Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion - Part 1 of 3

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See Part 2 of Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion.
See Part 3 of Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion.

The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Binghamton
Binghamton, NY; October 24, 2009

This video should be required viewing for all progressives who continue to vote for the lesser fascist. Can we just get over this already? Can we get real? Can we come to a true understanding of the situation? Can we stop believing that the oligarchy is going to play Santa Claus, hand us a great big present in the form of a savior politician, and voluntarily relinquish its immense power and privilege? Has your little lesser fascist voting game taken you where you want to go? It is said that the essence of insanity is to perform the same action repeatedly and expect a different result. Can you admit that your actions meet this definition? It's time to build an alternative. Will you be part of the problem or part of the solution?

For more on this subject, see my post entitled "The Evil of Two Lessers."

Week of Climate Action - Keynote Address

The Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition coordinated a weeklong series of events leading up to the International Day of Climate Action on October 24, 2009 as a part of the international campaign being organized by 350.org.

Launched by eminent scientists, activists, and environmentalists, 350.org called for coordinated action around the world on October 24, 2009 to build awareness of the need to bring greenhouse gases under control – from our current 390 ppm to below 350 ppm. In particular, the campaign aimed to put pressure on world leaders who planned to meet in Copenhagen six weeks later to achieve international agreement on ways to deal responsibly and adequately with the threat of climate change. Details on the global campaign are at 350.org.

Sponsors: Broome County Peace Action, Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: CHRIS HEDGES

Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig.org every Monday, spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He served for eight years as the Middle East bureau chief of The New York Times, where he shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism, for coverage of terrorism. Hedges also received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.

In 2009 the Los Angeles Press Club honored the original columns that Hedges writes for Truthdig by naming the author the Online Journalist of the Year and granting him the Best Online Column award for his Truthdig essay “Party to Murder,” about the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli assault on Gaza.

Hedges is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He has written nine books, including “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009), “I Don’t Believe in Atheists” (2008) and the best-selling “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” (2008). His book “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” (2003) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.Hedges, who holds a B.A. in English literature from Colgate University and a master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, is fluent in Arabic and also speaks French, Spanish, Greek and Latin.