Posted by Bob Lord
Even those on the political left (not the ideological left) consider Chris Hedges to be on the fringe.
That's scary. It's scary because when those making sense are marginalized, the end is near. Here are the closing paragraphs in Hedges' column tody, Our Sinister Dual State:
Societies that once had democratic traditions, or periods when openness was possible, are often seduced into totalitarian systems because those who rule continue to pay outward fealty to the ideals, practices and forms of the old systems. This was true when the Emperor Augustus dismantled the Roman Republic. It was true when Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized control of the autonomous soviets and ruthlessly centralized power. It was true following the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi fascism. Thomas Paine described despotic government as a fungus growing out of a corrupt civil society. And this is what has happened to us.
No one who lives under constant surveillance, who is subject to detention anywhere at any time, whose conversations, messages, meetings, proclivities and habits are recorded, stored and analyzed, can be described as free. The relationship between the U.S. government and the U.S. citizen is now one of master and slave. Yet the prerogative state assures us that our rights are sacred, that it abides by the will of the people and the consent of the governed.
The last paragraph follows after the jump.
The defense of liberty, which Snowden exhibited when he cast his fortune, his safety and his life aside to inform the public of the forces arrayed against constitutional rights, entails grave risks in dual states. It demands personal sacrifice. Snowden has called us to this sacrifice. He has allowed us to see who we are and what we have become. He has given us a chance. He has also shown us the heavy cost of defiance. It is up to us to seize this chance and dismantle the prerogative state. This means removing from power those who stole our liberty and lied to us. It means refusing to naively trust in their promised reform—for reform will never come from those who are complicit in such crimes. It will come through Americans’ construction of mass movements and alternative centers of power that can mount sustained pressure. If we fail to sever these chains we will become, like many who did not rise up in time to save their civil societies, human chattel.
"No one who lives under constant surveillance, who is subject to detention anywhere at any time, whose conversations, messages, meetings, proclivities and habits are recorded, stored and analyzed, can be described as free. The relationship between the U.S. government and the U.S. citizen is now one of master and slave. Yet the prerogative state assures us that our rights are sacred, that it abides by the will of the people and the consent of the governed."
One of the most concise and powerful paragraphs that I have read, to date, pertaining to the current station of the U.S. citizenry.
Posted by: NidanGoju | February 17, 2014 at 11:30 AM
Hedges makes sense alright. But his writing is often too heavy for us to deal with.
Posted by: Arizona Eagletarian | February 17, 2014 at 03:21 PM
Snowden is a true modern day hero. Anyone know where we can send money to aid in his defense? Serously.
Posted by: Thucydides | February 17, 2014 at 04:08 PM
Dang, Dang, good to have you on board on this one.
Posted by: Bob Lord | February 17, 2014 at 04:16 PM