Chris Hedges “Globalization Goes Bankrupt”

Had the pleasure of seeing Chris Hedges speak last week for the release of his new book  Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. His talk was sermonesque in quality as he spoke of the global financial system and its relationship to mainstream media’s reliance on spectacle. Invoking DeBord and Boorstin, he neatly outlined the smoke and mirrors job done by powerful elites as they try to claw what profits they can before it all comes crumbling down. A recent article appears here.

Our global economy, like our political system, has been hijacked by a tiny oligarchy, composed mostly of wealthy white men who serve corporations. They have pledged or raised a staggering $18 trillion, looted largely from state treasuries, to prop up banks and other financial institutions that engaged in suicidal acts of speculation and ruined the world economy.