Anyone with an internet connection and the courage to look fate in the face can see collapse either unfolding or coming at us at an exponential rate of knots.
The ever reliable Chris Hedges eviscerates capitalism,the U.S. Empire and the deep state that is grinding the nation, it’s imperial conquests, its victims and by default the living planet, into dust.
Chris clearly lays out the deadly trio of Acidification, Warming and De-Oxygenation of the oceans and the roles they played in the last 5 mass extinctions. “Microbes it seems are set to inherit the earth.”
Image; Waiotapu Thermal Pools, Rotorua, Aotearoa, New Zealand.
“Those who speak truth are marginalised and ignored, dismissed as pessimists in a culture that prides itself on a child like optimism, at the expense of reality. We have a mania for hope, which our corporate masters lavishly provide across the political and cultural spectrum to keep us passive.”
“Dying civilisations make war on independent intellectual inquiry, art,culture and their burnt children.The corporate state rather feeds the thirst for illusion, happiness and hope and those that challenge this myth are heretics”. Not to mention ‘Lepers”
“The human species led by White European men has been on a planet wide 500 year rampage of conquering, plundering, looting and exploiting as well as polluting the earth and killing the indigenous comminutes that stood in their way. But the game is up. These are the forces that now doom us”. “The Urban poor are in chains and these chains await us all”.
“The most daunting existential challenge of all time is to ingest this daunting truth”
These are just some of the highlights in this ground breaking speech from Chris Hedges one of the few to join the dots on the coming chaos, as has the anarchist, evolutionary biologist, award winning Professor Guy McPherson
50 minutes of genius from the ever reliable, ever ‘Revolting’ Chris Hedges are embedded below’
“Rebellion is a moral imperative”. “I don’t fight fascist because I think I can win. I fight fascist because they are fascists”.
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
The prognosis is extremely dire and it can only be more dire than we know. Very soon the ecological crisis will tip over industrial civilisation.
Good luck everyone, we’re going to need it.
https://ecointernet.org/2016/06/05/the-sheer-terror-of-looming-biosphere-collapse/?fbclid=IwAR2VnxqmTKo0A35NJbjQAZ-jE_UbEKZwSyejhj6DNgtP9ZaXUeFZwHhJRaU
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More excellent work by Ugo Bardi and his team at Cassandra’s legacy
https://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2019/01/why-do-societies-collapse-diminishing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FXuxAQb+%28+Cassandra%27s+Legacy%29
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It has now been 5 years since I accepted the severity of the climate and extinction crises we face and it has been a rollercoaster of a journey.
Because of being born in Aotearoa New Zealand and becoming an ocean going sailor I have had a blessed life.
I feel a need to pay homage to the 200 species we drive to extinction and the chaos we have inflicted on the biosphere.
My recent activism has focused on the unfolding 6th great extinction and the fact that young people have been robbed of their futures as have most if not all the other complex life in the endangered biosphere. I will be touring Aotearoa NZ with Truthout.org staff reporter Dahr Jamail in July discussing his recently released new book “The End of Ice”
My ‘hopes’ going forward is to force the govt in Aotearoa NZ to accept the severity of the crisis and to prepare accordingly.
In the human domain I would like to see school curriculums altered to reflect the near term reality we face and for the govt in NZ to import huge quantities of grains in anticipation of the coming collapse of the worlds grain production. Jem mentioned in a recent interview that the world has only 4 months of grain stores !!! I believe this should be an urgent focus of the Extinction Rebellion movement.
