ଅଧିକାର

One non-fiction writer that I've been getting really interested in  lately is Chris Hedges. I've been interested in his work for a while, but I wasn't that enthusiastic about it, because his books and other writings and speeches seem to be kind of negative /// For example, his most recent book is entitled, America: The Farewell Tour (2018) /// for me, work based on negative premises is usually a turn-off. Like, all those books about how the internet is adversely affecting society - our thinking, our relationships, etc. As a matter of principle I pretty much have no interest in those books, because I think they're wrong, but also they're bemoaning the inevitable. I did buy one of those kind of books - The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the way we Think, Read and Remember by Nicholas Carr - because, as I wrote about recently on my blog, I've become more and more interested lately in reading books and other texts and watching videos that present views I disagree with. I might write about The Shallows in another post, but here I want to write about an idea Chris Hedges expressed that made me want to read everything he's written. 

At first I thought Hedges must be an opponent of religion, and Christianity in particular, because he's written and spoken extensively criticising the radical Christian right (e.g. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2008)). But then I found some videos on youtube about him debating Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and other prominent atheists. After that, I found the video that really piqued my interest. Hedges was talking about these debates he had with Dawkins and Harris. He says that, initially, he was expecting the debates to be an engaging contest of ideas - a balanced and well-reasoned discussion - but 'to his horror' (his words) he discovered that, the approach of the so-called new atheism was problematic in ways that actually mirrored the flaws of the radical Christian right. So, he wrote a book that was like a complement to American Fascists, called When Atheism becomes Religion. 

I don't know everything Hedges has to say about this issue - I'm planning to read some of his books - but it's an issue that really fascinates me. It's sometimes called the horseshoe theory - the idea that the far-left and the far-right (or any other extreme 'opposites') are not in fact opposing ends of a continuum, but are actually very similar and in some ways the same. They have a kind of symbiotic relationship - they feed each other. 

You can see this effect in the witch narrative(s). That's what I liked so much about the movie, The VVitch. It represented the reality that, in many ways, the witch doesn't manifest as a purely malevolent phenomen....it's not simply a story about the subversion of what is good by what is evil. Instead, the potency of the Puritan's hatred and fear of what they regarded as evil, manifested that evil. The witch narrative was written not by witches but by Puritans. 

As I write this, I'm listening to a talk by Chris Hedges called, The Politics of Cultural Despair (October 19, 2020). It's pretty much unrelentingly bleak. This is what I'm not that keen on. There's no (or little) positive vision. For example, he's almost equally critical of the democrat and republican sides of politics. He talks a lot about the problems and he doesn't seem to see any possible solutions to our current malaise. 

Doing further research, I'm pretty sure Hedges is a Marxist. In his book, America: The Farewell Tour, he is super critical of corporate capitalism, and he quotes from and uses the ideas of Marx himself and other Marxist thinkers, like Antonio Gramsci. He adopts their arguments into his thesis. He also has a show on RT's YouTube channel called 'On Contact' as well as videos published on Democracy Now! and The Intercept, but he also has videos on YouTube channels without that political flavour, like Rolling Stone and Toronto Public Library. But the titles of his videos give a pretty clear reflection of his views e.g.  Chris Hedges: "Democracy has been destroyed by global capitalism". 

But, whether you love or hate Marxism, and notwithstanding the bleakness of his views, Hedges's writing is just fascinating. His videos are interesting too. I watched an episode of 'On Contact' in which he interviewed the Islamic scholar Hamza Yusuf (who I know from researching Islam and watching YouTube videos about Islam) and they talked about extremism and Islamophobia. 

It's nice listening to, or reading, intelligent commentary on politicals for a change. It's rare these days. 

One of my favourite scenes in all literature is in Dostoevsky's Demons. The book is very much about ideology and extremism. In this scene that I like, there's a man who is highly respected in the community and known for his intelligence and integrity. The scene is well into the book and takes place after we have gotten to know this character very well. and the story is about a political movement/ ideology that is growing and gaining power, and of course, getting this man onboard would be a big win for the group. 

So, he decides to attend one of their rallies. There's a huge crowd and, because he's such a well respected and wise member of society - and because they want to coopt those qualities as a reflection of their group - they invite him to speak. There's a real build up to the speech...Dostoevsky evokes a sense of tension and expectation around this speech. The man (I forget his name) begins by explaining that he has studied this political movement deeply and thoroughly and discussed it with its proponents, and he has come to a conclusion regarding it and what it is about....everyone is hanging on his every word. And he says, this is what it's about: stupidity! - which leads to an uproar.