Economics dominates politics - and with that domination comes different forms of ruthlessness. Chris Hedges More Quotes by Chris Hedges More Quotes From Chris Hedges Positive psychology is to the corporate state what eugenics was to the Nazis Chris Hedges nazi eugenics psychology We on the left have forgotten that the question is not how do you get good people to rule, most people who rule are mediocre at best and usually venal. The question is how do we make those in power frightened of us and not be seduced by formal political processes. Chris Hedges political forgotten people Becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species. Chris Hedges vegetarian becoming important I don't fight fascists because I'll win. I fight fascists because they are fascists. Chris Hedges fascists fighting winning We have been very effectively pacified by the pernicious ideology of a consumer society that is centered on the cult of the self - an undiluted hedonism and narcissism. That has become a very effective way to divert our attention while the country is reconfigured into a kind of neofeudalism, with a rapacious oligarchic elite and an anemic government that no longer is able to intercede on behalf of citizens but cravenly serves the interests of the oligarchy itself. Chris Hedges government self country Unfettered capitalism is a revolutionary force that consumes greater and greater numbers of human lives until it finally consumes itself. Chris Hedges force revolutionary numbers The more we retreat from the culture at large the more room we will have to carve out lives of meaning, the more we will be able to wall off the flood of illusions disseminated by mass culture and the more we will retain sanity in an insane world. Chris Hedges mass-culture insane-world wall Most of these students are so conditioned to success that they become afraid to take risks. They have been taught from a young age by zealous parents, schools, and institutional authorities what constitutes failure and success. They are socialized to obey. They obsess over grades and seek to please professors, even if what professors teach is fatuous. The point is to get ahead, and getting ahead means deference to authority. Challenging authority is never a career advancer. Chris Hedges careers mean school To emotionally accept impending disaster, to attain the gut-level understanding that the power elite will not respond rationally to the devastation of the ecosystem, is as difficult to accept as our own mortality. The most daunting existential struggle of our time is to ingest this awful truth-intellect ually and emotionally-and continue to resist the forces that are destroying us. Chris Hedges ecosystems understanding struggle Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds expression in the anonymity of the Corporate State. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution while manipulating internal levers. Chris Hedges democracy leader expression I'm not saying we're going to win. I am saying rebellion becomes a way to protect your own dignity. Corporations are, theologically speaking, institutions of death. They commodify everything - the natural world, human beings - that they exploit until exhaustion or collapse. They know no limits. Chris Hedges corporations winning world The evil of predatory global capitalism and empire has spawned the evil of terrorism Chris Hedges empires terrorism evil War is addictive. Indeed, it is the most potent narcotic unleashed by mankind. Chris Hedges mankind war peace The press, or at least most of it, has lost the passion, the outrage, and the sense of mission that once drove reporters to defy authority and tell the truth. Chris Hedges passion media-control telling-the-truth The true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. Chris Hedges careers purpose mind If we don't hold fast to our moral principles, nobody's going to. We don't have to have a majority, but once ten, fifteen, twenty million people start voting left, we'll scare the piss out of the Democrats, and they'll have to respond. But they're not going to respond to us until that happens. Chris Hedges scare voting people It is one of the great ironies of corporate control that the corporate state needs the abilities of intellectuals to maintain power, yet outside of this role it refuses to permit intellectuals to think or function independently. Chris Hedges roles needs thinking The greatest danger that besets us does not come from believers or atheists; it comes from those who, under the guise of religion, science or reason, imagine that we can free ourselves from the limitations of human nature and perfect the human species. Chris Hedges atheist perfect doe There are no impediments now to corporations. None. And what they want is for us to give up. They want us to become passive. They want us to become tacitly complicit in our own destruction. Chris Hedges corporations giving-up want Violence is a disease, a disease that corrupts all who use it regardless of the cause. Chris Hedges disease violence use
