Chris Hedges: Who Killed the American Dream? | On Civil Society | August 27, 2018. 

I am from Cuba and thanks to my desire to learn English I discovered Chris, a real American genius. I am not only impressed by his intelligence and wisdom but also his altruistic way towards people. He holds the two most outstanding characteristics of men: a powerful mind and a loving heart.

People who have nothing left to lose aren't going to accept low-wage exploitation and poverty and behave indefinitely while the rich piss their future away. If you want a successful society, first you have to create an incentive for people to live peacefully in it.

I deeply appreciate the work of Chris Hedges.

Chris Hedges is simply being honest and that's why he resonates with so many. Bleak? That IS where we are now in the US and beyond.

There is this Frank Zappa quote, I keep thinking of when listening to Chris Hedges “The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” The illusion is hastily crumbling ... thanks CH for wording the decay so clearly

Chris Hedges is our very own modern day Thomas Paine. Too bad most the sheep don't even know he exists let alone be fired by his deeply powerful words and ideas. He is so dangerous he is universally banned by any and all major media. He is so smart, so well read and so incredibly morally powerful, they make sure only those few who like myself, go looking can actually find him.

Mr. Hedges, Chris......My man. Please please 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 run for President 🙏. You are a very wise man.

I am reading Chris’s book right now and It’s like everything I’ve ever believed is false. But he brings up many subjects I always questioned and realized he is makes sense but scares the begeepers out of me cause America seems to be so far gone.

Wonderfull read, America The Farewell Tour, I recommend everyone indulge in the information this book provides it will change you. Thank you Chris Hedges

He’s not bleak, he’s just revealing it. Such a bloody shame he is so censored. HE is who EVERYONE should be listening to.

... “ the reforms of the institutions needed, is NOT going to come about through those institutions “.....BRILLIANTE!!!..

Everything he talked about has come to fruition, it's such a frightening time,and you get absolutely nothing from main stream media, thank goodness Mr.Hedge's message is still getting out, i don't know now what can be done to stop this train,but I still need to know what's happening.August 2022.

Chris Hedges is one white man that makes a lot of sense to me. He understands the world and cause and effect of bad choices of leadership. I believe he really knows more than what he wants to reveal about who the true people of God are. I believe he knows that they are not the zionist. I like this guy for the truth that he tells. I don't know him but he tells the truth. thumbs up for Chris Hedges!

One discounts Chris Hedges insights at one's own peril.

Regarding the question "Doesn't capitalism encourage innovation, which in many cases, creates things that are of positive use for ordinary people?", Chomsky has said that "a lot of the major technological breakthroughs are first developed via the Pentagon, at public expense, then transferred to private individuals who develop them into marketable commodities." (paraphrased)

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

Late posting, this was an excellent interview just excellent. We area decayed society here in the USA. No apologies. Chris Hedges stay strong my man.

Thank u Mr Chris Hedges, my opion is people who struggle and suffer in honesty live is the one is knowing what you are talking about, stay sincre be happy with a little things, love is the key, i love you all humankind, my love regards. Mr Chris you make feel like i am not alone. Thank u!!!

Man I thought I was the only one that felt like that they were taking advantage of everyone who was beneath them. And I just got through telling my kids just a day or two ago that I don't believe this country will be here within the next decade what are no longer than two decades. All you have to do is look around you. You can see the change happening right in front of you

The female commentator did a SUPERB job and Chris is GREAT as usual.

Chris Hedges is SO intelligent. And such a non-hypocrite he became VEGAN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT when he learned how huge a role animal agriculture plays in climate change.

32:50 Christ missing the point that those "innovator" didn't innovate technology themselves. Chomsky explained earlier all the high-tech-economy's research and developments are conducted in Universities that are funded by taxpayers and then handed to the private sectors for profit. It is true across ALL industries. I urge anybody reading this look up the research funding source of Stanford and MIT. MIT was funded almost 100% by pentagon until recently came down to 70%. Standford is 80% funded by the federal government. Yes, you and I are paying for their "innovation" but we never get a piece of the pie.

