American Debt Project HomepageAmerican Debt Project

Pay off debt and live your life. Don't compare, contrast.

  • Debt Update
  • Get Out of Debt
  • Government
  • Income Inequality
  • Investing
  • Self-Development
  • Frugal

Book Review: Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges

July 25, 2011 by Justin Weinger

Hedges has got the Good, the Bad and the Dirty.

Have you heard of Chris Hedges? The dude’s a rebel! A former New York Times reporter with a Master of Divinity designation from Harvard rebel.  On a radio interview in July 2011, he talked about how he was “never a careerist” because those reporters who were closest to the most powerful figures in the government, military or whatever would also generally acquiesce to those figures of power.  This was never his interest, as he says, and it shows in his work.  His stories in the New York Times were never the “big” policy pieces, but more concerned with talking to the soldiers on the ground and their stories from the field rather than decision-makers at CENTCOM.  Overall, I found Empire of Illusion to be a dark, probing look into what is taking hold of America and its citizens.

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle is Hedges’ second-most recent book, published in 2009.   I found much of Hedges’ assessment of American society and culture (or its lack thereof) to be fascinating and disturbing.  The book warns in the most dire tone of the imminent end of the American Empire, which can sometimes feel downright uncomfortable for those of us raised on the snarky and cheeky view of politics a la Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  Hedges touches on the state of affairs in literacy, love, education, happiness and the country in general, and his overall assessment is that we have been cast down the wrong path by those in power, and that power continues to become more and more concentrated at the detriment of the majority of the people.  More simply, Hedges says we’re all getting stupider, the institutions that once served the people are a joke, and pornography is some twisted, freaky business.  Below are a few great quotes from each section of the book, which was divided by the different illusions (and delusions) we suffer under.

 The Illusion of Literacy: We’ve rewarded reality television, fake wrestling, and the ostentatiously rich.

The cult of self dominates our cultural landscape. This cult has within it the classical traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity, and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying, deception, and manipulation, and the inability to feel remorse or guilt.  This is, of course, the ethic promoted by corporations. It is the ethic of unfettered capitalism.

The Illusion of Love: I want to believe the best of Hedges, but I am not sure why he “had” to attend the Adult Video News (AVN) Awards in Las Vegas to write this section, which is the biggest event of the pornography industry, complete with convention, after-parties and every big name in porn in attendance.  His intention is to expose the violence and cruelty that women are exposed to within these films and this section is more graphic than a Bret Easton Ellis novel.  You might skip these detailed descriptions of violent, commercialized and soulless sex, but even creepier is the tale of the man who lives with eight silicone dolls:

Dr. Z hides his hobby from most of his friends. He keeps the dolls locked in his bedroom closet. He positions them around the house, including in his bed, when he is alone. He shops for their clothing. He poses them for photo shoots. He carefully applies their makeup. And he talks to them. He began using blow-up dolls when he was married…He kept his habit secret from his wife. He is now divorced. “Hey,” he says, “I wasn’t cheating.”

The Illusion of Wisdom: This section focused on the shift in higher education away from true intellectual inquiry and the fact that even the our elite, private universities are focused on creating systems managers and not people who are going to think critically and challenge the systems in place.  Having attended an elite, private university myself, I had to assess my own education in a different light than the warm-and-fuzzy views I’ve given my school since graduation.  Business has become the most popular major (also my major) and careers on Wall Street are some of the most sought after positions for new graduates (also true on my campus where the big Wall Street firms came to recruit, wine, and dine the business, economics and accounting majors).  Hedges sums up the future imagined by these kinds of graduates as dim:

They have no concept, thanks to the educations they have received, of how to replace a failed system with a new one. They are petty, timid, and uncreative bureaucrats superbly trained to carry out systems management.  They see only piecemeal solutions that will satisfy the corporate structure. Their entire focus is numbers, profits, and personal advancement…The human consequences never figure into their balance sheets. The democratic system, they believe, is a secondary product of the free market-which they slavishly serve.”

