Death of the Liberal Class is perhaps the most profound book I have read in this NEW century.
Chris Hedges is an outstanding researcher and writer as well as analyst as he has demonstrated repeatedly in his previous books as well as in his war coverage for The New York Times.
Death of the Liberal Class makes one think. Engages one. Lots of troubling observations but lots of evidence, fact, examples and sources to back up the author's observations and conclusions.
I had trouble reading it. It really made me stop and think for a few hours, even in the middle of chapters. Sometimes at mid-page.
As a "liberal" myself, I found the thesis to be quite troubling. The title, at first, prompted me to think it was going to be about the "death" of tactics and strategery of "the liberal class" to counter the Capitalist Lobbying and Campaign Contribution bribery/religious zealot extremist right wing. No. It is about HOW the "liberal class" has facilitated to exploitation and destruction of the "99 per cent" in exchange for mere money, influence, power, status and celebrity.
The thesis is that the "liberal class" itself, rather than serving as opposition to Cartel Capitalism (my words) has rather "enabled" (greased the skids) for the "hostile takeover" (my words) of governments at every level by Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalism my words).
The "Liberal Class" has been enticed into being mere gophers for the Center of Power on Wall Street with "liberal" and "democratic" window dressing to cover-up the continued totalitarian/authoritarian Cartel Capitalist exploitation of workers, consumers and what Occupy Wall Street calls "The 99 Per Cent".
What we have seen with the gi-normous Big Wall Street Banks and the Financial Industry in general is that they have been "betting" against their own investors as well as their own country by turning the stock market into a casino extraction of wealth from the 99 per cent.
The Big Banksters were bailed out by the Federal Reserve to the tune of $26 Trillion (amount from Keith Olbermann's program Countdown on CURRENT TV/Bloomberg) and then the Big Banks did NOT lend it out to ***stimulate*** the economy and create jobs. The Big Banksters also made criminally fraudulent mortgage loans to people THEY KNEW couldn't afford the monthlies and would default, and then SOLD the tainted mortgages to their OWN investors while kicking people out of their homes by foreclosing on mortgages that the Big Banks KNEW were fraudulent and unstable from the very robo-signing beginning.
Recently, that the Criminally Negligent Big Banksters tried and failed (the "market" revolted via "Occupy") to impose a $5 monthly fee for use of debit cards when the Banksters not only did NOT have to spend any money or labor on the process. PLUS, they were already saving millions and billions by getting rid of human tellers and using ATMs...and using DEBIT CARDS! (ATMs and Debit Card devices don't require salaries, health and pension benefits, and the like let alone all-night stands by check-separator human employee working deep in the vault every single day.
My observation: the "job creators" have not been creating jobs. The Big Banks have used OPM "Other People's Money" to accumulate more wealth and power for themselves and "The One Percent" while forcing so-called "austerity" measures on the American people by cutting federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and environmental regulation and demanding that the weak regulations and weak regulators which exist now be eliminated. The "Liberal Class" has reduced itself to being gophers for "The One Percent".
One ends the book by seeing that Bush/Cheney/Delay/Rumsfeld/Rove is NOT the problem. The problem is actually the so-called "Liberal Class" which has basically been lured by -- yes, wealth, power, and celebrity -- to shed their "liberal souls" and become mouthpieces for the Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalists on Wall Street. (Again my words, not his.)
As I view the economic and political landscape in the era of "Occupy Wall Street" I can see clear examples of the abject failure of "the liberal class". Obama is one; even more so are his two Chiefs of Staff: Rahm Emmanuel and Bill Daley, the first a Capitalist gopher suck-up wannabe and the second a Cartel Capitalist who also managed to lose the 2000 election for Al Gore. My own "liberal" Democratic Congressman, for instance, not only voted FOR the damned debt deal (D3) in August 2011, he SPOKE on the floor of the House in favor of it! With "friends" like these, who needs Nixon? Not only that, but I have known this gentleman since he first ran for office in 1973 yet I have sent him at least 100 snail- and emails just this year alone and he has not bothered to personally reply to a single one. The feedback/accountability loop with We The People has been broken and then attached to the Goldman-Sachses of the world.
What was really troubling about the book was thinking about my whether at any given point I really was "Liberal" or was I really an enabler for concentrated authoritarian wealth and power on Wall Street? I concluded that many times I had been, especially by succumbing to the "lesser of two evils" Democratic Campaigns. ("Fear Michele Bachmann, etc.). I thought I had voted FOR someone for President in 2008 but that guy never showed up. I will never again be scared into voting for a Democrat because I fear the alternative. The Democrat will have to stand for liberal principle and "earn" my vote day by day. Plus, I want to vote FOR something and not AGAINST something or someone.
A classic example of Hedge's "Death of the Liberal Class" thesis is among the "talking heads" pundits and hosts on television. For instance, the sell-out by MSNBC in firing Cenk Uygar of The Young Turks (now on CURRENT TV) because -- the Cartel Capitalist broadcast executive said-- that Uygar was not an "insider". After firing Phil Donahue and Keith Olbermann, MSNBC in reality appears to be quite timid despite the presence of Dylan Ratigan, Lawrence O'Donnell and Rachel Maddow.
The New York Times, a liberal establishment institution, is one of the Cartel Capitalist-owned news, media and entertainment culture industry institutions -- like the networks, local dailies, and local TV stations. The NYT offers "news" but what they DON'T tell you is often more important than what they DO tell you. Either that, or in The Times, the REAL news -- the real news hook or lead or headline -- is often buried in paragraph 13 or 18, especially regarding "business" news. Most of it, like the networks, dailies, local TV wastelands, is shallow and superficial.
Moreover, Carcinogenic Cartel Capitalist advertising and marketing is designed to manipulate one's raw emotion -- especially fear -- to get you to buy stuff they don't NEED with money they don't HAVE! "Are you afraid you are not cool" the ads manipulate, "then BUY this product that you DON'T need and pay for it with money you don't HAVE and you will be Real Cool!" Or you'll get the girl. Or boy. Or won't feel in secure or fearful anymore. And so on...
"Death of the Liberal Class" is a quite important book. I recommend it highly.
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Top reviews from other countries
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on December 12, 2024
Puts today's political climate into perspective
- PizzaroReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2011
Alarmingly incisive; 100% free from cliches
- john james curranReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 24, 2023
Pretend Liberalism?
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in Canada on February 16, 2011
"We have met the enemy and he is us.".....Pogo
- Ade in the zoneReviewed in the United Kingdom on July 29, 2020
Another good book from Mr Hedges