Thank you very much. Listening to Chris Hedges is painful because he is constantly prodding one's conscience---but it is truly enlightening.

His message IS bleak. That is the freaking point. Whew.

I am going to be straight forward and succinct. Chris Hedges speaks with the unabated truth. The realities where we are now. Why we came to where we are now. And the unmitigated probable trajectories where we will be. From the choices made by the collective consciousness now.

Chris is brilliant and has integrity .

Guy has an amazing grasp, speaks with such genuine authenticity and power, yet never addresses who actually controls the narrative of deception being played out over and over as if it didn’t exist....

THE OVERTHROW OF CORPORATE POWER !!! GO CHRIS !!!

I pray for a debate between Chris and the right-wing podcast hosts who receive so much platform and praise. Or even with the corporate owned "left" news pundits. It would be a walk in the park for him.

Good points. If people had a little more of a safety netting, I think, they might be less apt to destroy their lives through such disparaging extremities.

"Hate groups are the product of a decaying society". Chrid Hedges. I would add street gangs in that analysis.

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting. I always listen when Chris speaks.

The interviewer is kind of annoying. This is a great interview, but I think it's despite the interviewer.

Good interview! Thanks 👍☺️

THE USA should have never let these companies move out of the country! They should have told them, if you move we're going to put huge tariffs on your products when they come into the back into the country! I can guarantee you that most of those companies would not have moved but we just let them do whatever they wanted to and now here we are!

Letting these companies move out of the country, was are the beginning of our downfall. And also the monopolization of many products and companies.

I live in Silicon Valley and it's getting Dickensian here too. I consider myself exceedingly lucky to "get" to live in a warehouse, and next year may make as much as $15k for the year. Out of this I have to take 20% out for taxes. I'm doing better than most techie types, honestly. I ride by a Foxconn plant on my bicycle all the time. It's amazing how much the "silicon valley" economy depends on workers like me, with our bicycles and trailers, taking things to the post office, or if we're very, very, VERY lucky, maybe working in said post office.

This is what a real journalist looks like. I don’t agree with everything he says but I respect him. Say this too, I think he has altruistic motives.

Thank you.

Re: The question on corporate innovation in tech- Not trying to be knit pick or overstate but a lot of the basis of modern health tech and technology overall is publicly funded and even in some cases carries out by public organisations. And not just back in the 60s and 70s but up to the present.

The mic of the interviewer is WAY louder than Chris's. That should have been fixed. But he's always great.

I’ve been watching Chris Hedges videos dating back to 2008 and working my way up. Every single thing he has said has come to pass. Time has vindicated his stance. Even in debates, I thought the people he debated were serious people arguing passionately with intellectual integrity… but to see those people still hold on to their same perspective even when time has born out the evidence that has vindicated Hedges, makes me realize how intellectual dishonest they actually are. It’s not about having bad takes in the past in as much as one should evolve their perspectives when the evidence opposes your understanding.

He is a great speaker. I learn from him when ever I listen to him. My Podcasts, try to teach like he does. God, bless you Sir.

Keep on kicking ass.

Nov-25-2021, that was pretty damn good.

I could imagine Chris being a Pastor in the Confessing Church way back in the day!

Great discussion !

Bleak? He just reads the reports! And that's why I don't like to read the reports at least not as many as he does. I'm left with a profound powerlessness and sadness that paralyizes me to my core. However, to understand the reality one experiences gives one the power to make better decisions, to avoid or call out corruption, to feel a deep connection to our humanity and to our planet. And when the time comes to know what a society is supposed to look like and fight to erect it.

I THINK MOST EVERYONE HAD A HAND IN IT. ESPECIALLY WITH NO UNIONS. AND *MINIMUM WAGE*.....

I agree with Mr. Hedges that Facebook is rubbish and dangerously intrusive; that we have descended into tribalism; and that there is comparison between nowadays and Versailles because the decorating glossies show homes which are the modern North American Versailles where the principals are out of touch and insecure and scared of losing their money and focussed on trivia while the population (whom the wealthy do not see in their daily lives) are sometimes hungry and usually semi-literate.

