxiate the human species. but even in
47:40
the face of this crisis, the oil and gas
47:43
industry along with the coal industry,
47:45
have blunted any serious environmental
47:48
reform. prophet comes before the urgent
47:52
task to save the ecosystem on which
47:55
human life depends. our working class
47:58
which is desperately borrowed money to
48:01
stay afloat his real wages have dropped,
48:03
now face years maybe decades of stagnant
48:07
or declining incomes without access to
48:10
new credit.
48:11
the National Treasury is being drained
48:13
on behalf of speculative commercial
48:16
interests, the government the only
48:19
institution citizens have that is big
48:22
enough and powerful enough to protect
48:24
its rights, is becoming weaker more
48:27
anemic. and increasingly unable to help
48:30
the mass of Americans who are embarking
48:33
on a period of profound deprivation.
48:37
we have been borrowing at the rate of
48:39
more than two billion dollars a day over
48:41
the last ten years. and at some point, it
48:45
has to end the moment China the oil-rich
48:49
states and other international festers
48:52
investors stop buying Treasury bonds and
48:55
walk away from the dollar, which now
48:57
appears to be under way.
48:58
we will have no choice but to allow the
49:02
Federal Reserve to buy Treasury bonds in
49:05
essence printing money and at that point
49:07
our currency will become junk. inflation
49:11
will rock it upward and we will become
49:13
vimar Germany. a furious and sustained
49:17
backlash by a betrayed and angry
49:19
populace, one unprepared emotionally
49:22
intellectually and psychologically for
49:25
collapse, will sweep aside the Democrats
49:28
and most of the Republicans. it was the
49:31
economic collapse in Yugoslavia that
49:34
gaiba
49:35
gave us slobodan milosevic. it was the
49:38
vie Mar Republic that vomited up Adolf
49:41
Hitler and it was the breakdown in
49:43
Czarist Russia that opened the door for
49:45
Lenin and the Bolsheviks. a Kabul of
49:49
proto-fascist misfits from Christian
49:52
demagogues to loudmouth talk-show hosts,
49:55
who we naively dismiss as buffoons will
49:59
find a following with promises of
50:01
revenge and moral renewal. there are
50:05
powerful corporate entities, fearful of
50:08
losing their influence and wealth
50:09
arrayed against us. these anti-democratic
50:13
forces which will make an alliance with
50:16
the radical Christian Right and other
50:18
extremists. will use fea chaos a hatred
50:23
for the ruling elites
50:25
the specter of left-wing descent and
50:26
terrorism to impose draconian controls
50:29
to extinguish our democracy .and while
50:33
they do it they will be waving the
50:35
American flag chatting patriotic slogans
50:38
promising law and order and clutching
50:41
the Christian cross. totalitarianism
50:44
George Orwell pointed out is not so much
50:47
an age of faith but an age of
50:49
schizophrenia. a society becomes
50:53
totalitarian when its structure becomes
50:56
flagrantly artificial Orwell warned, that
51:00
is when its ruling class has lost its
51:03
function, but succeeds in clinging to
51:06
power by force or fraud, and force is
51:10
soon all our elites will have left, and
51:15
yet, mass culture assures us, even in the
51:20
midst of catastrophe, that if we close
51:24
our eyes, if we visualize what we want ,if
51:27
we have faith in ourselves, if we tell
51:31
God that we believe in miracles .if we
51:34
tap into our inner strength. if we grasp
51:37
that we are truly exceptional. if we
51:41
focus on happiness, our lives will be
51:44
harmonious and complete. this cultural
51:48
retreat into illusion, whether peddled by
51:52
positive psychologists Hollywood or
51:55
Christian preachers is a form of magical
51:59
thinking.
52:00
it turns worthless mortgages and debt
52:03
into wealth.
52:05
it turns the destruction of our
52:07
manufacturing base into an opportunity
52:10
for growth. it turns a Leah nation and
52:13
anxiety into a cheerful conformity. it
52:17
turns a nation that wages illegal Wars
52:21
and administers offshore penal colonies
52:24
where it openly practices torture into
52:28
the greatest democracy on earth. it is
52:31
time to fight back against corporate
52:35
culture, in small and large ways.
