NP....but RT....esp the odious Chris Hedges. Sorry, there are too many pics I can't cut to send a cut and paste.....

[jody2.718]

"In which the once good Chris Hedges who would, of course..."

It was once upon a time, when he preached that "War" is an organizing principal, as much as religion, on which our culture depends, and he got booed off the stage at a Rockford College, Illinois, graduation- had his mic cut off, and was generally drowned out by the conservative audience; It was also reported in the NY Times at that time- many tears ago.

But, as Roger Mexico made explicit in GR, War is a Mother with teats of ice, and nothing organizes society faster and more completely than her baleful gaze, excepting maybe her husband, Mr. Missile. War is the go to answer for Fascists and Democrats alike, when confronted with any great uncertainty that threatens to shake up the hierarchy of the powers that be. War belies not just an overweening sense of entitlement of the elite- of which Hedges might be considered- but a real lack of imagination and creativity, not to mention humility, compassion, understanding, generosity, altruism, etc., etc,- when confronted with impending cataclysms that threaten to upend the status quo. They externalize their own shortcomings at the expense of the rest of us, and treat us like ballast for their Yachts of State.

Threatened as we are on many fronts from the pandemic, to climate change, to unsustainable inequality, the current level of uncertainty facing the world, while perhaps not quite apocalyptic, is at least surreal; . As Russia slouches toward Kyiv, the center of the peace between the "great" powers, based on the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction, which has kept annihilation off the "playing" field, is failing.

It is revealing that those who would purport to be people of peace, like the self-promoting Hedges (well named at least) would be gravitating toward centers of power, expressing more of an elite ability to float above it all and go wherever they might, than to exhibit real leadership. (I know I'm being unfair, but...)

Faced with the current uncertainties, is there any chance to flip the coin and base our survival on a new organizing principle- like big MAC, or Mutually Assured Cooperation?

I can't hear much in the wind today but I could probably use a hearing aid at this point.