-Pull Back- You are the, strongest person, ever. That does not pull the lever. and let you do. How could you ever, let go of anything. Ever, let, go of anything: forever.

There is no need to introduce Mr Hedges. He will outline his CV during his speech, every war, every prominent figure(he apparently knows everyone in the world), all the languages spoken, all his books, he’s been everywhere and knows it all.

Douglas Murray says that overall the British Empire and later the American influence is a good thing. True we now have a lot of automation. Advanced technology, Self-driving cars. Better weapons even. But are our lives better? The English sent a lot of alleged criminals to Australia and simply pushed the Aboriginals aside. I doubt if their world, and life, is better than before. Same in North America with the natives. Does 'progress' mean better? I say 'no'. Chris is a clear thinker, and a both a truth seeker and truth teller. He deserves a world-wide audience. He will get there one day.I hope?!

10 minutes in and I just can’t take how loud her mic is and how much lower Chris’ is. Maddening.

A brilliant and astute man. Aprophet in his own country is an outcast. He will be proven right, unfortunately.

Whoah. Chris Hedges was smiling and made people laugh. Must be that Canadian Kush.

I wonder if some of the bigger states like California and Texas will eventually break away from the federation.

My wife and I are trying to have a paid off house ASAP so we at least have that.

Funny how GM, with all it's cheap labor (with no benefits or pension plan) their vehicles are no cheaper.

California’s housing policies are intrinsically regressive. Limiting the supply drives up home values in well-to-do coastal communities, while pricing everyone else out of the market. Households in the lowest quartile in California spend about two-thirds of their incomes on housing; those in the top quartile spend just 16%. The conundrum California’s landed gentry face is they want to boost their home values-and at the same time to have an abundant supply of low-wage workers to mow their lawns and clean their pools too.

Any ideas as to what is going on with the hacked tpl system since October 28, 2023?

HEDGES FOR PRESIDENT!!!!

Florence S. Wald, American Pioneer in End-of-Life Care, Is Dead at 91 nOV. 14, 2008 Florence S. Wald, whose vision of bringing the terminally ill peace of mind and, to whatever extent possible, freedom from pain led to the opening of the first palliative care hospice in the United States, died on Saturday at her home in Branford, Conn. She was 91. Her death was confirmed by her son, Joel.Mrs. Wald, who was dean of the Yale University School of Nursing from 1959 to 1966, was the prime mover, in 1974, in starting the Connecticut Hospice, the nation’s first home-care program for the terminally ill. Six years later, a 44-patient hospice - where the dying could be comforted by their loved ones around the clock and where the staff would do what it could to alleviate suffering - opened in Branford. “This hospice became a model for hospice care in the United States and abroad,” the publication Yale Nursing Matters said this week, adding that Mrs. Wald’s role “in reshaping nursing education to focus on patients and their families has changed the perception of care for the dying in this country.”There are now more than 3,000 hospice programs in the United States, serving about 900,000 patients a year.In recent years, Mrs. Wald had concentrated on extending the hospice care model to dying prison inmates.“People on the outside don’t understand this world at all,” Mrs. Wald told The New York Times in 1998. “Most people in prison have had a rough time in life and haven’t had any kind of education in how to take care of their health.” And, she added, “There is the shame factor, the feeling that dying in prison is the ultimate failure.”

Get Bankers off egocentric welfare. Get millionaires off welfare. Get billionaires off welfare.