52:38
coalitions of environmental anti-nuclear
52:42
anti-capitalist sustainable agriculture
52:45
and anti-globalization forces have
52:48
coalesced in Europe to form and support
52:51
socialist parties. this has yet to happen
52:54
in the United States the left never
52:57
rallied in significant numbers behind
52:59
Cynthia McKinney
53:00
or Ralph Nader. and this was our mistake,
53:03
in picking the lesser of two evils,
53:06
he threw its lot in with a Democratic
53:08
Party that again has proven that it
53:11
backs our Imperial Wars, empowers the
53:14
national security state does the bidding
53:17
of corporations and ignores the needs of
53:20
citizens. if Obama does not end the
53:24
flagrant theft of taxpayer dollars by
53:27
corporations and the disgraceful
53:29
abandonment of our working class
53:31
especially as foreclosures and
53:34
unemployment mount . many in the country
53:37
will turn in desperation to the far
53:39
right embodied by groups such as
53:42
Christian radicals. the failure by
53:45
progressives to offer a democratic
53:48
socialist alternative the only
53:51
alternative remaining that can save our
53:53
open society to openly make war on
53:56
corporate power to continue to back the
53:59
Democratic Party will mean there will be
54:02
in the eyes of many embittered and
54:04
struggling working and middle-class
54:06
Americans no alternative but a perverted
54:09
Christian fascism. I spent two years
54:13
traveling the country to write a book on
54:15
the Christian Right. called American
54:18
fascists the Christian Right in the war
54:20
on America I visited former
54:23
manufacturing towns where from many the
54:25
end of the world is no longer an
54:27
abstraction.
54:28
they have lost hope, fear and instability
54:32
has plunged the working class into profound personal and economic despair and not
surprisingly into the arms of demagogues in charlatans of the radical Christian
Right.
54:47 who offer a belief in magic miracles and the fiction of a utopian Christian
nation.
54:52
and unless we rapidly Rhian franchise these dispossessed workers back into the
economy, unless we give them hope, our democracy is doomed. democracies as writers
as ancient as Plutarch and Thucydides understood, cannot be sustained in oligarchic
states.
55:19 we forgot that social reform, never comes from accommodating the power
structure, but from frightening it.
55:28 the Liberty Party which fought slavery, the suffragists who battled for
women's rights. the labor movement and the civil rights movement knew that the
question was not how do we get good people to rule. most of those attracted to
power are at best mediocrities and often venal. but how do we limit the damage the
powerful do to us, these mass movements were the real engines for social reform the
correctives to our democracy and the true protectors of the rights of citizens we
must begin to opt out of the mainstream. we must rebuild socialism as a viable
political force. we must no longer be content with the crumbs tossed to us in the
vain hope that we can influence the power elite from the inside. we must become as
militant as those who are seeking our enslavement. if we remain passive, we will
soon be engulfed by a ruthless totalitarian capitalism. if we remain passive as we
undergo the largest transference of
56:43
wealth upwards in American history, we
56:46
will become serfs. if we fight back, we
56:50
have a chance. the saturation coverage of
56:55
Jackson's death was one of many examples
56:59
of our collective flight into illusion
57:02
it deflected the moral questions
57:06
arising from mounting social injustice.
57:09
growing inequalities failing imperial
57:12
wars economic collapse and political
57:16
corruption. as we sink into an economic
57:21
and political morass as we barrel
57:24
towards a crisis that will create more
57:26
misery than the Great Depression we
57:29
remain controlled manipulated and
57:32
distracted by the celluloid shadows on
57:35
the wall of Plato's cave the fantasy of
57:40
celebrity culture is not designed simply
57:44
to entertain it is designed to drain us
57:48
emotionally confuse us about our
57:51
identity blame ourselves for our
57:55
predicament conditioned us to chase
57:58
illusions of impossible Fame and
58:00
happiness and keep us from fighting back
58:04
and in the end that is all the Jackson
58:09
coverage was really about another tawdry
58:12
and tasteless spectacle to divert a
58:17
dying culture from the baying wolf at
58:20
the gate thank
58:33
seventy years ago at about the same time
58:35
as that quotation you gave us from
58:37
Roosevelt warning us about corporate
58:40
culture and non regulation a Sinclair
58:42
Lewis the novelist wrote a relatively
58:45
unknown piece called it can't happen
58:46
here yep I see you nodding already but
58:49
he can my question actually based in
58:52
part upon that work of fiction is this
58:56
evening we are privileged to hear not
58:58
only an indictment but a small message
59:00
of hope to inform our seyh collective
59:04
understanding but given the corporate
59:07
culture and given particularly the pop
59:09
media how does one get past that if at
59:13
all that is to say the most popular
59:16
television shows on cable this week at
59:18
least on Mondays times were a world
59:21
wrestling followed by Sponge Bob
59:23
Squarepants and of course there's always
59:27
sports what are the options within the
59:30
