Death of the Liberal Class

Death of the Liberal Class is perhaps the most profound book I have read in this NEW century. Chris Hedges is an outstanding researcher and writer as well as analyst as he has demonstrated repeatedly in his previous books as well as in his war coverage for The New York Times. Death of the Liberal Class makes one think. Engages one. Lots of troubling observations but lots of evidence, fact, examples and sources to back up the author's observations and conclusions. I had trouble reading it. It really made me stop and think for a few hours, even in the middle of chapters. Sometimes at mid-page. As a "liberal" myself, I found the thesis to be quite troubling. The title, at first, prompted me to think it was going to be about the "death" of tactics and strategery of "the liberal class" to counter the Capitalist Lobbying and Campaign Contribution bribery/religious zealot extremist right wing. No. It is about HOW the "liberal class" has facilitated to exploitation and destruction of the "99 per cent" in exchange for mere money, influence, power, status and celebrity. The thesis is that the "liberal class" itself, rather than serving as opposition to Cartel Capitalism (my words) has rather "enabled" (greased the skids) for the "hostile takeover" (my words) of governments at every level by Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalism my words). The "Liberal Class" has been enticed into being mere gophers for the Center of Power on Wall Street with "liberal" and "democratic" window dressing to cover-up the continued totalitarian/authoritarian Cartel Capitalist exploitation of workers, consumers and what Occupy Wall Street calls "The 99 Per Cent". What we have seen with the gi-normous Big Wall Street Banks and the Financial Industry in general is that they have been "betting" against their own investors as well as their own country by turning the stock market into a casino extraction of wealth from the 99 per cent. The Big Banksters were bailed out by the Federal Reserve to the tune of $26 Trillion (amount from Keith Olbermann's program Countdown on CURRENT TV/Bloomberg) and then the Big Banks did NOT lend it out to ***stimulate*** the economy and create jobs. The Big Banksters also made criminally fraudulent mortgage loans to people THEY KNEW couldn't afford the monthlies and would default, and then SOLD the tainted mortgages to their OWN investors while kicking people out of their homes by foreclosing on mortgages that the Big Banks KNEW were fraudulent and unstable from the very robo-signing beginning. Recently, that the Criminally Negligent Big Banksters tried and failed (the "market" revolted via "Occupy") to impose a $5 monthly fee for use of debit cards when the Banksters not only did NOT have to spend any money or labor on the process. PLUS, they were already saving millions and billions by getting rid of human tellers and using ATMs...and using DEBIT CARDS! (ATMs and Debit Card devices don't require salaries, health and pension benefits, and the like let alone all-night stands by check-separator human employee working deep in the vault every single day. My observation: the "job creators" have not been creating jobs. The Big Banks have used OPM "Other People's Money" to accumulate more wealth and power for themselves and "The One Percent" while forcing so-called "austerity" measures on the American people by cutting federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and environmental regulation and demanding that the weak regulations and weak regulators which exist now be eliminated. The "Liberal Class" has reduced itself to being gophers for "The One Percent". One ends the book by seeing that Bush/Cheney/Delay/Rumsfeld/Rove is NOT the problem. The problem is actually the so-called "Liberal Class" which has basically been lured by -- yes, wealth, power, and celebrity -- to shed their "liberal souls" and become mouthpieces for the Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalists on Wall Street. (Again my words, not his.) As I view the economic and political landscape in the era of "Occupy Wall Street" I can see clear examples of the abject failure of "the liberal class". Obama is one; even more so are his two Chiefs of Staff: Rahm Emmanuel and Bill Daley, the first a Capitalist gopher suck-up wannabe and the second a Cartel Capitalist who also managed to lose the 2000 election for Al Gore. My own "liberal" Democratic Congressman, for instance, not only voted FOR the damned debt deal (D3) in August 2011, he SPOKE on the floor of the House in favor of it! With "friends" like these, who needs Nixon? Not only that, but I have known this gentleman since he first ran for office in 1973 yet I have sent him at least 100 snail- and emails just this year alone and he has not bothered to personally reply to a single one. The feedback/accountability loop with We The People has been broken and then attached to the Goldman-Sachses of the world. What was really troubling about the book was thinking about my whether at any given point I really was "Liberal" or was I really an enabler for concentrated authoritarian wealth and power on Wall Street? I concluded that many times I had been, especially by succumbing to the "lesser of two evils" Democratic Campaigns. ("Fear Michele Bachmann, etc.). I thought I had voted FOR someone for President in 2008 but that guy never showed up. I will never again be scared into voting for a Democrat because I fear the alternative. The Democrat will have to stand for liberal principle and "earn" my vote day by day. Plus, I want to vote FOR something and not AGAINST something or someone. A classic example of Hedge's "Death of the Liberal Class" thesis is among the "talking heads" pundits and hosts on television. For instance, the sell-out by MSNBC in firing Cenk Uygar of The Young Turks (now on CURRENT TV) because -- the Cartel Capitalist broadcast executive said-- that Uygar was not an "insider". After firing Phil Donahue and Keith Olbermann, MSNBC in reality appears to be quite timid despite the presence of Dylan Ratigan, Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow. The New York Times, a liberal establishment institution, is one of the Cartel Capitalist-owned news, media and entertainment culture industry institutions -- like the networks, local dailies, and local TV stations. The NYT offers "news" but what they DON'T tell you is often more important than what they DO tell you. Either that, or in The Times, the REAL news -- the real news hook or lead or headline -- is often buried in paragraph 13 or 18, especially regarding "business" news. Most of it, like the networks, dailies, local TV wastelands, is shallow and superficial. Moreover, Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalist advertising and marketing is designed to manipulate one's raw emotion -- especially fear -- to get you to buy stuff they don't NEED with money they don't HAVE! "Are you afraid you are not cool" the ads manipulate, "then BUY this product that you DON'T need and pay for it with money you don't HAVE and you will be Real Cool!" Or you'll get the girl. Or boy. Or won't feel in secure or fearful anymore. And so on... "Death of the Liberal Class" is a quite important book. I recommend it highly.