aND, THIS ONE -- Assisted living kicks out the frail 'cause 'we can't take care of you any longer' One day, a daughter went to visit, saw staff napping and took pictures on her cellphone, which she sent to the facility administrator with a note expressing concern. “A few days later, she got a call telling her that her mom had become combative and needed to be taken to the hospital for psychiatric treatment,” Delaney said. today: Sep. 6, 2018 he phone call came as a shock. Your aunt can’t transfer into memory care; we have to discharge her from this facility, a nurse told Jeff Regan. You have 30 days to move her out. The next day, a legal notice was delivered. Marilou Jones, 94, who has dementia, was being evicted from Atria at Foster Square, an assisted living facility in Foster City, Calif. The reason: “You are non-weight bearing and require the assistance of two staff members for all transfers,” the notice said. Regan was taken aback: After consulting with Atria staff about his aunt’s deteriorating health, he and Jones’ husband, William, 88, had arranged for her to be transferred to a dementia care unit at the facility. A room had been chosen, and furniture bought. But now, Atria was claiming it couldn’t meet her needs after all. action isn’t unusual. Across the country, assisted living facilities are evicting residents who have grown older and frail, essentially saying that “we can’t take care of you any longer.”Evictions top the list of grievances about assisted living received by long-term care ombudsmen across the U.S. In 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, 2,867 complaints of this kind were recorded - a number that experts believe is almost surely an undercount. Often, there’s little that residents or their families can do about evictions. Assisted living is governed by states, and regulations tend to be loosely drafted, allowing facilities considerable flexibility in determining whom they admit as residents…..

The guy is just on the money. Perfect.

he is only telling the truth

Suffering and rendered invisible...don't forget THAT one... and all the injustices

Chris hedges truth too facts and reality. May that man have the blessing of God and hopes he has a long life. Chris hedges and cornel west the only people shining light into some dark place's.

What's that flute playing, I can't hear over that noise

Dreams cannot be killed. They turn into nightmares.

When the first World calapses, the third world is the only way to escape. IAMME UHURU. 🇯🇲.

I am surprised that Hedges called out Israel interfering in our politics. Dual citizenship needs to be discontinued, You can't serve two masters As for Trump, I voted for him, but, I hold him accountable, and when I hold Trump accountable, the Forever Trumpers attack me, with 'troll' other names. The Forever Trumpers are as annoying as the Never Trumpers

Bleak...but that’s where we at

It's not a far step to go from detention camps to concentration camps.

Still - even more - essential viewing.

'Pillage' in more ways than one. Come to LA to see a decayed society.

I lived on about 20,000 a year all my life. I will continue to do so. Fuck it.

Innovators should not be given a pass to be predators! 👏🏾

Someday there will come the brotherhood of man. Someday industrial warfare as well as warfare between nations will be seen to be ridiculous and a waste of life and money. Someday, men will work together in a grand, cooperative effort. - Clarence Darrow (1920).