media per se not all of us reat Ruth dig
59:32
to get past that continuing illusion
59:35
that all was right with the world and
59:37
that it can't happen here well you know
59:40
I opened the book with professional
59:41
wrestling and found it a fascinating
59:49
lens to describe the narratives that
59:54
make sense within popular culture my
59:59
grandfather used to watch wrestling
60:03
religiously once a week when the
60:09
narratives within professional wrestling
60:11
were built around racism xenophobia they
60:15
were always battling somebody named the
60:17
Russian bear or the iron shake or you
60:21
know the the the person you know who
60:24
embodied American values always was sort
60:26
of blond and blue-eyed and and that
60:30
narratives gone now it's all about
60:33
personal disintegration infidelities
60:35
sibling rivalries physical abuse nobody
60:41
there is no good or evil no delineation
60:44
between good or evil everybody cheats
60:46
soon as the referee turns their back and
60:50
I attended of one of these professional
60:54
wrestling bouts in Madison Square Garden
60:56
is completely sold out
60:57
mostly working-class mostly white and
61:02
these got some of these guys are huge I
61:04
mean upwards of 500 pounds they're just
61:06
massive and they played out the
61:10
fantasies of revenge that in real life
61:13
these people don't have but the
61:16
narratives were stunning stunningly
61:19
reflective of what's happening in the
61:22
country at large there was a whole
61:25
narrative going that night around a
61:27
wrestler his name is Shawn Michaels is
61:30
his wrestling name is the Heartbreak Kid
61:32
who had been wiped out lost his 401 K
61:36
throne foreclosed from his house and was
61:39
now within the grip of evil capitalists
61:43
named JB are you wrestling fans oh and
61:48
there was there's another long rivalry
61:52
between a guy who supposedly was a
61:55
prison guard in Georgia and a former
61:57
prisoner who he abused physically with
61:59
in prison who enters the ring in an
62:01
orange jumpsuit and has post-traumatic
62:03
stress disorder but suddenly you begin
62:07
to see within these narratives that
62:10
personal disintegration that is ripped
62:14
apart whole communities you rip apart
62:18
communities physically and if you been
62:21
in Youngstown or you know innumerable
62:23
I've just spent over a week in Camden
62:26
New Jersey for Harper's Magazine because
62:28
per capita is the poorest city in
62:30
America and when you just destroy the
62:34
physical possibility of community then
62:36
you destroy the emotional possibility of
62:39
community and family and it's not coming
62:42
back
62:44
how do we you have to build walls the
62:49
popular culture is so intrusive that you
62:52
have to physically try and wall it out I
62:55
learned this in Yugoslavia where the
62:58
first thing and you know the war on you
63:00
slavi was not caused by ancient ethnic
63:02
hatreds was caused by the economic
63:05
collapse of Yugoslavia 25,000 percent
63:08
inflation again you know money and paper
63:11
bags and the first thing the nationalist
63:17
parties did whether it was Franjo
63:19
Tudjman us was take over the airwaves
63:21
hey they bombarded you like fox news day
63:23
in and day out so that you would even
63:26
question yugoslavs who had great
63:28
disquiet over what was happening within
63:31
their own country and yet they spoke in
63:34
the perverted cliches and jargon by
63:37
which they were handed its even if you
63:40
don't agree with the war on terror as
63:42
soon as you use the phrase the war on
63:44
terror you're limited in terms of your
63:48
possibilities of self-expression of
63:51
creating another narrative and I mean
63:55
that's why I don't own a television and
63:58
I work as hard as I can to distance
64:03
myself from the can of popular culture
64:06
so that I can speak in my own language
64:09
not the one they give me and that
64:13
requires reading I mean what is most
64:16
frightening about American society is
64:18
that we are shifting from a print-based
64:20
culture to an image-based culture and we
64:26
are confusing how we are made to feel
64:29
with knowledge confusing propaganda with
64:34
ideology in totalitarian societies or
64:37
image-based societies built around image
64:40
and spectacle so I think consciously
64:44
shutting out the poison is a is a really
64:47
important first step this is not
64:51
intended at all as a hostile question
64:52
because I'm in great simple I've had
64:54
many so that's ok no no it's really not
64:56
I mean I know you're not afraid of it
64:57
but I just want to make that clear from
64:59
my own point of view because I'm really
65:02
in great sympathy with your argument not
65:05
just this argument of argument you've
65:06
made in your other books as well but my
65:08
question is just what evidence or
65:11
arguments can you give us
65:13
to convince us that your prescription
65:17
for some kind of escape from this
65:20
horrible scenario for the future is less
65:23
utopian than the right-wing scenarios
65:26
which are based on emotion and hope and
65:28
fears I'm just you know
65:31
well because utopianism is a non reality
65:34
based belief system that's how we got
65:36
into Iraq having spent seven years in
65:39
the Middle East being an Arabic speaker
65:41
many many months of my life in Iraq the
65:44
idea that we would occupy Iraq and be
65:49
