As a contributor to the WestView News, I sometimes write about Chris Hedges and encourage everyone to check out his Truthdig.com column, which comes out on Monday mornings. There is more than one path to the truth, but not many, and Chris Hedges’ voice is one of them.
In the Monday editorial dated August 18, Mr. Hedges interviews Lawrence Hamm, Chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress and a long-time activist based in Newark. After a short introduction to acquaint his readers with Mr. Hamm’s work, Mr. Hedges steps aside and allows the civil right leader to talk without interruption. I was lucky enough to hear Lawrence Hamm speak in person the day before, on Sunday, at the Black Is Back Coalition Conference in Philly. This was an exciting conference, heightened by the demonstrations in Ferguson. Needless to say, the majority of the audience was black, but there were at least nine or ten of us white folks there, all members of the Solidarity Movement, which falls under the direction of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP).
The Chairperson of the APSP is also the current Chairperson of the Black Is Back Coalition. His name is Omali Yeshitela, and he is, without question, the greatest speaker and among the greatest moral philosophers, economists, and historians I have ever come across, either in writing or in person. Yet, he labors in relative obscurity—relative to the power of his speeches—which are more lectures than anything—profoundly learned and interesting—but also fused with passion and wry wit—all of which makes for riveting, life-altering oratory. Perhaps Omali Yeshitela’s best quality is his total refusal to pander—to any audience at any time. This is an approach that he shares with Chris Hedges. I cannot describe the relief I feel listening to or reading the work of either of these two men.
One of the tenets of the APSP’s platform is that we must stand up to anti-intellectualism wherever it occurs. This means never condescending or manufacturing pat phrases designed to appeal to a modern audience with a short attention span. You better know how to pay attention. If you do, the chances are, in the case of both Chris Hedges and Omali Yeshitela, you will find yourself restored to sanity, as I have. You will look at the world in a new way, not just this country but also the world, and not just today but its history, or at least modern history, including the birth of capitalism and its parasitic nature.
As far as us all being parasites, Barbara Ehrenreich also arrives at this conclusion in her classic, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, in which she says,
The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.
Here is what I wish for readers of WestView News: That, if you’re not already, you soon become acquainted with the words, spoken and written, of both Chris Hedges and Omali Yeshitela—and of course Barbara Ehrenreich—and there are others, such as Penny Hess, Chairperson of the Solidarity Movement and author of Overturning the Culture of Violence and Glen Ford, superlative speaker and leading activist, who hosts The Black Agenda Report on Wednesday nights on WBAI. Each of these passionate members of the liveliest corner of the intelligentsia is also accessible on YouTube. Chris Hedges is the author of books like The Death of the Liberal Class, which may well change your life, as it did mine. Omali Yeshitela’s latest book, An Uneasy Equilibrium: The African Revolution versus Parasitic Capitalism, is one of the best representations of his worldview.
Possibly some of you, like me, have been looking for a way to identify what is happening in Ferguson, Staten Island, Gaza, Iraq and Syria. No mainstream press will enlighten us. Gone are the days when we could passively sit back and let the news come to us. It will not arrive. We must seek it—the news, the truth, some understanding of the world as it is today.
Reality—it’s not here in the bubble. Spike Lee calls Manhattan, “a gated community for the 1%, where they feel safe enough to breed.” All of us here, including the other 99%, know that we live in extreme comfort and even luxury compared to most of the world. Reality—it’s essential we find it. Here’s what I wish for all of us: that we do find it, and armed with our knowledge of it, begin to change things before it’s too late.