HERE IS JUST ONE RECENT EXAMPLE -- He withdrew from his friends and neighbors. When he died in his Fairbanks house, no one noticed - for years. The house Paul Pesika built, and where he was found dead on Aug. 12 by a neighbor. Aug. 28, 2018. FAIRBANKS - Neighbors figured the house had been abandoned, though some had a creeping feeling that might not be the case. At the end of May, the Fairbanks North Star Borough had taken the deed of a dilapidated cabin on Red Fox Drive, a neighborhood of well-kept homes on big parcels of birch forest near the University of Alaska. The property taxes hadn't been paid for years. The property was owned by a man named Paul Pesika. Decades ago he had run a pioneering counseling nonprofit and worked for a powerful Fairbanks legislator in Juneau. Back then he was known as a charismatic outdoorsman with a wide circle of friends. They'd helped him build the cabin on his dream property on a hill above Fairbanks' ice fog.But 30 years ago he had become a hermit. The other residents of Red Fox Drive, mostly professors and other professionals who worked for the university, saw him only in glimpses. A view from the road of Paul Pesika’s property on Red Fox Drive in Fairbanks. The building visible is a garage. The tree fell in a wind storm, neighbors say. The silver-haired man stopped emerging from his house to shovel the snow. A birch tree fell, blocking his driveway. The ancient silver Subaru he sometimes used to make midnight trips to the grocery store sat undisturbed.People wondered, in passing, what had become of Paul Pesika.This month, the truth came out: He hadn't gone anywhere.Pesika had killed himself years ago in the little cabin, but no one had noticed.Undiscovered No one knows quite when Pesika died.Pesika stopped paying his property taxes in July 2014, according to the Fairbanks North Star Borough. The next month, he got his last delivery from the company that supplies water to homes without wells in the neighborhood. His vehicle registration expired around the same time.Roy Corral, an old friend and roommate who now lives in Eagle River, says he stopped by the property at least twice in the last four years while on trips to Fairbanks. The place looked abandoned. No one answered the door. In 2016, someone called the Alaska State Troopers to ask for a welfare check at the Red Fox Drive property. They hadn't seen their neighbor in a while, the agency said. A trooper went to the house."It appeared abandoned and the driveway was unplowed," said troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. The trooper didn't have enough information that something was wrong to go inside, she said."We can't just make entry into a house because someone else is concerned," Peters said.Most of the windows at the Pesika house had been covered with insulation. Photographed Aug. 28, 2018. (Michelle Theriaut Boots / ADN) Two other neighbors said they thought about calling for a welfare check but never did. Finally, at the end of May, 1768 Red Fox Drive appeared on a list of houses that the borough had taken over for nonpayment of taxes. The property was to be auctioned off and sold. On June 13, a borough official went out and posted a notice on the door - but didn't go inside.Potential bidders started showing up in the neighborhood, peeking at the house.Finally, on Aug. 12, Pesika's next-door neighbor walked inside the cabin to check out the property and found him long dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.Paul Pesika's death unsettled both the people who were close to him long ago and the neighbors who lived in shouting distance but never knew him. It has brought up big questions about friendship, neighborliness, mental illness and a value Alaskans take seriously, privacy.To Pesika's old friend, Frank Gold, a retired University of Alaska psychology professor, all the questions boil down to one big one: How could this happen? Promising beginnings Pesika was a young man when he arrived in Fairbanks sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, his old friends say. But nobody can quite recall his early history: Was he stationed at Fort Wainwright? They remember that he may have come from California.Like many others in town at the time, he'd come to reinvent himself. He was estranged from his family, said Gold.Pesika, about 6 feet tall with looks people compare to a young Sean Connery, quickly became involved in Fairbanks city life, running a pioneering youth drop-in center downtown and later a drug and alcohol counseling center with Gold. Paul Pesika in Denali National Park, circa mid-1980s. (Photo by Roy Corral) He fell in with an outdoorsy, young, adventurous circle of friends, said Corral, a photographer. People were drawn to him, said Sherry Faught, another member of the circle who now lives in Salcha."He was handsome, he was pleasant, he was fun to be around," she said.In the early 1970s, Pesika bought the land on Red Fox Drive and began building a house with the help of his friends."It was perfect, above the ice fog," Corral said. "He liked his privacy." Pesika shifted to work in politics, becoming a legislative aide for a powerful Fairbanks state senator, Don Bennett. He was known as a dealmaker who could operate in Juneau during the session and then smoothly transition to the simple, spartan, outdoors lifestyle he aspired to on his land in Fairbanks, Corral said.But despite his success, there were signs that something was fraying in Pesika's mind.He and Corral were on a winter skiing trip in Denali National Park in the late 1970s when Pesika made a statement that startled his friend."We were skiing toward the river and Paul all of a sudden stopped and said, 'Did you hear that?'" Corral said. "And I said, 'What?' And he said Jesus' voice talking to us.'"He began to tell friends about his fear that radio transmissions were infiltrating his mind, that he was being tracked by government agencies, that the CIA would take him in the night to Anchorage, where they would use his powers of detection to locate enemy submarines.It was obvious that Pesika was suffering from signs of mental illness, said Corral.But no one could convince him to seek professional help, Gold said. He worked for the borough in the 1980s, at one point as an aide to the mayor. By the late 1980s he began cutting himself off.His friends continued to drop by the house on Red Fox Drive, where Pesika now spent most of his time. But the handsome political operative and outdoorsman they knew had become deeply paranoid.He was fastidious about shoveling his driveway but would barely respond to a hello, said Carol Norton, a soft-spoken neighbor who lives in a log home across the road. Carol Norton lives across the street from the Pesika property. She rarely interacted with Pesika but noticed when the driveway stopped being shoveled. “In the back of our minds was the possibility … but we thought someone was visiting, looking in on him in some capacity.” Then even Pesika's smallest interactions with the wider world ceased. "I'd go by the door and yell his name. It was locked. No one would come to the window," Corral said. "He'd have a black flag hanging at his window and then I knew things were getting bad." Eventually it became unpleasant - even scary - to approach the house, said Faught. She remembers last seeing Pesika in the early 1990s. No one interviewed for this story remembers interacting with him after that era.It's a mystery to them how he continued to pay for expenses, even for his austere lifestyle: property taxes, the water he needed to have delivered to his house and the fuel to heat it through the long, frigid winters."It appeared abandoned"Robert Prince, a professor of documentary filmmaking at the University of Alaska, moved in next door to Pesika eight years ago and never met him.On Aug. 12, Prince, his wife and his mother walked over to check out the neighbor's house beyond a thick stand of birch, cranberries and wild roses. The house was in a state of gentle decay.The driveway up from the road was being overtaken by saplings. Birds had nested in the eaves. Fireweed had crept into the planters. Mushrooms had sprouted on the back deck. A windsock that read "Alaska" twisted limply from the front porch. The door was unlocked, Prince said. It was dark as midnight inside. Almost every window had been covered with sheets of insulation. Prince used his phone as a flashlight.He made his way down a dark hallway and into a room that looked like a tidy bunker. Canned food was stacked on a desk. A bed was made. And in the corner, a wicker chair. In it, Pesika - dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.The horror-movie details aren't necessary to share. But it was obvious that the body had been there for years, Prince said. He called police right away.Pesika's old friends have been calling each other. Some feel guilty. Living and letting live is an Alaskan value, they say, and maybe particularly a Fairbanks value. But at what cost?Corral thinks Pesika may have run out of money to pay for heat, water and taxes and given up.How long had he been there? Corral thinks four years - around the time he stopped getting water delivered and paying his taxes. He says the medical examiner told him they'd have to use dental records to positively identify the body. He's trying to locate any of Pesika's living relatives.No one from the circle of friends in the 1970s can remember if he had siblings, or where exactly he came from, Gold said.art of what makes the story so unsettling is how close to society Pesika was living, by Alaska standards, Corral said.His house was nearly visible from the road. It was not even an area of Fairbanks where people moved to get away from it all, but was a neighborhood with good elementary schools and an easy commute to the university."We all feel terrible about letting that happen to a neighbor," said Norton. "This is supposed to be a 'we know our ne