You can search YouTube for Hedges' many appearances. Hedges maintains that the age of Liberalism (we would call it Progressivism today) flourished in the late 18th and early 20th centuries, but did not last long past World War Two; and that everything since then has been pandering to the corporate elite. I can’t say that I disagree with him. When he says that the Left has punked out (my choice of words, not his) and become lapdogs of the establishment, I can’t say that I disagree with him there either. His rant against Permanent War is absolutely brilliant (and it includes so many other topics). Hedges has a great respect for Noam Chomsky, and so do I. The portrait of war profiteering that is painted in this chapter is just horrendous. He moves on to discuss the creation (or growth) of government Propaganda during World War One. I have to admit I didn’t know it was this bad, or this all-pervasive. It has never ended, and has only gotten worse. He also discusses how radical, issue-driven theater had to kowtow to the government and big donors. Sad! ... The tale of all the blacklisted writers and performers is equally sad. I had not previously realized the extent of this tragedy; and he also covers how radical writers and artists were disenfranchised by the government and the moneyed classes. He devotes several pages to the cover-up of the murder of Palestinians by Israeli forces. Such atrocities must not be forgotten! When he moves on to a discussion of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X – well, let’s just say that the writing gets better and batter. Sometimes I worry that I don’t fully understand Hedges’ complaints, but that’s my fault, not his. I may be slow on the uptake, but I finally understand Hedges’ definition of “Liberal”. It is someone who cares, and it is someone who does something about it! This book is highly recommended!