 The Illusion of Happiness: Hedges cites corporate culture and positive psychology as tools that are used to promote social conformity within society, the workplace, and every other institution.  I think anyone who has worked for any company with over 50 employees can relate to this section, where an example of a meeting held at FedEx Kinko’s reminded me of Office Space.  A “woman from corporate” brings toys, candy and markers to get the employees involved and keeps an upbeat attitude even though the employees are initally reluctant to get involved.  In the end, this scene feels uncomfortable because the employees are being “spun” to think they are happy to work for the company.

Positive psychology, like celebrity culture, the relentless drive to consume, and the diversionary appeals of mass entertainment, feeds off the unhappiness that come from isolation and the loss of community.

The Illusion of America: Hedges looks back at America with nostalgia, because, he says, what is still here is not really America anymore.  The quote I want to cite here actually comes from economist Jared Diamond, who lists five factors that lead to social decay:

1) a failure to understand and to prevent causes of environmental damage; 2) climate change, 3) depredations by hostile neighbors; 4) the inability of friendly neighbors to continue trade; and 5) finally, how the society itself deals with the problems raised by the first four factors.

In case you were wondering like I was, depredation means an act of attacking or plundering.  Although I think that the depredation going on in the United States is mostly carried on by internal forces.

Recommendation

Overall, I thought Empire of Illusion was a great read.  I learned about some disturbing trends in each section that Hedges focused on, and the overall message that the people are being distracted and entertained with spectacle and noise while the country and the environment is plundered is definitely a thesis I can agree with.  But I’m always weary of books that prophesy apocalypse and offer nothing in return to a reader.  Although Hedges ends on a note of hope (“The power of love is greater than the power of death”),  he doesn’t offer a path to readers which I think would include education that encourages critical thinking, less apathy overall within the United States, and an inclusive society that offers a larger percentage of people a path to a middle class lifestyle.  I guess in the end, I have an unbounded (and maybe unreasonable) optimism that’s hard to dampen, even though I respect Hedges’ way of presenting the story.

Have you read any works by Chris Hedges? What do you guys think?

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Government, Income Inequality

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: What Does It Mean For You? (Not Much)

July 20, 2011 by Justin Weinger

Hmm, nice little graphic. There goes $50K of the CFPB budget.

OK, so having overhyped Carmageddon last week, it’s time to talk about a serious and relevant topic, the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  I don’t need to say a whole lot on this topic, since this article explores some of the possible potential of the Bureau and this article reminds us that it will all probably end up being nothing but a lot of talk and watered-down “initiatives” and reform.  The main point I want to make is that by the time some event/trend/whatever has reached the point where it needs a federal bureau to look into it, that means there are definitely big problems with it and that the new bureau is not going to be able to do much to stop a tidal wave of activity (Example: FBI.  Catches lots of criminals every year but do you think that means they’ve stopped the flow of counterfeit cigarettes or whatever else into the country? NOT ONE BIT).

So when we talk about a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the government is basically telling you there is no consumer financial protection in the United States, they had an “Oh, sh*t” moment and are frantically trying to put a friendly face on a HUGE issue with no easy answers.   As the second New York Times article points out:

Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to chip away at the authority and structure of the agency by proposing a commission instead of a single director to oversee it, among other ideas. They signaled Thursday that they want to reduce the agency’s powers by challenging the salaries of some staff members, the justification for its budget decisions, its authority to look into certain types of financial institutions and practices, and a number of other organizational issues.

Which sounds like there isn’t even any promise that the CFPB is going to be able to do anything.  It’s counter-intuitive to say that a so-called protection bureau should be limited in its “authority to look into certain types of financial institutions and practices” because that is supposed to be the whole POINT of this stupid agency in the first place.  But when something has “Consumer” in its name instead of “Citizen” that already says to me that the agency is sort of BS (We should be protecting the citizens and residents of America.  Calling us consumers is demeaning and makes me envision mindless drones at the mall sipping Orange Julius and buying cell phone accessories from overpriced kiosks).  Which is not to say that Elizabeth Warren isn’t doing some great work, but one person cannot stand in the way of an industry that has been very effective at making billions in fees and interests, whether it is from a mortgage or a credit card or other type of loan.  Now all of a sudden this brand-new agency is going to try to stand in the way of those healthy, growing revenues?  I’m interested to see where this whole thing leads (Prediction: Nowhere).