Chris gave a good answer to, ‘what would happen to American innovation without corporations?’ (32:00). Although I wish someone like Marianna Mazzucato could have been his ‘lifeline’ on that. ‘Corporate’ innovation relies very heavily on state funded labs and universities. A lot heavier than MSM would have you know. Chomsky paints a vivid image of this when he describes how electronics giants like Raytheon surrounded MIT back in the 50’s and 60’s like vultures waiting on what emerged from the campus labs (almost totally funded by the Pentagon). Now, you find Bio-tech firms perched outside - waiting. Silicon Valley owes much of its existence to heavily state funded R & D at places like Stanford University. The internet, WWW, multi-touch/multi-gesture flat screens, FFT, SIRI, Satellites/Satellite communication, GPS, and on and on, all nonexistent without taxpayer funding. Mazzucato wrote an excellent book on this, ‘The Entrepreneurial State’.

I have a lot of time for Chris Hedges and agree with him on many topics. He is right to see the US as being over-extended militarily and fiscally. What he fails to recognise is that, were American dominance threatened in a way that it has not been since 1989, it has the means to maintain its hegemony: re-assess military ambitions, raise taxes to balance the budget, bring back manufacturing, continue to innovate to stay ahead of other nations. It's not clear that US politicians would choose those options, but they are still there. This is shown in Chris' response to the question about innovation (at 32:00). Instead of discussing SEN aids specifically or innovation in general, he focusses on electronic gadgets. He doesn't even consider this industry in its entirety but focusses on production in Asia. There is a simple remedy for the criticism he makes of conditions for the workers: bring the manufacturing back to the US (helping the US current account and helping keep the $ as the world's reserve currency), pay US workers to make them at decent pay rates (helping other sectors of the US economy). Of course, US consumers would have to pay more for their phones. All that would mean though is trading in for a new model every 4 years instead of every 2 years. What Chris doesn't seem to reflect on is that he is criticising the way the country that is the main challenger to US dominance treats its own people. He can't have it both ways. He can't criticise the way the Chinese government treats its own workers and at the same time welcome the rise of China as a global power.

