Power is not to be conquered, it is to be destroyed. It is tyrannical by nature, whether exercised by a king, a dictator or an elected president. The only difference with the parliamentarian ‘democracy’ is that the modern slave has the illusion of choosing the master he will obey. The vote has made him an accomplice to the tyranny that oppresses him. He is not a slave because masters exist; masters exist because he elects to remain a slave. -Jean Francois Brient
The great journalist Chris Hedges is no sycophant of power. Unlike the court-intellectuals David Brooks or Thomas Freedman, Hedges speaks iconoclastic truth to the most powerful empire of lies on the planet.
Hedges has risked his life reporting throughout the Middle East, Serbia, East Germany, and most recently he has explored the deepest pockets of poverty within the United States in his book (written with Joe Sacco) Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. He has drawn great scorn from the establishment, an heir to Chomsky, criticizing Israeli apartheid in Palestine and US imperialism in the Middle East. He is also a champion of whistleblowers, supporting Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden, calling such sources the “lifeblood of journalism.”
Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg and others have recently won a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the National Defense Authorization Act, which according to the judge Katherine B. Forrest, enables the government to carry out a repeat of Japanese internment by stripping US subjects of their (illusory to begin with) “rights,” which are really temporary privileges.
Again, Hedges is no pansy when it comes to speaking truth to power, and risking his own life and reputation in the name of justice. But his political philosophy appears a bit conflicted.
In a recent interview on The Real News with Paul Jay, Hedges makes a seemingly radical argument about the appropriate relationship between the people and the monopoly on violence under which they live: In light of the fascist marriage of the Democratic and Republican party, who squabble over the details in the blueprint for corporation-state oppression, Hedges advocates a tactic of mass popular uprising, to keep the power elite afraid of the people.
“…[W]e as citizens have through the traditional structures of power been left powerless to respond. ...
I think Hedges is right when he says that it doesn't matter who is in office, they just need to be afraid of the people. Therein lies much of our problem in the US. Our politicians are not afraid of us in any real sense. They're afraid of losing their jobs, but that is less in our control than it is the special interests that fund their campaigns. I enjoyed the Nixon moment:And there’s a scene–I think it’s in Kissinger’s memoirs, 1971, huge antiwar demonstration surrounding the White House, and Nixon has put empty buses, city buses end-to-end as a kind of barricade, and he’s standing at the window wringing his hands, going, Henry, they’re going to break through the barricades and get us.