Exclusive Interview: Chris Hedges: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Another extraordinary interview with Chris, again showing what a visionary, revolutionary We discuss his new book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt written with illustrator Joe Sacco

Chris Hedges is a cultural critic and author who was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. He reported from Latin American, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for The New York Times coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges, who holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, is the author of the bestsellers American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and was a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his book War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute and writes an online column for the web site Truthdig. He has taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

Rough notes, mostly my questions, from the interview:

Rob: You say in your book, " There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave." Will you comment on what that means?

Rob: Are there efforts to turn your lawsuit against NDAA into a meme, to help more people identify more assaults via legislation on the values of the founding fathers?

Rob: Are there website, foundations, supposedly left wing foundations supporting your message?

Rob: What about the role of bottom up resistance and the bottom up revolution?

Rob: How do you see the next steps in civil resistance?

Rob: Slavery?  Violence of poverty. Internal colonies, sacrifice zones. 

34% of black males in Alabama do not have the right to vote because they've been in prison. 

Rob:  Sacrifice Zones and internal colonies? What are they?

Rob:  What do you think of the Electoral system and the the hope that change will come through that?

Rob:  Massey coal controls 1.5 million acres and Blair mountain was the largest uprising since the Civil war. 

Rob:  You end the book talking about your experience as a boxer, over 30 years ago. What is the metaphoric meaning of that?

Rob: Any projects you're currently working on?