georgephillip
Diamond Member
Chris Hedges on how Empires die:
"Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia.
"The growing divide between the worlds elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planets largest internment camp..."
"The impending collapse of the international economy, the... precipitous decline in crop yields and rising food prices are creating a universe where power is divided between the narrow elites, who hold in their hands sophisticated instruments of death, and the enraged masses.
"The crises are fostering a class war that will dwarf anything imagined by Karl Marx..."
"Market forces and the military mechanisms that protect these forces are the sole ideology that governs industrial states and humans relationship to the natural world.
"It is an ideology that results in millions of dead and millions more displaced from their homes in the developing world.
"And the awful algebra of this ideology means that these forces will eventually be unleashed on us, too. Those who cannot be of use to market forces are considered expendable.
"They have no rights and legitimacy. Their existence, whether in Gaza or blighted postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., is considered a drain on efficiency and progress..."
"The concept of the common good is no longer part of the lexicon of power..." "It is Rome under Diocletian. It is us. Empires, in the end, decay into despotic, murderous and corrupt regimes that finally consume themselves.
"And we, like Israel, are now coughing up blood.
Chris Hedges: Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
"Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia.
"The growing divide between the worlds elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planets largest internment camp..."
"The impending collapse of the international economy, the... precipitous decline in crop yields and rising food prices are creating a universe where power is divided between the narrow elites, who hold in their hands sophisticated instruments of death, and the enraged masses.
"The crises are fostering a class war that will dwarf anything imagined by Karl Marx..."
"Market forces and the military mechanisms that protect these forces are the sole ideology that governs industrial states and humans relationship to the natural world.
"It is an ideology that results in millions of dead and millions more displaced from their homes in the developing world.
"And the awful algebra of this ideology means that these forces will eventually be unleashed on us, too. Those who cannot be of use to market forces are considered expendable.
"They have no rights and legitimacy. Their existence, whether in Gaza or blighted postindustrial cities such as Camden, N.J., is considered a drain on efficiency and progress..."
"The concept of the common good is no longer part of the lexicon of power..." "It is Rome under Diocletian. It is us. Empires, in the end, decay into despotic, murderous and corrupt regimes that finally consume themselves.
"And we, like Israel, are now coughing up blood.
Chris Hedges: Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig