Chris Hedges: The Sparks of Rebellion

[marmar]

from truthdig:


The Sparks of Rebellion

Posted on Sep 30, 2013
By Chris Hedges


I am reading and rereading the debates among some of the great radical thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries about the mechanisms of social change. These debates were not academic. They were frantic searches for the triggers of revolt.

Vladimir Lenin placed his faith in a violent uprising, a professional, disciplined revolutionary vanguard freed from moral constraints and, like Karl Marx, in the inevitable emergence of the worker’s state. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon insisted that gradual change would be accomplished as enlightened workers took over production and educated and converted the rest of the proletariat. Mikhail Bakunin predicted the catastrophic breakdown of the capitalist order, something we are likely to witness in our lifetimes, and new autonomous worker federations rising up out of the chaos. Pyotr Kropotkin, like Proudhon, believed in an evolutionary process that would hammer out the new society. Emma Goldman, along with Kropotkin, came to be very wary of both the efficacy of violence and the revolutionary potential of the masses. “The mass,” Goldman wrote bitterly toward the end of her life in echoing Marx, “clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify!”

The revolutionists of history counted on a mobilized base of enlightened industrial workers. The building blocks of revolt, they believed, relied on the tool of the general strike, the ability of workers to cripple the mechanisms of production. Strikes could be sustained with the support of political parties, strike funds and union halls. Workers without these support mechanisms had to replicate the infrastructure of parties and unions if they wanted to put prolonged pressure on the bosses and the state. But now, with the decimation of the U.S. manufacturing base, along with the dismantling of our unions and opposition parties, we will have to search for different instruments of rebellion.

We must develop a revolutionary theory that is not reliant on the industrial or agrarian muscle of workers. Most manufacturing jobs have disappeared, and, of those that remain, few are unionized. Our family farms have been destroyed by agro-businesses. Monsanto and its Faustian counterparts on Wall Street rule. They are steadily poisoning our lives and rendering us powerless. The corporate leviathan, which is global, is freed from the constraints of a single nation-state or government. Corporations are beyond regulation or control. Politicians are too anemic, or more often too corrupt, to stand in the way of the accelerating corporate destruction. This makes our struggle different from revolutionary struggles in industrial societies in the past. Our revolt will look more like what erupted in the less industrialized Slavic republics, Russia, Spain and China and uprisings led by a disenfranchised rural and urban working class and peasantry in the liberation movements that swept through Africa and Latin America. The dispossessed working poor, along with unemployed college graduates and students, unemployed journalists, artists, lawyers and teachers, will form our movement. This is why the fight for a higher minimum wage is crucial to uniting service workers with the alienated college-educated sons and daughters of the old middle class. Bakunin, unlike Marx, considered déclassé intellectuals essential for successful revolt. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_sparks_of_rebellion_20130930

[KG]

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[sabrina 1]

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[KoKo]

56. I love the "Auto Rec Thingy"....but, where are the replies?

where is the discussion....

[djean111]

3. How true, on both "sides" -

“The mass,” Goldman wrote bitterly toward the end of her life in echoing Marx, “clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify!”

[Jackpine Radical]

5. You can always hire one half of the rabble to kill the other half.

It's simply amazing you pessimistic you can get when you think about this stuff.

[caseymoz]

20. Yes, but that also means they have to arm the rabble,

one half at a time. That half is vulnerable to subversion, and/or to envy of their wealthy, indolent employers. I'm thinking previously employed and unionized police are a bit sore with the one percent now, if you can tap into it.

And if there's not open rebellion, the enforcers will at least be vulnerable to corruption, in the form of providing weapons to their oppressed.

So, while it worked before in the history of the US, there's now a sense of betrayal that wasn't there before, that we had a middle class that's been destroyed. Whereas before there was a promise of a middle class, that's now been demonstrated false.

[Jackpine Radical]

21. And, to amplify on your theme,

next time will be fundamentally different for a number of reasons. No previous revolution occurred in the context of the widespread environmental disasters that will be befalling us. A large portion of the population will be hard-pressed for organismic survival in a world with poisoned or drained aquifers, crops ravaged by drought, floods, freak weather events, exotic plant diseases, etc. The rich won't be able to eat their money, nor feed their private armies with it. Parasites require a reasonably viable host.

