I just finished reading Chris Hedges's pessimistic, but not nihilistic book, Death of the Liberal Class. I think his case is overstated, but well worth reading because I think he is much more right than wrong. In the 1960's the confrontation between the liberals and the radicals included the charge that the liberals had "sold out." Hedges is angry with liberals for selling out across many fronts, for failing to live up to their ideals. I think this is exaggerated, because I believe there are many liberals in universities (with tenure) and politicians (in safe districts) who have not sold out their principles (they were not necessarily heroes, but already secure and not for sale). But the claim that the corporations have won and that they dominate our political system and increasingly our culture rings true to me. I concur that corporations have bought the Democratic party in significant ways (the near abandonment of the poor, the favors to the financial class, the failure to protect the environment adequately). I suspect he is right that it is too late to rescue our environment and even if it is not to late, it is hard to understand how our political system could muster the political will to do something about it before it is too late. Hedges sees a very dark future ahead for our children at the very least. Nonetheless, he calls upon us to rebel in very ways against the system. He believes that such dissent is necessary for us to cling to our humanity whether or not we are effective. There is a community of discourse between political radicals like Hedges and the Anabaptists, the Quakers, and the Catholic Workers (he spends some pages on the latter).
It strikes me that first and foremost we should join the movement to strip business corporations (who are not citizens or people) of free speech rights. A democracy cannot function with their domination. Politicians cannot act in the public interest if their primary attention is to moneyed interests. An amendment to the Constitution is unlikely, but not impossible. Perhaps more probable is a change in the composition of the Court to reverse the Citizens United decision (though a popular amendment would be better). Even with a change in the campaign finance system, corporations will still have immense power because of the globalization phenomenon with capital flights to the most exploitable labor markets.
Hedges has good grounds for pessimism, and good grounds to be angry with the liberal class. I wish he didn't.
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