Dismantling the Liberal Class

This is as dense as a Chris Hedges book gets. There's so much to unpack in such a small number of pages that the reader feels as though he/she might explode if more than four pages are attempted per session.

However, I would make the claim that this is the most informative and relevant of all Hedges works (at least so far in my reading of the man), and warnings aplenty are planted throughout these pages for Americans - and the world - to take heed from. See below: if this extract takes your interest then perhaps consider putting The Death of the Liberal Class on your 'to-read' list:

"We stand on verge of one of the bleakest periods in human history, when the bright lights of civilization will blink out and we will descend for decades, if not centuries, into barbarity. The elites, who successfully convinced us that we no longer possessed the capacity to understand the revealed truths presented before us or to fight back against the chaos caused by economic and environmental catastrophe, will use their resources to create privileged little islands where they will have access to security and goods denied to the rest of us. As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people, fed images by the organs of mass propaganda that permit them to perpetually hallucinate, exist in this state of barbarism, they may periodically strike out with a blind fury against increased state repression, widespread poverty, and food shortages. But they will lack the ability and self-confidence to challenge in big and small ways the structures of control. The fantasy of wide- spread popular revolts and mass movements breaking the hegemony of the corporate state is just that-a fantasy.

Hedges is pretty much spot on throughout this work, however there is an egregious error made in which he tarnishes the Black Panther Party with "becoming infected with the lust for violence, quest for ideological purity, crippling paranoia, self exaltation and internal repression as the state system they defied". I found this to be a highly contestable statement and I'm certain he was called out for this when he took part in a debate regarding the uses of black block just afrer occupy wall street took place. I'll let the reader decide how they feel about the above statement, however, this, along with some sweepingly dismissive statements about the 1960's protests, and the various mind opening, Eastern influenced aspects that were introduced to young western minds at the time, stopped me from giving this the full five star rating.

Despite this, I would go as far as to say this is required reading if one hopes to understand current American politics.