I’ll finish with a quote from Edward Abbey the desert anarchist; “Action is the antidote to despair” and one from Professor Guy McPherson my co-host n Nature Bats Last on the Progressive Radio Network; “At the edge of extinction, only love remains”.
https://jembendell.wordpress.com/2019/01/09/hope-and-vision-in-the-face-of-collapse-the-4th-r-of-deep-adaptation/#comment-20514
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Chris Hedges at his oratory best;
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More inciteful analysis from Chris Hedges.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/chris-hedges-the-demonization-of-russia-is-driven-by-defense-contractors/?fbclid=IwAR1qmGAftNTJLFgkiriFDNsC4Lwtr6BAxOMe_QspoKyxS_60Qc1fafgrqqY
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Some interesting observations on the coming collapse;
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Another excellent presentation by Hedges.
https://www.nzptv.org.nz/videos/corporate-totalitarianism-the-end-game?fbclid=IwAR34mCcD5wa7MnBsYa_S_r02cijVfduG41V4bJrhfQdHSAC5ZXnHyFdLsyg
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Chris Hedges interviews Roger Hallam from the Extinction Rebellion movement;
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Hedges is the perfect foil for the liberal petite bourgeois.
He is perfect for the ‘Woke Elite’ they can identify with his articulate rebelliousness as we circle the drain.
The narrative will be controlled until collapse unfolds and we lose the internet.
Anyone not calling it as they see it are lying. They will hide behind self censorship but it’s the same as lying.
I used to respect Hedges but now I see him as a gate keeper.
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“I don’t think we’re going to be able to go back to a time before the coronavirus pandemic. I believe that the coronavirus is going to trigger a decline unlike anything the country has seen since the Great Depression. That is why the business class and other ruling elites are panicking.”
Chris Hedges and I both believe that we have experienced a paradigm shift.
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/28/pulitzer-winner-chris-hedges-these-are-the-good-times–compared-to-whats-coming-next/?fbclid=IwAR1xWiG8_3rxgwa1o6EAYIr3dcG9G7I7W1ZzEpSKnTZM5BPGf_nWy80UK2s
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“King wrote: “The ‘comfort cult’, as Amalrik called it – the tendency in seemingly stable societies to believe “that ‘reason will prevail’ and that ‘everything will be all right'” – is seductive. As a result, when a terminal crisis comes, it is likely to be unexpected, confusing, and catastrophic,”
In Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” Bill asked
“How did you go bankrupt?” .
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
This is exactly how civilisations collapse, slowly and then suddenly. The cognitive dissonance around not seeing the obvious signs is amazing.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6827090/we-are-witnessing-the-fall-of-a-great-power/?fbclid=IwAR1wKHRu5Tm_Fx40bzE64kaJTuIGUoKOM3JHDG6LL8QhWqY71iEMn8BBZiI#gsc.tab=0
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I admit to have been a Chris Hedges ‘fan’ years ago as attested by this post on my website but as we approach collapse and extinction I am more often than not seeing him as a ‘Gate Keeper’.
All this talk of ‘Revolt’ and NVDA in conjunction is an oxymoron. The dominant culture of capitalism will not be overthrown with podcasts, likes and shares.
I once attended an anti-apartheid conference in Australia as the Aotearoa NZ delegate.
I caused a diplomatic incident involving Gareth Evans, Australia’s reactionary foreign minister when I said on the podium that what we were seeing in South Africa was not “An Armed Struggle” but an armed self defence.” It caused a huge scene when All the African delegates jumped up cheering. Gareth Evans was livid.
I went out for drinks after with the delegates from the “Front Line States” and they said they had waited years to hear someone from the “Commonwealth” say what I had said.
When your community is under assault with arms not defending appropriately is a dereliction of our revolutionary duty.
View at Medium.com
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More brilliant oratory from Hedges;
https://scheerpost.com/2020/10/19/chris-hedges-the-politics-of-cultural-despair/?fbclid=IwAR3E5OebKZTGkyb15-K2Do1AwEj0Rvm9Z3L4gFD2t8ZzIvuD4jv9uhE290U
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Chris Hedges: The Undercurrents of Fascism in America’s DNA
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2020/11/28/chris-hedges-the-undercurrents-of-fascism-in-americas-dna/?fbclid=IwAR3pFnrkD1Vw2caG18A5DvsGBe5C8Kb2zDLRFaFzX36nuOYkpi5OuevBitE
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“We’re not just talking about the collapse of the American Empire, the extinguishing of American “democracy”, which let me tell you does not exist at this moment, but what we’re really talking about is the eradication of the human race – it’s that existentialist threat and in theological terms these corporate forces are forces of death.” –
Chris Hedges
Hedges tells the truth then the Extinction Rebellion input laces the clip with unfounded ‘Hopium’ and lie that 1.5C and 2C are achievable.
