Comments on: Chris Hedges’ Dark Vision

By: Michael Lockhart

Michael Lockhart — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:48:23 +0000

Violence is addictive, and often the question is not whether to be addicted, but from what position: as perpetrator, or from a passive-aggressive or purely passive observer of violence. PTSD involves a constant state of hyper-alert awareness of the possibility of danger and death, and for some, violence becomes a way of gaining power over what is draining power away. Whether a person cowers in a corner or acts aggressively, they’re just manifesting the same problem in different ways — society would, of course, prefer the cowering. But then again, I’m not so sure… do we all passively entertain ourselves with violence, even with outrage against violence?

By: Jack Kessler

Jack Kessler — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:47:27 +0000

Hedges has it exactly wrong because he simply doesn’t know the history of what happened.

When the First World War ended and the Italian army was demobilized, crowds of Italian communists and other leftists gathered at the train stations to spit on the returning soldiers as they got off the trains. They shouted slogans about imperialism and capitalism at boys who had been drafted or volunteered to fight for their country.

Mussolini was one of those soldiers who was spat on. And it was from among them that he recruited his first cadres of fascisti. They didn’t come home fascists. They were made fascists by their mistreatment by the Italian left.

The traditional view remains the correct one. If you disagree with a war, vote out those who caused it. Honor those who fought for their country whether the cause was just or not.

By: Aminah Carroll

Aminah Carroll — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:34:00 +0000

This beautiful commentary and perspective by Dave Belden both highlights with respect the views and articles by of Hedges and Lerner, and articulates a call to action rather than to despair. I hope that i can emulate Belden in my writing with his address of scope and content of people with whom i passionately disagree at elast in part, while learning from them. I try to do this but am sometimes unsuccessful and dispose of the person globally rather than examining them as a totality with insights which may be quite valuable despite our differences.
That doesn’t happen to me with Rabbi Michael Lerner, for his humanitarian love, his celebration of God, and his truthfulness cathects his work. But I have often scuttled the writings of Hedges becauseof his views about religion, not because of his philosphical bleakness…after all, the poor and the working class are the canaries in the coal mine and they have been degraded,desperate and dyingas individuals and as a class since social darwinism became entrenched in our society, its way of life, and permeated our “institutions”.

Once meant to help, systems like public assistance, foster care, special education (OMG–how we torture our children) now harm so greatly they make a mockery of the concept of public service.What i have seen in my 37 years of work in these institutions is demonic.
Lately i have realized that i am missing a lot by not reading more of hedges. His ruthless pursuit of the truth seems to be his religion ; that is very valuable in a society like ours in which blindness to evil like drug induced apathy is so crippling and mainstream.

i do not fear the fascism in the right so much as i fear the hypocricy, unwillingness to make eprsonal sacrifices, and blaming and shaming behaviors of the Left. If we fail as a nation and as a democracy it is because we have allowed the plutocrats and oligarchs to dominate our lives with rotten values of social darwinism, materialism gone wild, and hypersexualization so extreme it has polluted what little was left of childhood innocence for its market value.

By: Gerald Socha

Gerald Socha — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:19:00 +0000

Personally, I am disappointed in Obama’s performance as of this date. We cannot heal as a nation unless we can diagnose our problem and determine the prognosis. Unless Obama joins the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, we will never heal as a nation. Investigating only the lackies or cannon fodder in the military is not the answer to our healing process. Cannon fodder in the military is just cannon fodder. Cheney has openly confessed to his torture crimes and he must be tried for these crimes.

By: Alana

Alana — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:05:46 +0000

It doesn’t seem right to portray vets with PTSD as seeking “violence the way an addict seeks out a bag of heroin,” as if they are all craving violence. The vet who spoke at the Netroots Nation PTSD panel that I attended talked about his PTSD as something that isolated him and made it hard to ease into normal social relations with others. For many PTSD is a source of isolation and depression but doesn’t necessarily lead to violence. That said, I think Hedges is totally right about the need for intensive mental health support and re-entry programs to help both vets and formerly incarcerated people heal from the traumas they have been through.