America: The Farewell Tour

De: Chris Hedges

Narrado por: Fred Sanders

A profound and provocative examination of America in crisis, where unemployment, deindustrialization, and a bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in an epidemic of diseases of despair - drug abuse, gambling, suicide, magical thinking, xenophobia, and a culture of sadism and hate.

America, says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis, the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress, the pornification of culture, the rise of magical thinking, the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet.

Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. A poignant cry reported from communities across the country, America: The Farewell Tour seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.

©2018 Chris Hedges (P)2018 Simon & Schuster

Best non-fiction book I have unearthed.

Hedges tour of America, etched in despair with waning but relevant dying embers of human nobility, is delivered with the empathy of a Studs Terkel and the unceremonius tearing off of the veil characteristic of a Malcolm X.

Rebel

It starts off with an improved version of things he's already written. Then it gets dark. really, really fucking dark. Then it ends with the thrust from Wages of Rebellion.

It's like Wages of Rebellion and American Fascists had a baby, and then he finally really committed to talking about pornography. Like. . .graphically. . . I really dont think I can read that chapter twice.

I want to go on like a dozen rants here, but that's what you need to know about the book if you're familiar with Hedges.

great book

offers great review of how we got to this poi t in our countries history and what is to come if a change in our current system is not realized in real life.

Essential. Excruciating.

Well, everything here is TRUE- a word that has dissolved in this our lost country. If you read this book, you will be forced to change. Do it- you’ll find your soul.

a compass to orient in turbelent times

sweeping coverage of social ills: pornography, opiods, gambling, violence, rape and how they are a reaction to marginalization of the working class. brings class struggle back to the forefront

An important book

A well reasoned examination of the current state of affairs in the US. Everyone should read this book.

Angry, Dark and Essential Reading.

You'll be sorry you bought this book, then you'll wonder how you could live without it. Hedges spares no one in the denouncement of phony ideology and oppression masked as democracy

A Brilliant State of the Union Address

A must read for anyone who wants to order a "straight no chaser" summation of what Hedges refers to as the "diseased society"!!!

https://www.combatingpoliticalcivicilliteracy.com/forum-1

A critical appraisal of the US

Takeaway: Disbaragement and an unwillingness to understand US class economic divide may lead to ultra national reactive populous seeking to be vindicated. The populous can snap the foundation of the States leaving what occured in Europe and elsewhere as new countries form out of old. The fracturing can later lead to war for reunification after a plight to capture a stolen future.

Especially poignant, eloquently descriptive prose.

Enjoyable listen or read the characters are detailed common person USA. The thoughts are
presented with alclarity and resonance we felt for some time now. Pray first good advice for us all. Thanks Mr. Hedges your resistance is inspiring.