YOUR SUNDAY READING

From "UNSPEAKABLE" Chris Hedges talks with David Talbot about the most forbidden topics in America . Hot Books, 2016.

Hedges backed Jill Stein for President. He thought Bernie Sanders didn't take on the national security state and agrees with Cornel West that Barack Obama has been an Uncle Tom.

p.132
"Like all civilizations careening to collapse , we have become hostage to complex structures, and ever more intricate specialization, to exploit diminishing resources. Technocrats rule us. They are trained and indoctrinated in elite schools. They function as systems managers. They only know how to serve the system. They cannot critique it or challenge it. They are devoid of creativity or the ability to think independently. They will maintain the system ant all costs. They will plunder and squander resources o serve global capitalism, even as these resources are being destroyed or exhausted. On some level they are idiots.
The systems and technologies designed to exploit these resources will eventually become useless. Economists call this the "Jevons paradox". The result is widespread systems collapse. This is where we are headed. And it will come at the end with a dizzying speed. Collapse means a sever weakening or destruction of centralized power. It means a shortage of basic amenities ,including food and water. It means a violent scramble for diminishing resources. Law and order breaks down.

…….Interlocking systems will suddenly no longer be able to sustain each other. This breakdown, therefore, will be nonlinear. It will not be defined by a single event such as rising temperatures. We will see entire ecosystems and social and political institutions that sustain life--which make a complex society function-- disintegrate, probably at roughly the same time..

….A pervasive and ruthless security and surveillance apparatus along with a heavily militarized police embowered to use indiscriminate lethal force, will turn industrial nations into climate fortresses to keep out refugees--we are already seeing this in Europe and along our border with Mexico--and make sure that a restive and desperate population inside these fortresses remains frightened and under control. The elites will retreat to protracted compounds where they will have access to services and amenities ,including food,water and medical care, denied to the rest of us. It will become the world Hobbes fear."