greeted as liberators that democracy
65:52
would be implanted in Baghdad and
65:53
emanate outwards across the Middle East
65:55
that the oil revenues would pay for all
65:58
the reconstruction was utopian I use the
66:01
word utopian the way Thomas More coined
66:03
it in 1516 which means no place it
66:07
doesn't exist you've probably never
66:10
thought of Dick Cheney as utopian but he
66:13
is and the culture of illusion the
66:17
Empire of illusion is failing to
66:21
recognize the inevitable economic
66:28
decline it's not just that we can't pay
66:30
for the lifestyles that we are
66:33
maintaining internally we can't pay for
66:35
Empire I think by 2010 the federal
66:40
government will have to pay 92 billion
66:42
dollars a week to service the debt we're
66:46
finished and if you look in the Twilight
66:50
period of any Empire Roman read Cicero
66:55
austro-hungarian read Joseph Roth
66:57
Ottoman Empire people fall or even the
67:01
Egyptian Empire for some reason people
67:04
fall into this collective state of self
67:07
delusion where they are utterly unable
67:11
to see the walls literally collapsing
67:13
around them and and believe in these
67:16
fantasies of a glorious tomorrow I mean
67:18
the pyramids were built to immortalize
67:21
for eternity the Pharaohs
67:26
at the very moment that the Egyptian
67:27
Empire disintegrated I mean it's a kind
67:29
of metaphor that's why the New York
67:31
Times goes out and buys a six hundred
67:34
million dollar office building at the
67:37
moment it dies there is a it's a kind of
67:42
psychological I think things are so grim
67:45
that there becomes a retreat into
67:47
illusion and what use illusion it's
67:50
really a state of eternal childishness
67:53
it's it allow it's in kind of infantile
67:57
izing of a society and but the danger is
68:01
that as that the gap or the chasm opens
68:04
up between the illusion and reality
68:09
eventually it becomes impossible when
68:12
you're being foreclosed from your home
68:14
when your unemployment insurance runs
68:16
out when you are bankrupt because of
68:19
medical bills it becomes impossible to
68:21
ignore the reality but if you're not
68:24
prepared for it then you react as
68:26
children which is to look for a savior a
68:29
demagogue to save you from these in a
68:33
split inexplicable forces that you're
68:38
not prepared for intellectually
68:40
emotionally or psychologically to
68:42
confront and that's the danger hope you
68:45
know I covered Wars for 20 years we
68:47
didn't use the word pessimist or
68:48
optimist we took very sober readings of
68:51
which weapons systems were at the end of
68:53
that road and what the capacity were of
68:55
those weapon systems to do us harm and
68:58
people and I knew them or correspondence
69:00
that had you know fantasies about
69:02
immortality usually didn't live very
69:04
long I've literally had friend knew a
69:07
guy in Sarajevo who painted on the spray
69:10
painted on the side of his car he did
69:12
not have an armored I had an armored
69:13
Savior bullets I'm immortal
69:15
and he used to make a mad dash across
69:19
the tarmac separating the airport tarmac
69:26
separating the besieged city from the
69:29
next Croatian town to buy cigars I mean
69:32
it was a foolish buy the cigars come
69:34
back smoking the cigars and of course
69:36
the Serb snipers would shoot at him he
69:38
is now today a
69:41
that that that a sober reading of
69:44
reality is the best possibility for
69:47
survival and hope and if we continue
69:50
within a state of illusion then hope
69:54
becomes impossible because every
69:56
decision we make is not reality based
69:58
and you can see it with the financial
70:02
disfiguration of the country you know
70:06
the theory behind pumping this kind of
70:08
liquidity into the market is that the
70:11
banks and and the and the corporations
70:14
will then when the money runs out next
70:16
year
70:17
put the liquidity into the market well
70:19
it's very clear that they're doing what
70:21
all good capitalists would do with our
70:25
money which is hanging on to it and
70:27
we're screwed that's and that is an
70:31
example of an illusion
70:37
well there is no work there is no
70:39
working class though I didn't I don't
70:41
have a belief in a working class
70:42
movement because we've destroyed our
70:44
working class and and you know
70:48
traditionally social movements have been
70:50
built around a working class but now we
70:53
have a new paradigm where nobody has any
70:55
jobs I mean the working class are people
70:57
who are working twenty eight hours a
70:59
week in Walmart and you know as soon as
71:02
they raise the slightest issue of
71:07
dissonance with their supervisor Walmart
71:09
sends their SWAT teams in by jet to make
71:13
sure they and all the people they've
71:15
contaminated in the store don't have a
71:16
job I don't know how we're going to
71:20
build it because it is it's a paradigm
71:22
that we've not seen before it is it is a
71:25
paradigm that it's inevitable result is
71:28
a form of neo feudalism and we're
71:30
already very far down that road so we
71:34
have time for a couple more questions
71:35
and hi thanks a lot for your work I had
71:41
some question I had a question mainly
71:42
around what your vision of socialism is
71:47
that you are say you know that's a good
71:50
question how would
71:52
suggest one gets there but I also wanted
71:55
to mention that I see the connection