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Chris Hedges eloquently describes the unfolding collapse of the empire of chaos, tragically they will use every weapon they have to protect US dollar hegemony.
It will be a bloody end to this empire as it was with all previous ones.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/03/12/chris-hedges-bandaging-the-corpse/?fbclid=IwAR1fKPKcTf4zWc7WvGRZ-B_8CmVV–DjsGohuuX_L0DOV2bV7FwTnWeS36U
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The clock keeps ticking
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/527404-after-apocalypse-america-review/?fbclid=IwAR2R7owULJ1bojKCHabGqPINBBCo5VW-2wDFzBpxFApODP4ndZQH8-2OJyU
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“The death blow to the American empire will, as McCoy writes, be the loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. This loss will plunge the United States into a crippling, and prolonged depression. It will force a massive contraction of the global military footprint.”
Chris is overlooking the level of pathology in Washington and the near certainty that the empire of chaos will fight to the death of us all to protect US dollar hegemony.
This is how empires end, lashing out at all and sundry with an emphasis on shooting the messengers.
https://scheerpost.com/2021/07/26/hedges-the-collective-suicide-machine/?fbclid=IwAR3JwOANfWcqahoaz9EqXBW3t132ThaIRMJcMLw5MHOD2yKuLvW2H8fJFKc
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Yeah, in some ways his religious views bring out optimism that just doesn’t fit with the narrative. Read this elsewhere but I’ve noticed the same viewpoint in many of his pieces.
Shooting the messengers and smashing anything that disagrees with the Empire’s program is a time-honored tradition of keeping the status quo going for just a little longer…which after all is all that matters.
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Like this article…might be doomed to fail? YA THINK?
Why the Paris Climate Agreement Might be Doomed to Fail
An economist argues that the international accord, which depends on collective action, does not include the kinds of incentives and penalties that would ensure that countries do their part.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28072021/pairs-agreement-success-failure/
sealintheSelkirks
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Complexity in our societies is a strength when everything is going well and a terminal weakness when the SHTF which it plainly has.
Late stage Capitalism in crisis converging with early stage runaway warming and the re-rise of fascism.
Not one single analogue is heading in a positive direction.
https://www.legalreader.com/the-slow-drain-of-an-expensive-collapse/?fbclid=IwAR0nrQ2NLO_bmJvdWc6NOcGIw4d7ezZWGBtuMRwv9IP4UnUYUvAFgvSBQLU
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Not much to look forward to, is there? And our new (but as always neoliberal corporate militarist) president continues the insanity:
‘A Shattered Promise’: Biden Blasted for Resuming Fossil Fuel Leasing on Public Lands and Waters
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/31/shattered-promise-biden-blasted-resuming-fossil-fuel-leasing-public-lands-and-waters
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The wealthy who own the politicians are congenitally unable to change their viewpoints even when Biden put a hold on new well leases in January. But of course the fossil fuel-owned state politicians sued because there is no other way to fund their governments and political campaigns without bending over to fossil fuel. This is insane.
Now I’m waiting for the next hurricane to follow Ida into the Deep South like last year’s double hits in other parts of the world. Imagine my lack of surprise if Cancer Alley and the massive fossil fuel infrastructure gets worked again this season.