[caseymoz]

27. That's just it . . .

Last edited Mon Sep 30, 2013, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)

I have a suspicion that the rich know exactly what is happening with the environment, at least a few of their leadership do, and they want to position themselves to make a fortress around the best land and the remaining resources and to hold the rest of us off at all cost. They want to have complete, unquestioned command of a military-police apparatus when that moment arrives.

It's just a suspicion. I have no proof, but in my most paranoid moments, I can give in to it.

I mean, they're generally well-educated, of course, and should be the best informed people. What does Bill Gates really think is happening with Global Warming? Not all of them are blinded by ideology.

[CrispyQ]

41. This is what I think, too.

They know what's coming down the pike & they are building as big a cushion as they can for the fall.

[nadinbrzezinski]

55. Nah, they are just in as great denial as the hoi polloi

See Mexico where the effects are far from deniable any more. The same elite fought it until well, 75% of the country under water, it's hard to deny. If they knew we are at (best case) tipping point, you can have the best land for the moment. It won't last

[marmar]

36. ........

[Demeter]

6. The Internet will be our salvation

because

1) any subversion of it can be subverted (Hail Anonymous and the Hackers!)

2) It's worth fighting for, and it's international, so the fight doesn't stop at the borders, and all individuals are against all Corporate or Governmental attempts to take it away.

3) The self-designated Experts and Leaders give way to grassrooots, which is the essence of democracy with a small d.

At last, the promise of the 60's can be brought to fruition. If we work our butts off and never sleep. Never give up! Never surrender!

[starroute]

18. But there are threats we need to watch out for

In its early days, radio was open to anyone with broadcasting equipment. But in the course of the 1920s, it got locked down and mostly controlled by networks -- the direct ancestors of CBS, NBC, and ABC.

The significant factor there, of course, was bandwidth. There's only a certain amount of spectrum, and if two nearby stations try to broadcast at the same frequency you get interference. That made it seem plausible to issue regulations and parcel frequencies out to the highest bidder.

The internet isn't like that -- but Verizon and pals are trying to treat it as if it was. That may be the real reason they never held up their half of the bargain made in the Communications Act of 1996 -- and why attempts to set up free municipal wifi have been met with such furious opposition or even made illegal. They *want* bandwidth to be scarce because it gives them control over what passes through their system.

The good part of this is that it's an artificial scarcity, unlike radio broadcasting. But the bad part is that it means they will fight tooth and nail to keep things locked down. That's where one of the real battles of the next few years is going to be fought out.

[OldRedneck]

8. Superb analysis . . . maybe this explains

The last few sentences explain a lot . . . why the GOP is in such a frenzy to keep young people and working people from voting . . . why the GOP resists raising the minimum wage . . .

[SheilaT]

9. Personally, I have almost no faith in the masses

rises and throwing off their chains.

Karl Marx famously said, "Religion is the opium of the masses." These days it's more like television and sport being the opium of the masses.

Few people want to think. It's so much easier to let others think for us. You see it here on DU all the time, unfortunately. Someone posts something and dozens of replies get posted before anyone bothers to double-check the veracity of the post. And even when something is true and valid, most of us are simply sitting at home or work and posting, as I am now, without doing anything substantive to change the world.

All we can hope for is that things get so bad that enough people finally turn off their computers, Televisions, gaming systems, and Ipods and leave their homes to do something.

[jwirr]

25. Religion as it used to be pre-fallwell has effectively killed its own leadership power by allowing

the rw to take over the message as surely as it took over the rethug party after Eisenhower. Not as many of us are tuned into the religious message as were then.

[KoKo]

37. Interesting point not talked about enough....

And, realize that there are many who think any religion is the root of all evil. Yet, there was at one time an emphasis on the poor and an attempt to call out the better of our instincts to over rule the worst. The promise for some (Christians and perhaps a few other religious Groups) was that "good deeds on earth" promised salvation in the after life. I doubt many Christians these days believe that is a rewarding goal. So....something else must take it's place. Perhaps recognition of the "Good of the Commons" meaning the inspiring a movement for "Good of the People" to exist in a fair and humane environment might be some way of dealing with the deficit of calling on our "better instincts" as human beings with commonality for survival? We would need some examples for inspiration.

[jwirr]

39. Exactly. As to the examples - Ghandi? I am sure there are many but I am at a lose to name any

more right now. Maybe DUers can think of secular role models. It is certain we need to have model for hope and people who have actually followed that model.