71:57
between you know Wars of thing that
71:59
gives us me and the sort of illusionary
72:02
things that you're talking yeah now
72:04
which builds on that that same need yeah
72:09
anyway I think you're right well I gave
72:11
a talk at the University of Winnipeg a
72:15
few weeks ago and thought as usual that
72:18
I was delivering incendiary and radical
72:22
message and there was this grim-faced
72:25
group of economics professors
72:27
after I finished who were there yeah
72:30
whole economics department was there one
72:31
of them stood up and said we want to
72:33
make it clear to everyone in this room
72:35
that you are nothing but a radical Ken's
72:37
Ian the economics department at the
72:40
University of Winnipeg is uniformly
72:42
Marxist that's Canada for you yeah when
72:50
I talk about socialism I am a radical
72:52
Kensi and I talk about Swedish socialism
72:55
I've lived in France I've lived in
72:56
Europe I'm talking about universal
72:58
health care I'm talking about full
72:59
employment I'm not talking about I'm not
73:01
a Marxist I come out of Hana arrant who
73:04
was a socialist a democratic European
73:07
socialist Karl Popper I mean these are
73:09
the Reinhold Niebuhr these are the great
73:12
foundational moral philosophers for me
73:17
Upton Sinclair I mean someone mentioned
73:20
he was a socialist I mean there was a
73:21
powerful socialist movement in this
73:23
country but Woodrow Wilson used the
73:27
Sedition in the Espionage Act and to
73:30
essentially destroy it to strenght to
73:32
destroy the age of the muckrakers and
73:34
then after the war with that very swift
73:36
transition from the hated hunt to the to
73:39
the Red Scare and it had the twin
73:43
purpose of promoting war and destroying
73:46
progressive social movements and I think
73:48
we have to begin to reclaim those
73:51
movements because socialism for me is
73:54
about the common good it's about not
73:56
throwing your mentally ill on heating
73:58
grates in the street it's about not
74:01
allowing children in your country to go
74:04
to bed hungry
74:06
it's about making sure that every
74:08
American no matter how poor has access
74:10
to decent decent medical care a public
74:14
education the chance to go to university
74:17
I mean my sons at Colgate University
74:20
cost fifty one thousand dollars a year
74:22
can you imagine if they tried that in
74:24
France the French University students
74:28
would shut the country down we're just
74:31
you know we're and these kids are
74:33
borrowing staggering sums of money and
74:35
they're not going to get the jobs to
74:37
repay it and they're probably some in
74:40
this room and this one more question um
74:45
last summer I read a book by Marion
74:48
Wolfe titled
74:50
a Proust in the squid where she
74:53
describes what happens to a child that
74:55
you can learn how to read you know with
74:58
dyslexia and a whole host of learning
75:00
disabilities and in that book there's a
75:02
little passage where she talks about
75:05
Socrates and how Socrates you know came
75:09
from this oral tradition and he was you
75:12
know railing against you know books and
75:15
you know talking about how books are
75:18
gonna come to impoverish the the new
75:21
culture you know because he he belonged
75:23
to this oral tradition and he used to
75:25
build you know think well you know you
75:27
memorize things and and and your
75:29
experience with human beings is richer
75:31
whereas you know you read a book and
75:33
there's no there's no feedback um now I
75:37
don't know anybody would argue that
75:39
books have not been good for humanity
75:41
for the past twenty five hundred years I
75:43
don't not sure that Socrates could have
75:45
envisioned you know the library at
75:48
Alexandria and maybe the 42nd Street
75:51
library here and and you know uh but my
75:54
question is we're moving you know like
75:57
you say from a print-based a literate
76:01
society to an image-based society and
76:04
I'm wondering you know whether you know
76:06
we're moving from society that's that's
76:09
you know print-based to an electronic
76:12
society and where is this electronic
76:14
thing going you know I mean I look at
76:17
the you know the north
76:19
and and and in the Kindle and now you
76:22
have the part you know the power to
76:23
carry you know sixty books don't think
76:26
you have time to read sixty books but
76:27
you have the power to carry it and I'm
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just wondering if you can make a comment
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as to you know where where Socrates was
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criticizing books and where we are now
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criticizing this electronic image based
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society
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Socrates fear and Socrates understood in
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the same way that Jesus understood and
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st. Francis understood that when moral
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philosophy becomes written down when it
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is written down in the words of Steiner
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it freezes speech it becomes a form of