Prepare yourself for a plain and simple indictment of the "unfettered and unregulated" world of capitalism -- this is the crux of Hedges' book. Indeed, he makes a clear and undeniable case that the liberal class has failed to support those at the bottom. Specifically, he holds the universities, religious institutions, labor unions, the press, and yes -- the democratic party, accountable for this epic fail. Hedges details the great dissolve of this political shift with ample excerpts from interviews and other cited texts; however, this author seems to focus more on what the liberal class failed to do at various times -- and not what the corporate powers were specifically responsible for in terms of oppressing the American people. Understand that he makes a compelling case as to why we have over a record 40 million Americans in poverty, and why we have endless war, and why we have the deterioration of civil liberties -- but the connections seem to be linked to a vague and nebulous blob otherwise known as "capitalism" or "corporatism". I would rather know the specific companies that have abused their powers: those that have lobbied against the First Amendment; those that have fictitiously placated to the fears of the American public thereby fulfilling the aims of the military industrial complex; those that have poisoned the American people in hopes of getting the entire population hooked on pharmaceutical drugs. I know some of the companies that I may point the finger at. But give me the evidence so that I may do so with conviction. To indict the entire composite of our free market system is reckless as it is futile. I agree with Hedges that there is evil among our economic institutions, but we can't throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water. There are noble and altruistic corporations who haven't fallen prey to the ravenous greed that we have seen in recent years. Hedges, while deserving of any concerned American's ear as to the fate of our country and the safety of our civil liberties, falls short as to whom we may blame. I might protest by letter, or in the streets, if only I knew who to direct my anger at. Here's where the legislative body needs to kick in. Hedges could be more proactive in this manner -- please tell me who is responsible for the manipulative qualitative easing bailout funds? Who is responsible for the eradication of habeus corpus? Who is responsible for the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Call me short-sighted and shallow, but I do have a demanding job and family, and so your filtering of the culpable would make my life easier. Set up some form-petitioning online and I will gladly sign. I have anger, like many Americans. But I lack the time and the resources to investigate who to direct my anger toward. This is where Chris Hedges may proceed in a more proactive and investigative manner. I hear him, and his angst at the establishment for disempowering the poor, the victimized, the underprivileged, and the "unconsciously" enslaved. Let's call out those institutions and corporate entities who directly participate in human rights abuse, or environmental terrorism, or predatory lending. Tell me who to do business with and who to avoid. See? -- there's a new book in the making. Another criticism -- this book by Chris Hedges makes me feel as if I am immoral, worthless, and meaningless -- for not taking to the streets in opposition of the current political paradigm. People should not feel guilty in not doing enough for this great cause, but rather, should feel encouraged for doing something. With a family, I can't afford to get arrested in the way that he did before the White House. How may I best approach the art of "civil disobedience" without putting my family in jeopardy? My words may seem condescending, but there are millions like me. Show us the way, so that we may be able to make a true, peaceful, and meaningful difference. Nevertheless, this book is a worthwhile and necessary read. It will change the way you look at politics and the disenfranchised status quo. Allow it to conjure up thoughts and predictions of what our country may become. And so the vision, given Hedges' insightful and bleak outlook, may not be so promising if we chose to do nothing.

Beware Reading this work by Chris Hedges is like having a dear, close, trusted even admired friend who seems so sad and you say "Tell me what is troubling you." You may wish you had not posed the question, for your world view will never be as before. Hedges contrast Truth and Justice against Power and Influence and shows the two camps do not coexist. You will be asked to choose a side and live and work there. You may not wish to make that choice. If so, do not read this book, it's a powerful piece. "... liberal principles were egregiously betrayed to protect careers, to preserve access to the powerful. Liberals conceded too much to the power elite. "The tragedy of the liberal class and the institutions it controls is that it succumbed to opportunism and finally to fear. It abrogated its moral role. It did not defy corporate abuse when it had the chance. It exiled those within its ranks who did. And the defanging of the liberal class not only removed all barriers to neofeudalism and corporate abuse but also ensured that the liberal class will, in its turn, be swept aside." `The future is not bright' is a growing awareness that has its roots in many sectors of society today, and while causes mount in abundance saviors may be a long time in coming. Down into the dark tunnel and hope light will appear in time. OK, but it is a great work and puts words and reasons behind the story of our times. Backing up at least to Woodrow Wilson's, where others might have chosen a more recent period as a turning point, the author unraveled a sad tale. Chris Hedges does mark the election of "Reagan, the corporate pitchman" as a point for acceleration into the following decades of corporate control of all branches of society; media, journalism, academia, government, religion and even art. Perhaps the bright light is that Hedges lays one root cause as being the liberal classes' acceptance of the permanent war establishment and its propaganda successes from the Wilson era on. A time could come when that is finally viewed as too foolish to support any longer. Let's hope -- not likely is it? Suffer if you must, but do not miss this seminal work from the Conscience of Our Time Chris Hedges. He is a master at answering the many requests for "why", Verifiable facts.

