I came across an article by well respected, supposedly left-leaning journalist, Mr. Chris Hedges, on common dreams.org, a "progressive" news site which I sometimes visit though I hate that label, and I felt compelled to respond to his hysterical screed, so that maybe those of us who call ourselves "liberals" can learn to avoid hysterical, childish outbursts which alienate, and instead develop a firm, realistic morality in the face of our GOP opponents, who claim to have their feet on the ground.
For far too long have the GOP claimed this moral high ground, and the fault is in liberalism and the Democratic party, since liberals too often leave issues about morality, and justice up in the air.
The article is entitled "Surviving the Fourth of July," and Mr. Hedges begins by saying:
I survive the degradation that has become America - a land that exalts itself as a bastion of freedom and liberty while it tortures human beings, stripped of their rights, in offshore penal colonies, a land that wages wars defined under international law as criminal wars of aggression, a land that turns its back on its poor, its weak, its mentally ill, in a relentless drive to embrace totalitarian capitalism - because I read books. I have 5,000 of them.
I have to say that this opening paragraph immediately struck me as being quite ridiculous.
Surely Mr. Hedges, a man who has visited many of the world's most politically unstable areas, (i.e. Kosovo, Central America, and Iraq) and reported on these lethal conflicts from the front, is exaggerating.
Survive?
Not only are you well fed, safe from religiously motivated bombings, poverty, and violent mob rule in the streets, but you are writing from a comfortable home, no doubt, surrounded by 5,000 luxuries, and free to publish how this makes you feel, personally.
In a nutshell, the entire article is about what Mr. Hedges "feels."
And if "liberal" journalism has been reduced to entering a confessional or a psychiatrist's office, that has serious implications for all of us.
I think it's even safe to say that he's being more than just a little hysterical.
The Democrats, and those among us who are considered "liberal," need to pick up on something which the GOP currently has a monopoly on, and which Mr. Hedges obviously yearns for.
Sacrifice, Responsibility, and Duties.
Because alone with his feelings, believing vaguely in some kind of international species solidarity, Mr. Hedges perceives that any harm done to another human being, no matter if they hold a gun to someone's head and attempt to pull the trigger, is an injustice to all.
This is a simplistic and entirely irresponsible view of politics and actual human relationships, which ignores the real responsibilities and decisions that politically empowered people must sometimes face.
In Mr. Hedges moral universe, people have the same morals, there is such a thing as "humanity," which alone must be defended, and the only cause that should bring liberals out of their homes and ready to fight, would be an alien invasion, a threat to all nations and the entire species, all of whom are equally virtuous in his eyes.
He continues by quoting Kurt Vonnegut, a man who despised conflict and war and dreamed of a more peaceful, just, respectful, and humane world:
"The practice of art isn't to make a living," Kurt Vonnegut said. "It's to make your soul grow."
How many ways can you miss the points of the article?
Giving the writer the benefit of the doubt, I read his retort of Hedges' article to the bitter end, and find nothing at all commendable about it. Even though it is a point-by-point critique, it literally misses every point of a very well-crafted and carefully thought out article.
It is one thing to disagree with the article, but quite another to take four pages of lawyerly legalese to say virtually nothing.
I don't agree with everything in the article either, but boy is it well said. It makes one think, which is more than I can say about the retort.
But hey, its a free country so the kind of pompous rambling done here is permitted too. But what a way to burn up freedom of speech.
by
Herbert Calhoun (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 37 comments)
on Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 7:44:42 PM
1 comments
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