A couple weeks ago, Obama, interviewed by Hasan Minaj, explained his thoughts on climate change (at 5:37 and 10:25, and 15:29): “If you’re not stressed about climate change at a time when we’re seeing record forest fires and haze floating right here in DC coming from the north and flooding
Continue readingTag: Hedges
A Puff of Absurdity: Chris Hedges on Our Current State of Paralysis
Hedges writes on Substack now, if you haven’t been able to find him lately, and his piece today is excellent. He starts by pointing out the growing rich-poor divide that is seeing the top earnings increase by almost 90% in the last decease in the states, while the lowest struggle
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Expertise
We’ve grown to develop an anti-expertise view in society. I imagine it might have something to do with a do-it-yourself mentality born of individualism and capitalism. I can work harder to figure out how to do it myself and then I don’t need anyone else’s help. I get that. About eight
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Some Words on Hope
The Narwhal quoted police and prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba on her understanding of hope: “The idea of hope being a discipline is something I heard from a nun many years ago. The hope that she was talking about was this grounded hope that was practiced every day, that people actually practiced
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hedges on American Psychosis
Chris Hedges just put out a short video about American Psychosis, in which he explains, We have blissfully checked out. Most people have no concept of how fragile their environment is. . . . There’s an emotional incapacity to understand collapse, even when it’s facing you. I have covered, as
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On a Radical Vision of Future Earth
I grabbed this book, by meteorologist Eric Holthaus, as soon as it went on sale, excited to check out the new vision of how we can all better live together. There’s lots of information for the uninitiated, and then it becomes sort of a fictional narrative. There are no characters
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hedges – the Last Word on Cancel Culture
Having a mass of people able to “cancel” someone in power can seem like a fantastic form of fluid democracy when it shuts down something harmful in a harmless manner, like people reserving space at a Trump rally they have no intention of attending. But it can be dangerous that
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chris Hedges on Revolution, Media, Prison, Corruption, and Hope
Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent for the New York Times until they didn’t like his anti-American coverage of the Iraq invasion, and an ordained minister, recently walked away (or was fired) from Truthdig in solidarity with Bob Scheer, and now he’s in the middle of writing a book, but he
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: The Giant Hamster Wheel of Political Rhetoric
I really believe that the arts are vital in times of strife, and that’s particularly true with witty orators and writers. They are the court jesters who get away with more than the rest of us can, and they’re necessary to any rebellion. So I appreciate how Anthony Jeselnik discusses
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Capitalism’s Limitations
Every year, when we get to the part of my philosophy course where we read some Marx & Engels, and I ask for criticisms of the reading, like I do with every other political philosopher we read, instead of thinking and devising astute observations, there’s always a few who are
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hedges’ Talk on America: The Farewell Tour
I was able to get a seat to see Chris Hedges at CIGI in Waterloo. It was a packed house with a full overflow room as well. He started his talk about his new book with a lecture on America. Here’s the gist of his speech, loosely quoted and/or lightly
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: When is Violence Acceptable in Society? – The Fascist/Antifa question.
I am playing catch up with the recent dust-up around the choice of tactics used by Antifa in the United States in it’s struggle against the proto-fascist elements energized by the current Republican Administration led by Trump. There are several sources in this brief overview, first from a academic
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Antifa Methods
It’s not just Tina Fey who’s getting lambasted for promoting this position, “I really want to say, to encourage all good sane Americans, to treat these rallies this weekend like the opening of a thoughtful movie with two female leads: Don’t show up. Let these morons scream into the empty
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Hedges’ Veganism Claims
Chris Hedges’ recent article, “Eating Our Way to Disease,” largely just advertises the new doc What the Health: “Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn—whose documentary Cowspiracy, about the environmental impact of the animal agriculture industry, led me to become a vegan—recently released a new film, What the Health, which looks at how
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Hedges on Impeaching Trump
“If the deep state replaces Trump, whose ineptitude and imbecility are embarrassing to the empire, that action will not restore our democracy any more than replacing Commodus restored democracy in Rome. Our republic is dead. . . . Corporations, cannibalizing the federal budget, legally empower themselves to exploit and pillage.
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Social Control in Universities
Chris Hedges has concerns with Trump’s impact on intellectuals: Trump and his Christian fascist minions, sooner than most of us expect, will seek to shut down the small spaces left for free expression. Dissent will become difficult and sometimes dangerous. … The Trump administration will hand our Christian jihadists a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Social Control in Universities
Chris Hedges has concerns with Trump’s impact on intellectuals: Trump and his Christian fascist minions, sooner than most of us expect, will seek to shut down the small spaces left for free expression. Dissent will become difficult and sometimes dangerous. … The Trump administration will hand our Christian jihadists a
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Retaliation
Both Hedges and Reich are writing about Trump’s frightening behaviour. It’s not just the weird tweets, but the follow-up from him and from supporters. Reich discusses Chuck Jones’ experience: “I’m getting threats and everything else from some of his supporters.” And he talks about Trump’s tweet proposing cancelling a fictitious Boeing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: On Retaliation
Both Hedges and Reich are writing about Trump’s frightening behaviour. It’s not just the weird tweets, but the follow-up from him and from supporters. Reich discusses Chuck Jones’ experience: “I’m getting threats and everything else from some of his supporters.” And he talks about Trump’s tweet proposing cancelling a fictitious Boeing
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Standing Rock Resistance
Chris Hedges is in Standing Rock, back to his original career as a war correspondent. The natives there are preparing for winter, and I’m struck by the contrast to the Occupy fight that dwindled away when things got cold. I’m curled up on the couch as I write that, so
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