Chris Hedges: On a dream deferred to capitalism

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On a dream deferred to capitalism

By Tirdad Derakhshani

Inquirer Staff Writer

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"Our manufacturing base has been destroyed. Tens of millions of Americans live in real or near poverty. Our infrastructure is collapsing," he says. "We have massive deficits that we can never repay. . . . And we have a permanent war economy" that eats up "half our discretionary spending."

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We are the 30 million deliriously upbeat Americans glued to the set each week for American Idol. (And we dream that someday, we, too, will be international stars.) We are the millions who devour magazines and TV specials that make us think we have intimate relationships with Cameron Diaz, or Robert Pattinson, or (heaven forbid!) Amy Winehouse.

We think we are happy, Hedges argues, because we think consumer culture - and the corporate power that underlies it - empowers us. In reality, it robs us of our moral autonomy.

Hedges says that our consumer conditioning has reduced "the values of thrift, a sense of community and self-sacrifice" to "a need for self-gratification." Democracy is reduced to the same level as "consumer choice or voting on American Idol."

The discrepancy between perception and reality, Hedges argues, has generated a culture of illusions that allow citizens to hide from reality. Infantilized by advertising, the media, and celebrity culture, we have become incapable of recognizing - much less fixing - the degradation of our social, political, and economic system.

"We are the most illusioned society on the face of the earth," Hedges said. "Oprah, the Christian right, self-help gurus, Hollywood tell us that we can have everything we want. And it's an illusion."

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http://www.philly.com/inquirer/magazine/20090728_On_a_dream_deferred_to_capitalism.html