Obviously I also see zero positive in the future. Ouch.
sealintheSelkirks
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Gail’s latest on point;
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2021/10/18/spike-in-energy-prices-suggests-that-sharp-changes-are-ahead/?fbclid=IwAR3F7p1kc4xW3Ug2r9SvP4ZBg2pR-VC_3_DZeJhIHKtAaqFlCcJfVVhDUyc
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The latest from “On Contact”;
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2021/11/12/chris-hedges-the-nature-of-neoliberalism-and-its-consequences/?fbclid=IwAR3i0Yy_CN7Dy-CPmiU5SKZSE1ij760qXd6v5mi1TyiNlm1hjuQxkPQAOMk
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Read this elsewhere the other day. Not good news but from Hedges it rarely is. I know a leftie Socialist publisher that thinks Hedges doesn’t understand the mistakes made by the German leftists in the 1930s…thinks Hedges is leading the US into ‘soft Fascism.’ We definitely have different viewpoints on that and have gone around and around a couple of times and he’s not published my comments before…
Then there is this that just blows the argument all to shit because this is on the razor’s edge in this country to happening at any time. The cops are Fascists, the military, most of the politicians of either side of the corporate 1-Party State I live in:
Authoritarian Coups Are Gradual then Sudden
https://hartmannreport.com/p/authoritarian-coups-are-gradual-then
Not much to look forward to, eh Kevin? At least not on this continent but then I look aroudn the world and the majority of countries are being run as dictatorships, Fascist police states, and all the shades in between.
sealintheSelkirks
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Your “leftie Socialist publisher” mate does have a point though. I enjoy Hedge’s oratory and I know he has taken huge physical and mental risks in his journalism, living in a war zone is crippling, I know, I’ve lived in two, but I struggle with his ‘Hopium’ where he encourages people to rebel non-violently.
That and his belief in a Sky Daddy leaves me wondering about him !
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Yep, he definitely has a ‘reverend/minister/preacher’ that comes out in his writing that definitely colors the background of everything he says. But that bible of his is just chock full of nasty violent murdering psychopaths in the so-called ‘old testament’ which bleeds into the new. Which to an extent was more ‘turn the other cheek love your enemies’ but then their god would take a hand and smite the unbelievers so it really wasn’t much better in practice. But then the Revelations part that got stuck on goes right back to the ravings of a lunatic psychotic 12 year old out for revenge like the old part did. Ugly.
So along with the emotional and mental damage from covering war zones you mention Hedges probably has much grief inside him having covered so many war zones firsthand. Wouldn’t that dose of Hopium subconsciously threaded through every thing he writes be a survival strategy? Since he’s seen how humans truly act it’s almost like he can’t help it, a series of deeply programmed responses to the insanity he witnessed, ya know? Grief takes many subtle twists and turns in our minds.
I’m not built that way, I can’t put myself ‘in his shoes’ so to speack because for some reason I was lucky and never was forced into any church or those ‘Sunday school’ children indoctrination centers as a kid. Nobody read the bible to me ever and I can’t quote anything out of it. I really don’t know why. I’ve read it and to me it was just crazy talk.
That was definitely an outlier behavior in society back in the late 50s/early 60s USA. It made me even more of an outcast little surfer kid who got used to being alone on Sundays…and I think led to reading and thinking for myself more than my peers ever learned to do.
And I missed being drafted and sent to Viet Nam by a whisker when the draft ended the year I turned 19 (I did get my report for physical notice). If I had been born a year earlier I would have been in that jungle.
Though that bit I wrote about in my book sure did put a lot of…other peoples memories/snapshots/emotions into my brain that definitely weren’t mine. You read about that. I still have bad dreams about them sometimes.