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Orthodoxy and that's what terrified
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Socrates that that dialogue that that
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struggle for the moral life was too
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ambiguous to ever be codified and of
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course Socrates greatest disciple Plato
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was a fascist so he was correctly
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talking about the danger of taking moral
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philosophy which is a form of
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questioning and and writing it down so
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that it became a kind of orthodoxy in
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terms of the Internet you don't read on
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the Internet
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anybody who's ever tried to read a five
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or ten thousand word piece on the
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internet if they can do it you print it
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out the internet is and and you know
78:12
even if you look at the home page of the
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New York Times its movement movement
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strobe light flashing when I first came
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back from overseas to New York one of
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the hardest things to adjust to was how
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every all images around me moved
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and so two three times a week I
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retreated into the Metropolitan Museum
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of Art because I could stand and reflect
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on something that didn't move and you
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look at my son's generation who are
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texting and twittering and listening to
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music and it it has the capacity to
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destroy thought thought is done in
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solitude and silence and we live in a culture where we fear any kind of solitude
and we have created such powerful systems of technology and most of us are
hallucinating we are completely disconnected from the real from what's real we've
created a virtual reality that we mistake for the real and as somebody who covered
war one of the most frustrating things and this is true for veterans or anyone
who's come back is that the graphic depictions of violence Saving Private Ryan are
so powerful that people think they understand the reality of war so that those of
us who have been to war we can't compete against those images we can't compete
against the lie of those images because those images have made people feel as if
they have had an experience but they have been manipulated very skillfully by image
makers and turned in a particular direction most people who have been in combat one
of the reasons they have such a difficult time speaking about it and the army did a
study about combat veterans army psychologists that said that for soldiers and
Marines who had been in combat it was the emotional equivalent to being in a severe
car wreck where your best friend is killed that's what wars like and and I don't
even in probably live in Princeton I don't even go I don't have with like princeton
professors because i can't debate afghanistan i know what 155 howitzer shells do to
human bodies i know what iron fragmentation bombs from f-16s do i know how when a
small unit is pinned down a first lieutenant has the capacity to utterly obliterate
an entire village within a matter of my know all those realities and i can't convey
it under the absurd rubric that we're liberating the women of taliban as if once
you use the instrument of industrial violence there is such a thing as human rights
and when you talk about the intrusion or the power of pseudo events and images the
internet and handheld devices have become tools which if misused make it impossible
to think and cut us off from what's real and we have to be very very careful with
these technologies it's one of the reasons why I have sent all my kids including my
daughter who wasn't happy about it for seven weeks up on the allagash where there
was no computer no cell phone seven weeks sleeping on the ground portaging canoes
so at least she
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stopped because that's the real world
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that's the real world and that's the
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world that if we we don't stand up these
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corporations are literally going to kill
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thank you very much thank you