Chris Hedges is the most honest commentator on the American scene. In the age of celebrity-driven fluff and worse he stands alone head and shoulders about the rest. Hedges makes bold predictions about the grim future. Based on his past track record we should all listen. For instance Hedges was so very right about what would happen in the Iraq war. His views even cost him his job. I'm not the only person to note that if Jesus ever actually showed up in America it would be our "Christians" who would shout him down -- if, that is, he talked about peace and the horror of an imperial nation addicted to war. "Blessed are the peacemakers"? No thanks! If you ever want to know what it looks like when a mob in love with far right nationalism and on fire with a lust for war, violence and empire looks like confronting the truth of Peace, Love and Tolerance there is a stunning visual document on YouTube you need to see. And it has become more relevant with time because the prophecy in it all came true. In 2003 Chris Hedges the Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent and New York Times reporter gave a commencement address at Rockford College. He questioned America's war in Iraq and laid out a moving call to find love and camaraderie in peace not war. He was booed off the stage in this "liberal" arts college. His mike was cut twice and later police had to escort him off campus. His boss-- The New York Times -- reprimanded Hedges for standing up for peace because they had sold out and backed the war. He was more or less fired, though officially he resigned because he would not agree to shut up. America -- the new Rome, this fading empire -- has no room for truth tellers in the "mainstream." Believe me when I say that when this country slides into corporate sponsored decline (predicted by Hedges in his book) that this historic YouTube video of Hedges being verbally lynched by an American mob will be studied as a portent of a grim future by those who someday will ask: "What happened to American democracy?" Read Hedges' new book "Death of the Liberal Class" if you want to understand the failure of liberal institutions to protect the truth.

Probably Hedges' best book. It's a brief, yet thorough, analysis of the history of how we got here. Basically, the left talks the talk, but does the same as the right. In other words, Clinton gave us NAFTA. Neither party gives us universal healthcare and both parties vote for war. As a result, many people will, understandably but incorrectly, conclude that democracy doesn't work and some form of authoritarianism is the answer. Hedges predicted a Trumpian figure in this book which was published six years prior to the Trump presidency. And in a speech one year before this book was published, Hedges predicted a Trumpian figure. But anti-Trumpism is not the answer. The answer is specific policies like universal healthcare, no more wars, etc.

It's a dense book well worth the read. (I never knew that Albert Camus, nihilism, and the internet were related.) Actually, I shouldn't make light of the author and I apologize, but I would like to know where he is going with all this anger he's releasing. True, he was a 'corporate type' dispensing the 'corporate news' for the NYT, and not rocking the boat, And true, one day, he lost his innocence and woke up. Then, he got angry and wrote this book. Kubler-Ross speaks to this as her second stage of grief. But Chris, you've got to move on, hopefully to Ross's fifth and last step, acceptance. Otherwise, your anger will consume you. Still, Chris, welcome to this new level of human awareness you have just entered. Some of us woke up during the Vietnam war, when we realized that killing villagers was inhumane, unjust, and immoral. Still other later on in other wars - followed as you have done. As for the way forward: I propose it's not what you can make other people do, but what you can do yourself. Reduce your carbon footprint? Become a foodie? Take up some cause, of which there are at least a 100 good ones (the prison industrial complex, our various senseless wars, the destruction of our only environment, tobacco,... ) Boycott something? What? You should also listen to Bill Moyer's last broadcast. There, he reconciles his anger with hope for all humanity (It's available on iTunes as a podcast for free from corporate America).

Chris Hedges' wit has a devastating effect on his targets which are the injustices of modern societies, especially that of the United States. There is no other critic of our mores out there more unsparing in identifying our national sins. In this book he delivers what amounts to a coup de grace to any thought that liberals have anything more to offer for the healing our troubled society. He provides ample evidence of how liberals have walled themselves off from the experience of the sinking working class to the point that liberal utterances come across to workers as insulting gibberish. That is why so many working people rejected Hillary Clinton's run this year. I find it hard to believe that any self-identified liberal would continue using that label for his or herself after reading this book. To me the most effective chapter is the one entitled "Liberal Defectors" which surveys the contributions of liberals who morphed into radicals in order to awaken a sleeping society to its glaring failings. Of course Chris Hedges is himself a great example. His choices are Ralph Nader, Howard Zinn, Father Daniel Berrigan, Norman Finkelstein, I F Stone, and Martin Lurther King. Each of them were propelled by their fully operative moral and ethical sensibilities to take on an activist role in trying to awaken the sleeping masses, who were distracted by corporate, government, and educational propaganda into avoiding self-examination. For, in the end, the way out of the liberal cut de sac is through first alienation and then illumination, an essentially spiritual happening.

