«SHOPPING IS MORE AMERICAN THAN THINKING»

Hedges argues that consumerism and celebrity culture have a powerful political function. "The whole fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed simply to entertain," Hedges says, but to make us politically passive.Hedges says the move from "managed capitalism" to "unfettered capitalism" over the last four to six decades - accomplished with the help of government deregulation - has refashioned America as a "corporate state run by and on behalf of corporations rather than citizens." When corporate needs trump those of citizens, Hedges said, the poor and the weak don't stand a chance.The net result of corporate power, Hedges writes in Empire, is that human beings are remade in the corporate image.

In a brilliant analysis, Hedges shows how the reality show Survivor celebrates character traits we usually associate with the mentally ill.Hedges quotes contestants who claim they have formed lifelong friendships during the show. Within minutes, the same best friends viciously turn on each other."The cult of self dominates our cultural landscape [and] . . . has the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulations, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation; and the inability to feel remorse or guilt."As Hedges tells the reader, these are the character traits valued in corporate leaders.These leaders are "willing to consume human beings and destroy the ecosystem for the higher good of corporate profit," Hedges said.He asserts that one of our greatest illusions is that reform is possible without questioning the system itself."The structure we have inherited of unfettered capitalism and globalization is accepted as natural law . . . as inevitable," he says. Question its moral or social effects, and the typical response is: "What are you going to do? This is the way things are." But must they be that way? Hedges asks. Economic systems were made by humans and can be remade.Hedges says there is a great irony - and hypocrisy - at the heart of the current efforts to bail out failed companies.

"What is so mendacious and pernicious about this is that until these institutions collapsed, all they talked about is the market and unfettered capitalism. And when, because of their own folly, greed, and mismanagement, it collapsed, they are raiding the Treasury."We've become a socialist nation - but socialism for corporations."

-Philadelphia Inquirer
July 30 2009