Chris Hedges - A Man Of Our Times
By Jim Miles
18 October, 2011
Countercurrents.org
I am sure I have come across Chris Hedge’s name before, and perhaps read some of his material, but never has the connection been so strong as now. With the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement becoming more and more prominent, Chris Hedges’ writing and observations on power and control by the corporate class has come to the fore. As if suddenly - but probably not truly so suddenly, it’s just my miss - his writing is featured in many alternate news web sites and interviews on various topics are up front and centre in many of these sites.
In order to become even more familiar with his ideas, I spent a week reading three of his most recent works: American Fascists (Free Press, 2006); The World As It Is (Nation Books, 2010); and Death of the Liberal Class (Vintage Canada, 2010). My short summary is that he is right on target with all his commentaries. His war correspondence experience, his take on the manipulations of the corporate world, his views on global warming, his questions on 9/11 combine with an easily accessible writing style readily accessible to all readers.
And reading the written word, from one of his comments during an OWS interview, is of prime importance - that reading allows the participant time to think, compare, analyze, and judge situations much more thoroughly than with any of contemporary media, from television through to all the more modern cell phone gadgets, that can churn out endless streams of immediate response commentary without the thought needed for context and background.
Chris Hedge’s modesty and humanity during an interview on Occupy TVNY is real and obvious (available on Youtube or at Axis of Logic). He supports the movement, saying in effect that while they reflect his writings they are doing something…something brilliant. That brilliance comes from the movements openness, honesty, clarity, lack of a centralized leadership, and its non violent approach to their actions, refusing to be instigated into violent reactions that the police and corporate powers understand.
Chris Hedge’s work is now in my pantheon of knowledgeable powerful voices who speak truth to power - Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and Robert Fisk among the best known. I would urge all readers to pick up one of his books, (“The World As It Is” is most appropriate for the OWS movement) and search him out on Youtube. A brilliant down to earth writer and humanist.
Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews for The Palestine Chronicle. His original interest in global affairs came from the environmental perspective, with the realization that ultimately it is the corporate-military agenda that determines the human impact on the environment and on human cultures around the globe. Miles’ work has been published globally on a wide range of websites and in print, including among others Axis of Logic, Znet, Countercurrents, Atlantic Free Press, Scoop, Axis of Logic, and Foreign Policy Journal.
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