The Dance of Death

by Chris Hedges...

www.truthdig.com...

This is a reprint of an article Mr. Hedges wrote in March of this year and I post the lead not for the content though I find it very profound and apt but for the sheer skill in the writing. He packs so much information into so few words and it sounds good. Truly inspired.

I recommend the entire article as a fine example of essay writing but for those not interested I will quote the first paragraph and a bit more for your pleasure.

The ruling corporate elites no longer seek to build. They seek to destroy. They are agents of death. They crave the unimpeded power to cannibalize the country and pollute and degrade the ecosystem to feed an insatiable lust for wealth, power and hedonism. Wars and military “virtues” are celebrated. Intelligence, empathy and the common good are banished. Culture is degraded to patriotic kitsch. Education is designed only to instill technical proficiency to serve the poisonous engine of corporate capitalism. Historical amnesia shuts us off from the past, the present and the future. Those branded as unproductive or redundant are discarded and left to struggle in poverty or locked away in cages. State repression is indiscriminate and brutal. And, presiding over the tawdry Grand Guignol is a deranged ringmaster tweeting absurdities from the White House.

He then gives historical context:

The graveyard of world empires—Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Mayan, Khmer, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian—followed the same trajectory of moral and physical collapse. Those who rule at the end of empire are psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants, the equivalents of the depraved Roman emperors Caligula, Nero, Tiberius and Commodus.

He deftly weaves in scholarly resources and concludes:

The severance of a society from reality, as ours has been severed from collective recognition of the severity of climate change and the fatal consequences of empire and deindustrialization, leaves it without the intellectual and institutional mechanisms to confront its impending mortality. It exists in a state of self-induced hypnosis and self-delusion. It seeks momentary euphoria and meaning in tawdry entertainment and acts of violence and destruction, including against people who are demonized and blamed for society’s demise. It hastens its self-immolation while holding up the supposed inevitability of a glorious national resurgence. Idiots and charlatans, the handmaidens of death, lure us into the abyss.

While you may disagree with his conclusion, one cannot doubt his skill nor style.

I, for one, think he is spot on - but it is a terrifying picture he paints for us and I understand the desire to denial.

Have a wonderful week.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Instead of the Roman "Bread and Circuses"; we have "Cheap Petrol and Reality Television".

I've long thought that it seems we are not capable of leading ourselves.....the wonderfully written piece above demonstrates I'm not alone

I wonder whatever is the alternative? Since we clearly cannot handle any amount of power without being corrupted by it

a reply to: FyreByrd

I was trying to see good sides of our society for a while, even tried to fit in into this garbage of cultural decay.

Most of humanity is afraid, weak, dependent, and their minds were taking away from them. That is all of course made by design, we are living in a very comfortable and mellow illusion and guaranteed to have everything we need as long as we are willing to work for our survival and diminish our souls for most hours of the day.

Most people are clinging and holding onto that survival instinct, as long as they have food and shelter they won't stretch their arms and risk having that.

I believe we are meant to live in small self-governing communities, it makes life more diverse and splits control into many different variables. This centralized power and systems are just killing everything.

a reply to: FyreByrd


Very well written and in my opinion spot on.


The decay is all around, the desperation on all sides is the real give away.

a reply to: FyreByrd

The article is piffle. Stringing a bunch of Marxist buzzwords together to enrage the stupid has always sold books.

a reply to: FyreByrd

It seems like the author is pinning the dance of death upon the CURRENT leadership and didn't present any information before its installation.

And much like Shuye posted on how we work better in small self governing groups - large societies as a whole seem to have this dance of death, because hardships create easy times and easy times seem to intoxicate the human race which leads to more hard times... haha

originally posted by: Shuye
a reply to: FyreByrd

I was trying to see good sides of our society for a while, even tried to fit in into this garbage of cultural decay.

Most of humanity is afraid, weak, dependent, and their minds were taking away from them. That is all of course made by design, we are living in a very comfortable and mellow illusion and guaranteed to have everything we need as long as we are willing to work for our survival and diminish our souls for most hours of the day.

Most people are clinging and holding onto that survival instinct, as long as they have food and shelter they won't stretch their arms and risk having that.

I believe we are meant to live in small self-governing communities, it makes life more diverse and splits control into many different variables. This centralized power and systems are just killing everything.

"we are living in a very comfortable and mellow illusion and guaranteed to have everything we need as long as we are willing to work for our survival and diminish our souls for most hours of the day. "

Your post is very thought provoking and some of it I agree with. However not that part.

To make my response short....do we now have robots readily available to perform this work? No. Right? EVERY MODERN SOCIETY is experiencing this "OMG I have to work....idea.". I happen to agree with the idea that advanced people will not have the need to have a need for humans to perform manual labor. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water just yet.

I'm ready (for freedom from labor) , believe me I've been slaving harder than most, but we need to accept reality where it stands. You can quote me here.....

Work for eight hours a day for five days a week and by that acquire everything you need. Thank your ancestors for working more than double that so you can have that opportunity. Next, bust your ass to give your children/grandchildren the same shoulder to stand on as your ancestors did you.

They will have it much easier than we. Good. May they say a prayer of thanks to us.

I will not stand here and pussify my self and cry about how hard I have to work to survive when it was so much harder for my ancestors to do the same. That's a bitch move. Just work hard, live hard and hope the next generation will continue the human bloodline.

Now this..
"Most people are clinging and holding onto that survival instinct, as long as they have food and shelter they won't stretch their arms and risk having that. "

This goes for those people that have it handed to them perhaps via government assistance.










Soz got a bus, hope this makes sense