#166 - War: Chris Hedges on the Permanent Psychosis of War, Covering the Middle East for the New York Times, Gaza, Kosovo, the Plague of Violence, Corporate Totalitarianism, Propaganda, and Revolution

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Original Video:

https://youtu.be/MUfVPV5Of6A

Summary:

In this powerful 2014 speech, journalist and author Chris Hedges dissects what he terms the "psychosis of permanent war" that grips the United States. He traces its origins to the anti-communist fervor following World War I, arguing that the Wilson administration pioneered modern mass propaganda techniques, manipulating public emotion rather than appealing to reason. Hedges contends that this permanent state of war, fueled by corporate interests and sustained by both political parties, has destroyed American democracy, corrupted core values like thrift and community, and replaced them with hedonism and the cult of the self. Drawing heavily on his experiences as a war correspondent in the Middle East, Latin America, and the Balkans, Hedges details the devastating human cost and destructive power of modern industrial warfare, critiquing US foreign policy interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and the consequences of Israeli actions in Gaza. He discusses how these actions often create more enemies than they defeat (blowback) and lead to the erosion of civil liberties at home through mass surveillance and laws undermining due process. Referencing thinkers like Dwight Macdonald and Sheldon Wolin (specifically the concept of "inverted totalitarianism"), Hedges argues that corporate power has effectively seized control, leaving mass civil disobedience as potentially the only recourse for citizens to reclaim agency. The speech also includes a Q&A segment touching on climate change activism, the limitations of electoral politics (including the Green Party), and the nature of resistance against entrenched power.

Keywords:

Chris Hedges, Permanent War, War Psychosis, US Foreign Policy, Militarism, Propaganda, Anti-Communism, Corporate Power, Inverted Totalitarianism, Democracy, Civil Liberties, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Middle East, Gaza, Syria, Israel, War Crimes, Mass Surveillance, Civil Disobedience, Media Critique, Political Philosophy, Sheldon Wolin, Dwight Macdonald, Woodrow Wilson, Sigmund Freud, Noam Chomsky, Climate Change, Occupy Wall Street.

People Mentioned:

• Dwight Macdonald
• Woodrow Wilson
• Gustave Le Bon
• Trotter (Wilfred Trotter)
• Sigmund Freud
• Karl Marx
• Vonda
• Dick Cheney
• Sheldon Wolin
• George Orwell
• Edward Gibbon
• Bill McKibben
• Bernie Sanders
• Naomi Klein
• Sawant (Kshama Sawant)
• Michael Bloomberg
• Bill De Blasio
• John Ralston Saul
• Simone Weil
• Cadmus (mythological figure)
• Randolph Bourne
• Tocqueville (Alexis de Tocqueville)
• Clausewitz (Carl von Clausewitz)
• Saddam Hussein
• Osama bin Laden
• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
• Bashar al-Assad
• Hannah Arendt
• Vaclav Havel
• Lenin (Vladimir Lenin)
• Ralph Nader
• Jill Stein
• Mario Vargas Llosa
• Larry Summers
• Shakespeare (William Shakespeare)
• King Lear (character)
• Goneril (character)
• Regan (character)