Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt

320 Pages·2015·3.32 MB·English

by  Chris Hedges

ALSO BY CHRIS HEDGES WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES
US MEANING WHAT EVERY PERSON SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT WAR LOSING MOSES ON THE
FREEWAY AMERICAN FASCISTS I DON’T BELIEVE IN
ATHEISTS COLLATERAL DAMAGE EMPIRE OF
ILLUSION DEATH OF THE LIBERAL CLASS THE
WORLD AS IT IS DAYS OF DESTRUCTION, DAYS OF
REVOLT (WITH JOE SACCO)

Copyright © 2015 by Chris Hedges.

Published by
Nation Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group
116 East 16th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10003

Nation Books is a co-publishing venture of the Nation Institute and the Perseus Books Group.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be
reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address the Perseus Books
Group, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

Books published by Nation Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the
United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please
contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite
200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].

Set in 11 point Minion Pro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hedges, Chris.
Wages of rebellion / Chris Hedges.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-56858490-4 (e-book) 1. Revolutions—Social aspects. 2. Social movements. 3. Protest
movements. I. Title.
HM876.H43 2015
303.48'4—dc23 2014044940

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Eunice,
y en cuanto a mí no olvides que si despierto y lloro
es porque en sueños sólo soy un niño perdido
que busca entre las hojas de la noche tus manos
Contents
Introduction
I
Doomed Voyages
II
The Post-Constitutional Era
III
The Invisible Revolution
IV
Conversion
V
The Rebel Caged
VI
Vigilante Violence
VII
The Rebel Defiant
VIII
Sublime Madness
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
The tolerance which is the life element, the token of a free society, will never be the gift of the
Powers That Be; it can, under the prevailing conditions of tyranny by the majority, only be won in
the sustained effort of radical minorities, willing to break this tyranny and to work for the
emergence of a free and sovereign majority—minorities intolerant, militantly intolerant and
disobedient to the rules of behavior which tolerate destruction and suppression.1
—HERBERT MARCUSE, “REPRESSIVE TOLERANCE”
The pious say that faith can do great things, and, as the gospel tells us, even move mountains. The
reason is that faith breeds obstinacy. To have faith means simply to believe firmly—to deem almost
a certainty—things that are not reasonable; or, if they are reasonable, to believe them more firmly
than reason warrants. A man [or woman] of faith is stubborn in his [or her] beliefs; he [or she]
goes his [or her] way, undaunted and resolute, disdaining hardship and danger, ready to suffer
any extremity.
Now, since the affairs of the world are subject to chance and to a thousand and one different
accidents, there are many ways in which the passage of time may bring unexpected help to those
who preserve in their obstinacy. And since this obstinacy is the product of faith, it is then said that
faith can do great things.2
—FRANCESCO GUICCIARDINI, RICORDI
The civilization and justice of bourgeois order comes out in its lurid light whenever the slaves and
drudges of that order rise against their masters. Then this civilization and justice stand forth as
undisguised savagery and lawless revenge . . . the infernal deeds of the soldiery reflect the innate
spirit of that civilization of which they are the mercenary vindicators. . . . The bourgeoisie of the
whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed
by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.3
—KARL MARX, THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE
Introduction
WE LIVE IN a revolutionary moment. The disastrous economic and political
experiment that attempted to organize human behavior around the dictates of the
global marketplace has failed. The promised prosperity that was to have raised
the living standards of workers through trickle-down economics has been
exposed as a lie. A tiny global oligarchy has amassed obscene wealth, while the
engine of unfettered corporate capitalism plunders resources; exploits cheap,
unorganized labor; and creates pliable, corrupt governments that abandon the
common good to serve corporate profit. The relentless drive by the fossil fuel
industry for profits is destroying the ecosystem, threatening the viability of the
human species. And no mechanisms to institute genuine reform or halt the
corporate assault are left within the structures of power, which have surrendered
to corporate control. The citizen has become irrelevant. He or she can participate
in heavily choreographed elections, but the demands of corporations and banks
are paramount.
History has amply demonstrated that the seizure of power by a tiny cabal,
whether a political party or a clique of oligarchs, leads to despotism.
Governments that cater exclusively to a narrow interest group and redirect the
machinery of state to furthering the interests of that interest group are no longer
capable of responding rationally in times of crisis. Blindly serving their masters,
they acquiesce to the looting of state treasuries to bail out corrupt financial
houses and banks while ignoring chronic unemployment and underemployment,
along with stagnant or declining wages, crippling debt peonage, a collapsing
infrastructure, and the millions left destitute and often homeless by deceptive
mortgages and foreclosures.
A bankrupt liberal class, holding up values it does nothing to defend,
discredits itself as well as the purported liberal values of a civil democracy as it
is swept aside, along with those values. In this moment, a political, economic, or
natural disaster—in short a crisis—will ignite unrest, lead to instability, and see