Chris Hedges speaks in Princeton on December 15th at 6 pm at Labyrinth Books on Nassau Street. Chris is a terrific writer and a clear minded thinker. He has identified many of the problems facing the United States currently. I am attaching one of his column entries from truthdig.com. His columns as well as his books are well worth a read.
http://www.truthdig.com/...
Enjoy the read and please come and hear Chris speak.
Having moved to the US from Europe back in 2006 I have been struck by how different the political climate and debate is here versus in Europe. In many European countries the Social Democratic ideas have prevailed and become the norm on which the societies are built. The political discussions are largely fact based and driven by a desire to improve the lives of the large public in general. Large issues of concern are climate change, social justice, the treatment of women, children and minorities, how to achieve balanced state budgets while at the same time supporting the welfare states that have been built over several generations. Even the conservative parties have accepted this and act within this framework. The citizens of the countries support this status to a very large extent.
Here in the US things are quite different as we all know. The political debate is only partly based on facts, instead opinions and emotions rule. Even basic scientific understandings like e.g. evolution are questioned. You can become a serious political figure and a potential president of the country without even a shred of basic knowledge (see Sarah Palin and other Tea Party / GOP politicians) and / or acceptance of what in Europe are viewed as fundamentals of a modern state (healthcare for all citizens, good and free education for all etc.). It is indeed all quite troubling seeing how the US is developing as a nation given its enormous military spending (50% of the world's military spending is American), militarism/nationalism and showed willingness to exercise military power abroad. Large swats of the citizenry support basically fundamental Christian beliefs and are willing to vote against their own economic self-interest time after time having been fed lies through the main-stream media and their churches. It is indeed frightening.
Reading Chris Hedges gives me hope that there is at least some thinkers on the left that are willing to speak up and take several steps to the left of the Democratic party. Hopefully a true left can gain momentum in the US and help turn things around before it is too late.