LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman. Winner 2013 Webby Awards for Best Political Website
May 23, 2013

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     chris hedges     economy     elizabeth warren     politics     robert scheer
Most Read

A Call to Action

Bizarre, Apparently Jihadist Slaying in London (Video)

Oklahoma Needs Help, Not Ideology

Hell on Earth for Greeks

Terracide and the Terrarists: Destroying the Planet for Record Profits

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * Fish Migration Reveals Ocean Warming

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
 * NEW! * A Call to Action
Act of Congress
Daily Rituals

Digs

Truthdig Bazaar
Daddy Goes to Work

Daddy Goes to Work

By Jabari Asim
$12.47

more items

 
A/V Booth

Chris Hedges on ‘Illusion,’ Corporatism and Inverted Totalitarianism

Email this item Email    Print this item Print    Share this item... Share

Posted on Feb 3, 2010
Geithner and Summers
AP / Lawrence Jackson

In the service of citizens or corporations?: Timothy Geithner, left foreground, then treasury secretary-designate,  and Lawrence Summers, then National Economic Council director-designate, listen to then-President-elect Barack Obama in early January 2009.

In this interview with Vermont Public Radio’s Neal Charnoff, “Empire of Illusion” author and Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges emphasizes what makes his book’s argument different from that of the stereotypical elder who disapproves of emerging artistic and cultural forms: “I’m not attacking culture, I’m attacking corporatism,” he tells Charnoff.

Hedges also describes the difference between totalitarianism and inverted totalitarianism (“economics trumps politics”) and what’s wrong with the education provided these days by such vaunted Ivy League institutions as Harvard, Princeton and Yale.  —KA

Click here to hear the interview on VPR’s website.

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page. Still having problems? Let us know. If you find yourself moderated, take a moment to review our comment policy.

By liecatcher, February 6, 2010 at 1:57 pm Link to this comment

Chris Hedges on ‘Illusion,’ Corporatism and Inverted
Totalitarianism

IMO, the 8 minute Vermont Public Radio interview is
worth listening to
if you substitute the word deception for the word
illusion.
Also, keep:
“Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction” foremost
in your mind.”
And when Harvard is mentioned, think Rockefeller &
Larry Summers. Yale brings to mind SKULL & BONES &
the BUSH CRIME FAMILY.
Furthermore, realize that the phrase: “economics
trumps politics” is an oxymoron since the Oligarchs
control everything.

Report this

By jack, February 5, 2010 at 5:15 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

identical ability to achieve, then capitalism would be most perfect

of course it will never be perfect and, if not already clearly apparent, will certainly
one day be reviled as crude barbarism, though it’s hard to say if the human race
will survive that long

Report this

By ofersince72, February 5, 2010 at 1:04 pm Link to this comment

He sure nailed it…
the reason i am ofer,\\\\ i have never voted
for a president that has won since 1972
I have voted Nader since 88

I used to stay registared Dem so I could vote
for Senate and House seats

This fantacy that he speaks of goes WAY, WAY back!!!

Report this

By jack, February 5, 2010 at 2:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I’m with you, Chris, I voted for Nader too - the only sensible candidate.

Sadly, I agree, the empire is in irreversible collapse, perhaps for the best, who
knows? As a serious artist in and of his time, I find it literally impossible to
move with the flow of the times and create absurdist postmodern work, typically
about “nothing.”

Rather, I am compelled to render artistically the most compelling story of our times: the fall of the empire into the ashes of the Global War Of Terror - http://www.thefall01.info/ - companion piece soon to be released in A/V format - http://www.lamentatio.info/ - work pursued as much, if not more, for scholars millennia from now, as artistic renderings of what went on - not unlike an Illiad and Odyssey for our time.

If interested, we’d love to host you as a guest of honor, to introduce the release screening of LAMENTATIO, sometime in the next few months - editing is in final stages - the work includes unique roles fitted and filled by local disabled movement and theatrical artists and co-authored by the director of Impetus Arts -
http://www.impetusarts.org/Impetus_Arts/Impetus_Arts_Home.html - again, if interested, please contact us through either website.

Report this

By ma77hew, February 4, 2010 at 9:51 am Link to this comment

They cut him off?
Did I download it wrong?

Report this
Newsletter

sign up to get updates


 
 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
© 2013 Truthdig, LLC. All rights reserved.