[KoKo]

45. What IF! We could take the Great Thinkers Lives and Body of Literature....

and Incorporate this into a NEW MOVEMENT? Not looking for Heroes of the FUTURE...but HEROES of the PAST to put together a NEW MOVEMENT...based on the Wisdom of the Dead and not the POLITICAL SPEECH of those wanting to CAPTURE...the FUTURE?

The WISDOM even of our Native American Elders might factor into this.

WHAT IF....WE COULD DREAM? With the WISDOM of PAST.......and NOT the Doctrinaire Religious Restrictions of the Past..but MELD the Best of the WISDOM of Sages to MOVE FORWARD?

Could we Do This ...Is it worth trying to Change?

[jwirr]

49. That would be wonderful. Or at least it sounds wonderful. It is hard to believe that we humans can

really come up with something that will work. I am really cynical in my old age.

[KoKo]

50. I know it sound "un-Do-Able." Sort of some "Pie in the Sky" thing we did before...

But how about the New Generation. What do they think about what's going on. They have the Body of Internet Knowledge at their Disposal...which we on the "Cutting Edge" didn't have until Windows '95.

"The Times They are A'Changing."

The knowledge Ain't DEAD YET. But, NOW it's REFERENCED and ARCHIVED for all who are BEHIND to ACCESS.

I see GOOD THINGS going forward from OUR YOUNG who have ACCESS.

Just saying...don't EVER underestimate the POWER of the YOUNG and CREATIVE...as Many of us Here on DU ...ONCE WERE!

Passing of the TORCH. But on the INTERNET....lol's....but, it CAN be TRUE...if we WILL it TO BE!

[jwirr]

52. I do have faith in the younger voters. All those in my family voted for President Obama and like us

old ones they vote in every election. They also are thinking about were we are going.

[KoKo]

53. They are out there in the New International Media...and they are GOOD!

They are young..but have the backlog of history from Bush II, before and Recent.

They are found on the International News Sights...and not our MSM in USA.

The Voices are incredible........and worth the watch.

[KoKo]

57. There's always the "Pie in the Sky" folks.. saying..YOU ASK FOR TOO MUCH...

Yet..I often think we ASK for Too LITTLE.

We need to get our Act Together...because there are so many out there looking for FRAMING...for an Altruistic Way to get us ALL TOGETHER. We've been looking for a few Decades.

But, I think Chris Hedges is nipping around unleashing a few bites that draw blood about what WE SHOULD BE ABOUT..Moving Forward for Change...

[jwirr]

60. And we were told a long time ago that framing is what the Democratic Party needs. We do not present

a full picture of our goal and too often just work on one bill at a time without showing how it can fit into the big picture.

[KoKo]

61. True there's that...for those of us who've been around here for a long while

who remember the Framing Battles. Harry Reid supposedly got trained by the guy who did the Framing Report who wrote the book and all. Can't think of his name at the moment because I've been "Shocked and Awed" for almost 25 Years...and there's so much to deal with to Remember of these terrible times...I get Brain Synapses. It will come to me at some point...but, not for this post.

Ah...George Lakhoff or something like that?

[awoke_in_2003]

43. Like the proles in 1984...

too fat and dumb to know their position in life.

[Scuba]

11. It's our turn ...

[marmar]

12. Love that!

[rhett o rick]

13. Elite Theory says that elites always rule. Every revolt has elites at the lead.

We need to find friendly elites to unite and lead the masses.

[adirondacker]

15. I was thinking the same as I watched Batman 1 last night on netflicks. Then reading Chris' piece...

"There were 7,765 arrests of people in the movement. Occupy, at its peak, had about 350,000 people—or about 0.1 percent of the U.S. population.

“Look how afraid the power structure was of a mere 1/10th of 1 percent of the population,” Zeese said. “What happens when the movement grows to 1 percent—not a far reach—or the 5 percent that some research shows is the tipping point where no government, dictatorship or democracy can withstand the pressure from below?”"

Makes you wonder, once a tipping point is reached, how many and how far things will go.

[KoKo]

38. Maybe post #13.

I think something has to come from within that "inspires." We need examples dead or living. Dead is preferable. That way they can't be corrupted, assassinated or manipulated thereby harming the spiritual movement. Just throwing it out there...mostly my rambling.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. I'm confused - the revolt in China was a civil war that lasted about 20 years

(including WW2) involving large opposing armies. But I don't see the Latin American liberation movements like that - it wasn't opposing armies that got rid of their dictators. And Spain's civil war was caused by a coup by Franco against the socialist government - and Franco unfortunately won (or does he mean how Spain rejected dictatorship after Franco died?). When he says Russia, does he mean when the Soviet Union replaced Tsarist Russia (civil war over a few years), or when the Soviet Union fell - a collapse, in which a last attempt to hold on to power caused the final fall of the Soviet Union and its Communist party? And the less industrialized Slavic republics at what point in history?

