Chris Hedges, pictured, is a Presbyterian minister. Among other things! More notably, I would say, Hedges is properly appreciated for his past (and present) work as a journalist and political commentator. Here is an excerpt from what Wikipedia has to say about Hedges:
In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, and Dallas Morning News. Hedges reported for The New York Times from 1990 to 2005, and served as the Times Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the wars in the former Yugoslavia. In 2001, Hedges contributed to The New York Times staff entry that received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for the paper's coverage of global terrorism.
Hedges came to Santa Cruz County, once, to speak in person. I was in the audience, and I was impressed. He is an accomplished observer of what's going on in the world, and I think people should be paying very close attention to what he says. For instance, I think Hedges' January 18, 2025, posting to Scheerpost is very much worth your time. It was titled, "Chris Hedges: How Fascism Came." Click the link to read it. I don't think there is any paywall.
In the commentary I have just linked, Hedges calls out a number of problems. MAJOR problems. As I have just said, I think people should be taking Hedges' critiques seriously. However, here is my complaint about Chris.
Let's start with the title of the piece I linked. The title, "How Fascism Came," uses the past tense. In other words, the way Chris Hedges lays it out, Fascism has already come. Its domination of our social, economic, and political life has already been accomplished. That's what the use of the past tense means. Whatever is spoken of in the past tense has already taken place. It's over. Done. If you think that Hedges knows what he is talking about, then you will deduce that the United States is now a fascist country. Is it? I don't think so, myself.
The rest of Hedges' commentary is similar, in that it describes the "loss of basic democratic norms." It states that American democracy "cratered years ago." There isn't any remedy, the way Hedges puts it: "It is not going to get better." Describing present problems as though they occurred in the past, and are now existing realities, suggests that there is nothing we can do now. Is that true? I don't think so, myself.
Here is a link to a February 18, 2025, follow-up. And here is a quote from Hedges' posting on that date:
The Trump administration’s war with the deep state is not a purgative. It is not about freeing us from the tyranny of intelligence agencies, militarized police, the largest prison system in the world, predatory corporations or the end of mass surveillance. It will not restore the rule of law to hold the powerful and the wealthy accountable. It will not slash the bloated and unaccountable spending — some $1 trillion dollars — by the Pentagon....We are repeating the steps that led to the consolidation of power by past dictatorships, albeit with our own idiom and idiosyncrasies. Those naively lauding Trump’s hostility towards the deep state — which I concede did tremendous damage to democratic institutions, eviscerated our most cherished liberties, is an unaccountable state within a state and orchestrated a series of disastrous global interventions, including the recent military fiascos in the Middle East and Ukraine— should look closely at what is being proposed to take its place.The ultimate target for the Trump administration is not the deep state. The target is the laws, regulations, protocols and rules, and the government civil servants who enforce them, which hinder dictatorial control. Compromise, limited power, checks and balances and accountability are slated to be abolished. Those who believe that the government is designed to serve the common good, rather than the dictates of the ruler, will be forced out. The deep state will be reconstituted to serve the leadership cult. Laws and the rights enshrined in the Constitution will be irrelevant (emphasis added).
Here, my complaint about Chris should center on his use of the future tense, not the past tense. The critiques Hedges lodges against what has happened, and is happening in the United States, are largely correct, in my view, but "will" states a "certainty," not a "possibility." Chris Hedges does not issue a warning, which would come with the conditional tense. Chris says what WILL happen. That's wrong. "Might" (the conditional tense) is as far as anyone can go, or should go.
Grammar does make a difference, and Hedges fails to understand the most basic thing about the realities in which we live. Whatever is happening, or has happened, can be changed. Whatever now exists can be changed. Whatever "may" happen can be prevented from happening.
That's my complaint about Chris. After diagnosing what is wrong, and all the past and continuing mistakes he calls out, he acts as if human freedom doesn't exist; he acts as if what now exists is "inevitable." The swinging door of history only goes one way, as Hedges presents his analysis. Hedges documents his past books and other publications, which provided good advice, and notes that this good advice was ignored. Who is to blame for that? Not Hedges (of course). The blame falls on everyone else - all those who made the mistakes he warned them about.
Let me provide an antidote to a defeatism spun out of past and continuing mistakes. Despite everything, despite all that has gone wrong, and is still going wrong, we continue to have the ability to do something different. We always have the ability to change the world.
Let's try.
Let's not believe that a future prediction, using the future tense, is a statement of inevitability. And let's not buy into the argument that the past tense rules and that "it's all over."
It's not all over.
Not until we give up.
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