Chris Hedges: America, The Farewell Tour
Show #215 | Guest: Chris Hedges | Show Summary: Chris Hedges hasn\u2019t given up on America. That may not be the immediate impression from his reporting, nor from his books, where he describes the opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides. But grasping the unvarnished reality is essential to fixing everything that\u2019s gone wrong both nationally and worldwide. Hedges\u2019 work, from his contribution to the New York Time\u2019s 2002 Pulitzer Prize to his most recent book America: The Farewell Tour urges us not to compromise as we assess today\u2019s political and societal realities. And he says that neither mainstream political party addresses our systemic problems \u2014 nor can they, until our country\u2019s \u201ccorporate coup d\u2019\xe9tat\u201d is reversed. Chris Hedges served as a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. His bestselling books include American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, and War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. Hedges is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig.