The Death of the Liberal Class:Chris Hedges

[Peter Lemkin]

one of my favorite writers of the day chris hedges has released a new book "the death of the liberal class".here's amazons link below.

http://www.amazon.com/death-liberal-clas...707&sr=1-3

product description

the liberal class plays a vital role in a democracy. It gives moral legitimacy to the state. It makes limited forms of dissent and incremental change possible. The liberal class posits itself as the conscience of the nation. It permits us, through its appeal to public virtues and the public good, to define ourselves as a good and noble people. Most importantly, on behalf of the power elite the liberal class serves as bulwarks against radical movements by offering a safety valve for popular frustrations and discontentment by discrediting those who talk of profound structural change. Once this class loses its social and political role then the delicate fabric of a democracy breaks down and the liberal class, along with the values it espouses, becomes an object of ridicule and hatred. The door that has been opened to proto-fascists has been opened by a bankrupt liberalism

the death of the liberal class examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a liberalism that has become profoundly bankrupted. Hedges argues there are five pillars of the liberal establishment – the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities and the democratic party— and that each of these institutions, more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress, sold out the constituents they represented. In doing so, the liberal class has become irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served.

And here is a speech hedges gave recently about his thoughts.an excellent video,please watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bycvsntoi5s

Wonderful! Powerful! Brilliant Truth Spoken Brilliantly - take a listen!!!!!!! Then Take Action - Time Is VERY Short Now!

The takeaway quotes are as follows:

We have to remember that it is not our job to take power. That is not our job. Our job is to remain fast around moral imperatives that we do not compromise on.

It is our job to defend a dispossessed working class. It is our job to defend sick children. It is our job to defend those who are being tortured, abused, and killed, in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan because of our rapacious and out-of-control war economy.

And we have to be willing to get up and make personal sacrifices on behalf of these moral imperatives even if at first we become pariahs. That is the only hope left.

Anybody who is foolish enough that going to a ballot box at this point, and voting for a Democratic candidate is going to change anything, I think is living in a universe that is as non-reality based as the Christian right.

And if we can recover that ethic. If we can understand that rebellion or resistance is a way to safeguard our own integrity, our own individuality. If we can look down the long term, and say maybe not in our own lifetime. But we can carry this for the generations that come after.

Then I think we can speak about hope.

If we refuse to do this, if we remain passive and complacent, then I think both our Nation, and finally the ecosystem that sustains human life, is doomed.