I can only vaguely comprehend that kind of damage to a person from the outside looking in for which, honestly, I’m glad to have not experienced. Too many people I knew came back from SE Asia just all screwed up so badly; changed so radically and all in bad ways. And those were the lucky ones who didn’t have large pieces of their bodies missing…
The giant all-powerful sky daddy that does absolutely nothing to stop this shit isn’t somebody I’d want to invite for dinner. Like that Dead South song I posted, In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company.
sealintheSelkirks
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Complexity, our Achilles Heel :
https://tsakraklides.com/2021/11/20/number-81/?fbclid=IwAR1yQNETG7cFdJvFGSpcbBTPG2I2h33xZUb4SrsJuV1JO2ZFxE2HT-RtcT4
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Oh but wait, Kevin! Bill Gates has it all under control:
Bill Gates’ Vision for Next-Generation Nuclear Power in Wyoming Coal Country
An innovative reactor could help slow climate change and bring employment to the struggling coal town selected for the project this week, if it works.
By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times, and Judy Fahys, Inside Climate News
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17112021/bill-gates-nuclear-wyoming-coal-country/
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The billionaires all know what’s best for the cattle…
sealintheSelkirks
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The evidence is clear for anyone with eyes to see;
https://tsakraklides.com/2021/11/20/number-81/?fbclid=IwAR2aie-TxVN0pI8jyNHcVMiZhfrAxl4lcK5f5tj0FvS0N0TdIoScW2_pMBE
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“Climate reports alone should terrify the hell out of us”, Chris Hedges
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They do scare the hell out of me. I live in a mountain burn zone and shit up here is crumbling like a dried-out cookie. It hasn’t snowed since the first week of January except for a few dusting.
Why is Chris Hedges so NEGATIVE? Because he’s not a stupid person.
Nighttime temps are what the days should be, and daytime it has been from 5C to 12C…you know, spring temperatures expected in APRIL! It hasn’t snowed since the first week of January.other than a few dustings. My snowboarding hill had 79″ that first week, it’s now at 81″ or so they say but then again, ski resorts always lie.
Here’s a couple links. Apologize if posted already but I’m reading so much I can’t keep track all the time:
Concurrent Droughts Worldwide Likely to Threaten Global Food and Water Security in Near Future: Study
https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2022-02-12-concurrent-droughts-worldwide-to-threaten-food-and-water-security
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Are we on the road to civilisation collapse?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-are-we-on-the-road-to-civilisation-collapse
Studying the demise of historic civilisations can tell us how much risk we face today, says collapse expert Luke Kemp. Worryingly, the signs are worsening.
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The Left Has Culture, But The World Still Belongs To The Banks
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
‘[T]here is great intellectual poverty on the part of the right wing’, Héctor Béjar says in our latest dossier, A Map of Latin America’s Present: An Interview with Héctor Béjar (February 2022). ‘There is a lack of right-wing intellectuals everywhere’.
sealintheSelkirks
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Reality follows art on Good Morning Britain…
She should have stood up and called HIM a fucking doomer and told that stupid socialist to her left to shut the fuck up! I would have ripped into all three of them as they ganged up and over-talked her and were the rudest fucks one could imagine. This IS JUST LIKE the movie Don’t Look Up (that I really don’t need to see as this is REAL not Hollywood!!!
I was impressed that this 20 year old woman, visibly ready to explode, still kept it together. What she doesn’t realize is that these 3 Inquisitors were doing exactly what they’ve been programmed to do; uphold the Status Quo until they and their families start starving to death from…crop failure.
sealintheSelkirks
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She should have jumped up and punched him out! lol. What a fuckn cabaret.
Seal if you’re on Twitter, let’s follow each other
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Correction: STUPID SOCIALITE not socialist! Surrounded by terrible people the young woman was….
sealintheSelkirks
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Nope, never been on FaceBlech or had a Twitter account. Some of what I happen to post that has twitter embeds that I’ll look at but…nah, no thanks. I’ve got enough to occupy my life every day without adding more!
You have my email, I used to have yours but I think it got erased off my shop email. It’s okay but aren’t I noisy enough on this site of yours?! HA!
sealintheSelkirks
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Sweetas, I enjoy our interactions. My email is kevin@iconicproperties.co.nz
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As censorship and the re-rise of fascism unfolds Chris Hedges has a new platform;
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/listen-to-this-article-american-commissars?s=r
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