Death of the Liberal Class

This book is absolutely essential listening. Having said that, one must understand that it presents a remarkably pessimistic picture of where we (the U.S.) is right now and how we came to be there. It is a picture I find myself increasingly sharing (although I wish I didn't), but one that a lot of readers (and listeners) will find just TOO bleakly devastating. This is not, in and of itself, a bad thing, since Hedges's points are very well made, and if you disagree, you'll find that having to argue against those points will probably make you smarter. Since one of Hedges's points is that one of the main problems with our "culture" is massive--and quite deliberately engendered--historical ignorance and intellectual vapidity, this can't be bad.

If you happen to be one of the enemy (and Hedges has no problem at all utilizing categories like "enemy," for sound reasons he makes very clear), you will be just too f-cking stupid to be able to get through the first twenty minutes.....

Plato said that opinion is just the medium between ignorance and knowledge. For a while, I was almost singularly passionate about educating myself regarding politics - gaining knowledge - then I plum ran out of mental energy, and returned to the easy comfort of just having an opinion. Familiar with Truthdig, and having read War Is A Force...so many yrs. ago I've forgotten most of the content, I thought maybe Death of the Liberal Class might get me back into the quest. While I'll never be truly politically savvy, reading Death of the Liberal Class was my own little "intellectual effort" to move my opinion towards knowledge.

Call Hedges cynical, pessimistic, a bleak alarmist, whatever...but reasonably, you'd better add honest, passionate, globally intelligent, and a patriot. Yes, you can be "disobedient" and be a patriot. Howard Zinn wrote, "Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide, and slavery- have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience."

Admittedly, this is a blood-boiling and sobering book, not fun to hear (quoting Hamilton's too-little-too-late Requiem for a Species...that's depressing stuff. At one point in "Camelot," Merlin says to King Arthur, "The uglier the truth, the truer the friend that tells it." a good reference point.) I don't agree with all of Hedges statements (perhaps I should, he is much more knowledgeable than I'll ever be), some of the long pieces of history are already well known therefore not as interesting as the rest of the book, and the structure was sometimes tangled, (and I wish I would have known enough to have read Empire of Illusion first) but Hedges tells it like it is and backs up his words with the facts in a way that any level of pilgrim can understand. Far far and beyond any person's criticisms and political alignments, this is important information that is crucial for our future; fantastic research, brave thesis, and impossible to ignore.

This was an informative read about how we've ended up where we are right now politically, socially, economically, et al. It put facts to things I've felt over the last several years and filled out information that I was aware of, but not at this depth. It's not a warm fuzzy book, I don't agree with everything (tho' most) that he says, but if it helps wake up a few more people, I think it will have served its purpose. I wonder what Mr. Hedges' thoughts are on the Occupy Wall Street movement. I am more hopeful than he is, but damn! Makes me wonder if our grandkids will be spitting on our graves! Yup, highly recommended - just don't expect "light" listening here.

Chris Hedges possesses one of the most unforgiving and challenging voices of any writer I've consistently read and listened to. This is one of his finest books, as always blessedly free of BS and to the point. I'm convinced he writes with a sharpened baseball bat.

The above review by David is everything I could have hoped to say about such an insightful, heartfelt and honest book, so I'll just finish by saying... Get this. It's worth every penny/credit and then some.

Excellent historical references and perspective. Puts so many things of I was aware into a deeper, more complete context. Well researched and devastating work.

This is the kind of writing from which philosophies are born.

Hedges has outdone himself again...this is an important work in the contemporary intellectual scene.

No, not after hearing the way the author writes.

Nope. This was a frustrating chore.

This book is ironic since he indicts the academic world for using flowery language just to hear their own voice, while doing that very thing throughout the entire book. He can never just say what he means, he has to hide it in this heady, convoluted, quasi-poetic language. He throws out ambiguous statements that hint at a political point, then offers little to no illustration of those points, leaving the listener trying to guess at the point while trying to listen to the next point and drive their car. I had to keep backing up the recording over and over and over in order to try to decipher the intended meaning, and I ain't stupid.

Then when I could decipher the meaning, it seems like the author is advocating disruptive, non-peaceful, illegal protests; the abolishment of capitalism; and that reporters never currently do reporting of human issues and should be generally biased.

After eating these sandy brussel sprouts for a week, I'm cutting my losses and stopping after listening to 2/3 of the book.