Can someone say what Hedges thinks 'our revolt' will look like? He seems to have named some very different revolts.

[salib]

32. From the article

“The mass,” Goldman wrote bitterly toward the end of her life in echoing Marx, “clings to its masters, loves the whip, and is the first to cry Crucify!”

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. I had already read that. What has it to do with my question?

The context of Goldman's lament is the kind of revolt, or lack of it, that Hedges says won't happen in the US - in countries with a strong workers' movement. But that gets us nowhere closer to the question of what he means with that apparently random list of countries.

[Frustratedlady]

19. Shoot, if the masses showed up in DC with pitchforks...

you wouldn't be able to find a Republican in miles.

They are all hot air and spit.

[daleanime]

33. +1

[KoKo]

58. We did show up after Stolen Election and BEFORE Iraq Invasion......

But...showing up with "Pitchforks?" LOL's

On a Road in NC when Bush II did his entourage meeting his Big Investor here...he speeded by in his Black Limo with SS following in smaller SUV's and those of us protesting his Invasion of Iraq were put behind the "Barricades" and our "sticks on our Poster Board Hand Written Messages to Bush II" were confiscated....because, we were told the sticks to hold our signs in the ground could be a "Weapon" to target the President in his Motorcade.

Like signs to hold posters could be a WMD against a fortified Presidential LIMO that WE could be a THREAT. No...problem ...we held our home made "poster board signs" with our OWN HANDS as he passed by. He "grinned through the tinted windows of the Limo...at us in our Metal Cage.

I will never forget the brave citizens who stood out on that highway...defending our Rights and Against that Invasion.

It was a big crowd...maybe 200 or so along that road to his Big Benson and Hedges Cigarette Manufacturer Benefactor.

It's HISTORY...but...it's cataloged out there for all to see if the SEARCH.

[Myrina]

22. I agree with Emma Goldman ...

... especially here in Indiana, we repeatedly see that people love love love to 'stick it' to "the other" and side with the corporatocracy (not realizing that they will never, ever, NEVER be part of that corporatocracy who's dirty work they're doing) in hopes of keeping "the other" in it's place.

[Shemp Howard]

23. An article from dreamland.

What does the author mean by "revolt"? If he's talking about a left-wing Tea Party style of action, then maybe he's making a few good points.

But if he's talking about a revolution in the style of Russia in 1917, then he's dreaming.

Revolution here in the US? No way. People who think that way enjoy styling themselves as the next Marx, or Lenin, or Che, complete with all that "we must develop a revolutionary theory" talk.

But they would do better to focus their energies on electing honest progressives from their home states.

Let me point out a couple of facts.

The USA is not Tsarist Russia or Batista's Cuba, or even colonial America.

Unlike those last three, the US has a safety value that prevents continued mass discontent. That safety value is the Democratic party.

There are many corrupt aspects of the Democratic Party, to be sure. But the Party does move - sometimes slowly - in the direction that the people want. The Party adjusts. Simply compare the Democratic leadership from, say, 1950, to those of today. Today's leaders are much more progressive.

The Democratic Party will, by its very nature, prevent any revolutionary group from reaching a critical mass of public support.

And here's a second, darker, fact.

The US security apparatus is very efficient, and very well-paid. And there is no reason at all to think that will not continue. And that apparatus has the gut support of many people.

Any revolutionary movement that became at all threatening to DC would face another Ruby Ridge event. And few people would care as long as their cable TV still worked.

[marmar]

26. "That safety value is the Democratic party."

That ceased being true about 30 years ago.


"Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power."

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/rise_up_or_die_20130519

[Eleanors38]

28. Completely agree. The Democratic Party is a corporate bureaucracy

almost devoid of a philosophy and plan of action and WANTS it that way so its de facto allegiance to corporate power is never in question as it was during FDR and even later.

It NO LONGER HAS THE VIABILITY to be a safety valve for anything.

"One fist of iron
The other of steel,
If the right one don't get ya
Then the left one we-eee-ll"

T. E. Ford

[adirondacker]

31. Love that quote!

[Shemp Howard]

29. Believe it or not, I agree with you!

I agree with every part of your post, marmar.