Filed Under: Get Out of Debt, Government, Income Inequality

Nothing Over 99 Cents, Except for the ATM Fee

July 13, 2011 by Justin Weinger

The 99 Cents Only stores are all over Southern California and they really mean it when they say “Nothing Over 99 Cents!”  Except for one thing…

There's ALWAYS a Fee in This Town!

 

Just another reminder that EVERYONE makes their money in fees, financing and interest rates.  Although I will say that $1.75 is pretty low as far as ATM fees go.

Filed Under: Get Out of Debt, Income Inequality

The LA Times Doesn’t Care About Poor People

July 12, 2011 by Justin Weinger

I want to preface this post by saying that I am so glad I don’t live in New York.  I love to visit but it’s not the city for me.  LA is my city for at least a few more years and it’s been pretty good living in the Beast.  But why does the LA Times suck so much balls??  I don’t usually make such crass statements, but the LA Times deserves it. The New York Times always has an interesting story on its front page.  Their photo galleries and personal interest stories are always fascinating, and they break ground with in-depth investigative pieces on the big topics and trends, like the drug trade in Mexico, or this off-beat piece back when Second Life really took off.  I can read their paper and feel like I learned something, maybe even had a moment of reflection and  got a little smarter.  I feel the same way about the Wall Street Journal (but not lately since my digital subscription expired).

On the other hand, what does the LA Times do?  They are lazy.  Their reporting is weak.  Their headlines are lame.  They have a reporter named Tom Hamburger.  And this latest article about a community of single parents in Santa Ana, just straight up confused me.

There was no point to this article.  Instead of going in-depth with one person’s story, investigating the causes of poverty for this particular community beyond one sentence (there is one basic mention of education levels and high school dropout rates), or doing anything interesting with this story, the reporter decides to quote a bunch of different people repeating the same idea: that the area has cheap apartments, lots of children and a higher crime rate than other parts of Orange County.  So what?  There was no depth to the reporting, which is pretty much always the case with the LA Times.  For example, look at this awful snippet:

She knows she is far from being the only single parent here but believes the issue is deeper than culture.

“It’s probably because of the poverty,” she said, sitting on a bed in the den of the two-bedroom apartment she has lived in for 30 years.

With gems like that, it’s hard to know why the LA Times doesn’t get more Pulitzers.  Poverty, the working poor, run-down neighborhoods, all of these are topics that I am interested in and passionate about, and even I couldn’t begin to care about this article.  The LA Times does a disservice to these disenfranchised communities with crappy reporting like this.

Crappy Photo goes well with Crappy Reporting (Photo Credit: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times)

Filed Under: Income Inequality

Advice from the Past

July 8, 2011 by Justin Weinger

My friends over at Envisionaries posted this great quote recently:

“Don’t be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there’s no poverty to be seen because the poverty’s been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don’t be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there’s no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they’ll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces.”

-Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). French political student, journalist, physician and one of the leaders of the French Revolution.

 

(It gave me goosebumps, considering the parallels here and here)

Filed Under: Get Out of Debt, Income Inequality

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »
Follow @IAmDebtProject

Gone But Not Forgotten

Where My Blogs At

Edward Antrobus
Add Vodka
AllThingsFinance.net
My Family Finances
Money Spruce
Daily Tips Blog
Fearless Men
Make Money Your Way
Mr. Money Mustache
So Over This
Thirty Six Months

Disclaimer

I am not a professional or a financial advisor. These posts are informational opinions only. Please make your own decisions based on personal research. Also, there are paid links on this site. There is no obligation on your part to purchase any products advertised on this website.
© Copyright American Debt Project 2011-2015. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2019 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in