While copywritten in 2010 many of the chapters are prophetic and insightful into the current political climate. The book gives historical context and predictability to the decline of the Democratic party in the 2024 election. Chris hedge's encouragement to resist is always consistent albeit a lonely path to travel. A very worthwhile read as are all Chris Hedge's writings.

This book is superbly informed and gripping to read. Be sure to read the opening pages that are offered by Amazon.com, pages 1-5. It seems at first to be the account of just one sincere, dislocated American, but his case is not an isolated one. It profiles a growing legion of disaffected Americans who comprise a potentially explosive sector of the population. These people feel betrayed and angry because they've been plowed under by corporate greed and abandoned by the political parties who have forsaken them. The specifics of their lives differ, but they are united in being cut loose from a fair chance at a decent life. These people are boxed in without hope because of the decades-long abdication of principled actors and reformers in American political life. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Corporations have taken over and now the extent of the cancer is plain. The villians are liberals whose nature was to be co-opted by the system, the liberals who found it was a short journey from the anti-war demonstration to the grant application, the liberals who always sold out the American radicals when the going got tough. Now the liberals find themselves all but destroyed as a result of their collusion and co-optation. The beneficiaries of liberal default are the corporations who cannot see beyond their balance sheets and are destroying America. All the casualties are represented by the desperate, idealistic man in the first 5 pages of the book. We are not talking immigrants or minorities here, but loads of native-born caucasian Americans, some of whom are war veterans. They feel betrayed, perplexed and at the end of their tether. As Noam Chomsky says later in the book, these people who often appear on talk radio and say, "I'm a God-fearing, responsible citizen. I love my country. I've worked hard all my life. I'm not asking for a handout. I'm fed up with the unresponsiveness of political parties and finding no opportunities available. I'm angry and I've got a gun. I don't know what to do." The seeds for fascism and nihilism in America are here. The account is lucidly presented and scary. The steam boiler of chaos is being stoked by politicians who are in the pocket of corporations and the Americans who are excluded as a result. The corporations are either blind to this, or will find a way to use this tide of potential chaos for their own purposes. 98% of the book analyzes how this developed. It's an extended exposition of how corporate influence co-opted political responsibility. It is cliche-free, concise, fresh and brisk in its treatment. It is not a rehash of tired partisan diatribes. The final two chapters chart a way out. It's enormously ominous and significant.

Hope this book is read by US ruling class (but won't be), a class that wears the mantle of pretend liberalism and disgards just as quickly. Indeed, a class that has wrought such carnage in its endless, reckless persuit of war for profit and gross inequality in civil society the world over that a better ideological description would be neo-fascism. Chris Hedges offers readers an insightful analysis of an ideology much past its prime. A book worth reading.

Like the proverbial frog that finds himself in the pot of ever hotter water, we, too, have become oblivious to the increase in decadence and corruption in our daily lives. The decrease in the compassion for all others, the ever increasing gross materialism, the spread of narcissism throughout our culture and the holding on to the misnomer of "American exceptionalism" has engulfed us without us even being aware of the change. In a style of reporting that even Howard Zinn would approve of, Chris Hedges clearly lays out the road map of where we, as a passionate country, began and where we are now; a nation that looks down on the less fortunate as being less than human, a nation that treasures the 'sacred' words of Limbaugh and Beck, a nation that professes its Christianity in every poll but behave as if the Crusades have never ended, a nation that has taken the concept of freedom of speech and stretched it into the prevalence of hate speech, a country that feels that the 2nd amendment was meant to arm the Conservatives against the Liberals, and, finally, a country that answers the question of "Am I my brother's keeper?" with a resounding "NO!". While some may view the author's determination as being caused by a 'sour grapes' attitude developed towards the New York Times, I do not. I see this book as a last ditch plea for the American public to come to attention, become informed and to begin to take action against the past three decades of corporate take-overs. For as the author states, if we do not do so very quickly as a country, all we have left to do is to simply and selfishly save ourselves from the morass that envelopes the country.

Its more of an essay but passionately written and quite apt in today's climate.