There are many more progressives in the Democratic Party today than years ago, and that's a good thing.

But often the leadership does the wrong thing (for corporate reasons), then says the right thing, just enough to keep the average Democrat loyal.

Oh, but there are so many examples of that. The Democratic leadership supported union-busting NAFTA, but now talks about the importance of unions. Etc., etc.

Now here I'm dreaming, but what would happen if huge numbers of people starting organizing against NAFTA?

The Democratic Party would not dig in, as the tsar did back in 1917.

The Democratic Party would self-adjust, and push to modify NAFTA. The modifications would be mainly window dressing. But it would be enough to keep any third way from attracting a critical mass of support.

I'm not usually one for smilies, but

[adirondacker]

30. The recent Mark Fiore clip comes to mind...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1017&pid=148107

[KoKo]

48. In my Darkest Hours...I see your view...but, I think we can move forward

with many of the Dem Party that Roosevelt defined...but with some Overhaul of holding our ELECTEDS ACCOUNTABLE.

Wishful thinking on my part? The Alternative of where the Repugs are is so HORRIFIC that how could one consider incorporating ANY of their RW Views into Dem Party as we MORPH towards the Future...with so many wonderful YOUNG...who are Internet Friendly and have a HISTORY ..and know where to FIND...what they don't know to PUSH BACK.

I'm a great believer in the NEW LEFT...Up and Coming . I see them Everywhere..

Feel glad that they have a BASE OF HISTORY their ELDERS left them to BE LEFT! 's

Something GOOD IS COMING...for HUMANITY....

SOME OF US MIGHT NOT MAKE IT....but, it's a GOOD THING. And those here who were part of it should "Pat Ourselves on the Back" that we were ONLINE at that Crucial Time.

Even giving DU some Credit is a good thing... Without it .....what would be?

[snagglepuss]

40. to read later

[KoKo]

46. Something here is Wishing for a New View...........We are Seeking.

because so little else has worked in the past few Decades. Seekers.

[KoKo]

47. BTW....Chris Hedges does have a "core of belief" of "Good Conquers Evil"...from

his Religious Background.

Some may not like that...others might remember a time when they thought their CHURCH would FIGHT AGAINST WARS...and our Churches left us BEHIND.

[struggle4progress]

42. "Revolt" is not an agenda. It is always possible to put together disparate coalitions

of persons opposing the status quo for various reasons, and in times of great discontent such coalitions may indeed succeed in toppling the existing social structures. Hedges, with his long history of addition to the excitement and chaos he experienced as a war correspondent, may find the prospect of "revolt" thrilling

But the history of disparate coalitions toppling existing structures through "revolt" is no necessarily encouraging: at the moment of "success," the likely outcome is simply that the "rebels" must encounter the reality that they have no common agenda and no common goals, other than their "rebellion" -- when the moment of truth comes, and it is time to actually construct the tower to heaven, then, like the would-be builders in the Babel myth, they discover they do not really speak the same language; they agreed on some meaningless "philosophical" points but never agreed on nitty-gritty detailsm, which means that once again they find themselves crying for "strong leaders" -- and then those who have spent their time positioning themselves seize control

That is, for example, what happened in the Iranian revolution. Opponents of the Shah were a diverse group, including anti-authoritarian modernists and reactionary traditionalists. For various local cultural reasons, the "rebellion" found it convenient to use the mosques as organizing centers -- but this meant that when the revolution "succeeded," a group of fundamentalist clerics had positioned themselves politically to take control -- and thus the dictatorship of the Shah was effectively transformed in another form of dictatorship

There is no simple way to restructure the complex industrial societies with a single blow or a few well-positioned blows. Any realistic proposal for change must take into account the fact that the structure of modern complex societies involves the reflexive thought processes, the daily habits, and the countless tiny interactions of millions and millions of people -- and none of that is easily changed

[BelgianMadCow]

44. Let revolt evolve into rEVOLution, then

because if said disparate coalition realises they are one more than they differ, all that is needed is a long, complex dialogue.

But I have to agree, it can never be "swift".

[gopiscrap]

51. Interesting

[KoKo]

54. It's time for discussions amongst us going forward.

I wish we had had this Decades BEFORE.

We like Obama and his personality is very "Down to Earth."

But, he won't be President FOREVER.

[eridani]

59. I find it interesting to read this and "The New New Left" together n/t