This interviewer is great! I will say though, that the threat of poverty/hardship does not drive innovation. in fact it's the opposite. without poverty people can innovate at lower risk. to also look to silicon valley, many innovations come from highly paid indviduals who leave their places of employment to start original ventures. many, if not the vast majority, are useless or actively harmful but the point is that there is no "enough", there would be no billionaires if there was, only the potential for more. The bigger the starting point, the greater the potential end.

EMPIRES RISE & FALL, always FROM WITHIN! We ALL REAP WHAT WE SOW !

Maybe turn up the mic of the interviewee and not the interviewer. Chris as always showing us the light.. and darkness.

Chris is great, but I want to make an observation that a friend who studies American / Western culture and history told me: American's have been saying that the end of America is nigh since the earliest days. The Alien and Sedition Act was supposed to usher in dictatorship, Andrew Jackson's one man one vote was supposed to begin an era of democratic demagoguery, etc. etc.. It's not that I want to take away from his criticism but rather just to put them in a context that might be useful to someone who takes these issues seriously. And didn't Churchill say that America always does the right thing when it's exhausted all other options? Further, perhaps one reason we have continued to trudge forward is because there've always been people like Twain and Hedges criticizing out society and warning us of the dangers they saw. So, while the end may not be nigh, thank the gods for the people who say it is.

He's right about Facebook being worthless. Going on there is just unhealthy.

Why is the volume on the moderator's microphone so much louder than the volume on Hedges' microphone?

She’s not even in his league...not trying to be mean just saying...

The music is extremly annoying. Please.

It is unfortunate that the interviewer's mic is much high gain than Chris's. Makes listening unpleasant.

Is this interviewer trying to debate Chris Hedges under the guise of an interview?

Who killed the American Dream? No one because the dream is really a nightmare. That's alive and well!

No matter how much you protest, no matter how much you shout injustice, no matter how much followers you have, if most of the money everyone earns is being counterfeited by your oppressor you are never ever going to free.

Who killed the dream? Not who, but what. Two things killed it, simple greed was one, the other was humanity's worst ever invention: Money.

Habiba’s question about money and innovation (32:00) warrants a further rebuff. Of course money drives innovation and development, but for evil purposes, as well as good. The military, intelligence organisations and global corporations always take priority. New technologies are used to weaponise everything imaginable, to surveil everyone, to come up with wonderful new products which often result in immense environmental damage and human suffering. Speaking of “special needs children”, reminds me of the misery caused by Big Pharma innovative money spinners. The saying that (the love of) “money is the root of all kinds of evil” appears most appropriate.

This article is from my files: (January 1992), polygamist regret choice of lifestyle…….Hildale, Utah, sits at the base of red rock cliffs. After more than a quarter century with two wives, Don Cox no longer sees polygamy as the only road to heaven. He and his wives hope their children will have more sense than to share a spouse. I don’t feel like there are many advantages, said Earlene Cox. Don’s first wife, “If you had asked me seven years ago, when I believed that my salvation depended on my living like this, then my answer might have been different. Cox, 57 is an electrical contractor who grows bedding plants to support his wives and 19 children. Earlene, the 54 year old mother of 11 of Cox’s children, said the lifestyle is an unrelenting emotional struggle. It gets plain complicated and it’s a challenge, she further stated. Another wife comes in wants to do it her way and its continual give and take. Don and Earlene were married in 1953. In 1962, he took a second wife, Katy, who is 50. The three have lived in Colorado City for 22 years. While the Mormon church abandoned polygamy in 1890 in exchange for Utah statehood, thousands of fundamentalists continue the practice, believing it remains a commandment essential for a person’s eternal welfare.

Who are the 131 that "dis-liked? Why?

Unfortunately and sadly enough, a lot of Americans, especially those that holds the ideal of nationalism are suffering from inertial or what i might call, Stockholm syndrome. They are ever ready to defend their oppressors in public offices.