Waiting for the Barbarians - By Chris Hedges

[kpete]

Waiting for the Barbarians

Posted on Nov 27, 2016

By Chris Hedges



Mr. Fish

We await the crisis. It could be economic. It could be a terrorist attack within the United States. It could be widespread devastation caused by global warming. It could be nationwide unrest as the death spiral of the American empire intensifies. It could be another defeat in our endless and futile wars. The crisis is coming. And when it arrives it will be seized upon by the corporate state, nominally led by a clueless real estate developer, to impose martial law and formalize the end of American democracy.

When we look back on this sad, pathetic period in American history we will ask the questions all who have slid into despotism ask. Why were we asleep? How did we allow this to happen? Why didn’t we see it coming? Why didn’t we resist?

Why did we allow the corporate state to strip away the rights of poor people of color and force them to live in terror in mini-police states? Why did we build the world’s largest system of mass incarceration? Did we not see that the rest of us would be next? Why did we agree that those defined by the state as terrorists could not only be deprived of their rights but be assassinated? Did we think the state would restrict itself to persecuting and murdering Muslims? Why did we remain silent as the state arrogated to itself the right to detain and prosecute people not for what they had done, or even for what they were planning to do, but for holding religious or political beliefs that the state deemed seditious? Why did we stand by and permit the state to torture? Did we not see that once rights became privileges the state would one day revoke them?

The failure of our capitalist democracy was collective. It was bred by ignorance, indifference, racism, bigotry and the seduction of mass propaganda. It was bred by elites, especially in the press, the courts and academia, who chose careerism over moral and intellectual courage. Our rights as citizens were taken from us one by one. There was hardly a word of protest.




the rest:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/waiting_for_the_barbarians_201611271

[longship]

1. Hedges paints a bleak portrait here.

I support his clarion call.

R&

[SharonAnn]

11. Read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein

It explains exactly how this works.

Some kind of shock (natural or created) and the right-wingers get to implement their policies to "fix" things. It's been used internationally and nationally.

Once you understand that they can create a problem and then "solve" it by their actions, you can see a lot of times this has happened in the last 10-20 years.

As one example, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina - privatize all schools and divert the money to private "investors".

[longship]

12. I've read it. Twice. Shocking indeed! nt

[world wide wally]

2. We thought American democracy worked...

Until it didn't

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. "Did we not see that once rights became privileges the state would one day revoke them? "

He should know..he has seen this movie in many other countries, up close.

[2naSalit]

3. K&R

[CrispyQ]

4. Worth the time to read it all.

Kick.

[left-of-center2012]

5. With Attorney General Sessions and ...

With Attorney General Sessions and a Trump Supreme Court,
kiss our democracy goodbye.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. "It was bred by ignorance, indifference, racism, bigotry and the seduction of mass propaganda"

Indeed.

[smirkymonkey]

7. K&R

[ancianita]

8. I hope, along with his call to expect the worst, that we all hope for the best.

[Lifelong Protester]

9. I clicked on this knowing

it would be a bleak read. It was.

[Dustlawyer]

10. We had a couple of experienced candidates they did not choose.

One advocated for Publicly Funded Elections and an end to campaign contributions. He also stood for universal healthcare, busting up the big banks and the media conglomerates, but our country chose an orange, mentally ill, racist, sexist, xenophobic, plutocratic, con-man instead!

We had a real turning point where we could stop the downward spiral of our country instead of the other way around, which will cause a free fall into despotism!

[Paladin]

13. K&R.

[marcopolo63]

14. Are we talking "Shock Doctrine" here?

Last edited Mon Dec 5, 2016, 02:33 PM - Edit history (1)

It may be too late for "the revolution", but I will not go down without a fight. This corruption will not be the end of us or the U.S. It can't be and good Americans won't allow it...

[Shandris]

16. Because you were scared and comfortable.

Any other simple questions anyone with a critical eye can answer if 4 seconds or less?

[moondust]

17. "How did we allow this to happen?"

No doubt millions of people including myself have asked that question about Germany through the years. Modern country, smart people, WTF? One suspicion I have is that in the 1930s mass media was a fairly new thing and a lot of people may have been unwittingly susceptible to propaganda. "If it's on the radio then it must be true." Nationalistic cohesion and fervor kicked in and there was no stopping it.

Americans don't have that excuse. Some probably are brainwashed by a steady diet of Fox News and Limbaugh. I think that's where this "post-truth" age of politically motivated, biased media narratives and alternate realities originated. Others may have simply said "business as usual isn't working for me and it's time to roll the dice." Or jump out of the airplane and hope we land on a haystack. There was only one major candidate that on the surface seemed to offer a pivot away from business as usual: the middle-finger candidate. Sadly, it's too easy to forget that all change is not for the better.

Now where's that haystack?