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bradchassse's review against another edition
5.0
This was a really amazing book. It really inspired me.
sillypunk's review against another edition
4.0
Well, that was relentlessly depressing. It was good but I felt the polemic sometimes edged into hyperbole.
Excellent line though: I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists
Excellent line though: I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists
eleanorvacant's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
corinina's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
jakeyjake's review against another edition
Eugene B. Debs: "Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said it then as I said it now, that while there is a lower-class, I am in it. And while there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
I stumbled on this thinking it was more about literal 'wages' and labor strikes. Instead, it is about the way that rebels and revolutionaries have endured in spite of attacks from the state, the corporate oligarchy, and even left-leaning liberals. Hedges talks to and about revolutionaries who challenge power in radical ways, with subjects from Thomas Payne, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Bryan Stevenson, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Václav Havel, Prison Watch, Eugene Debs, and others. This was published in 2015 so I'd have loved Hedges to include more from the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests and how that rebellion has taken a toll on some of its founders.
This book has some powerful ideas with quotes and stories that reiterate the need to challenge power aggressively by coming together to organize with solidarity and mutual aid at the forefront of movements.
"The rebel shows us that there is no hope for correction or reversal by appealing to power. The rebel makes it clear that it is only by overthrowing traditional systems of power that we can be liberated. The denunciation of the rebel is a matter of self-preservation for the liberal class."
------Notes--------
"The idea that the very oppressed and poor are important as initiating and maintaining revolutions is a bourgeois one... No government has ever fallen before its attackers until it has lost control over its armed forces."
-I believe this is a quote by Britton in the introduction
"Louis Auguste Blanqui dismissed the idea, central to Marx, that human history is a linear progression towards equality and greater morality. He warned that this absurd positivism is the lie perpetuated by oppressors...I am not amongst those that say progress can be taken for granted, that humanity cannot go backwards."
-I should read more Blanqui!
"As a species, we're doomed by hope. Reality is dismissed when it is unpleasant."
-Margaret Atwood
re the supreme court refusing to hear certain cases of government imprisoning based on "If we do not rapidly build militant, mass movements to overthrow corporate tyranny, including breaking the back of the two-party duopoly that is the mask of corporate power, we will lose what remains of our liberty."
It was only after Snowden leaked the documents that the conversation about the problems actually started. Others had tried working within the system, but it all failed and often led to the people trying to work within channels getting in trouble too.
Rebellion against oligarchal elite is percolating. Thousands of factory strikes have happened in China in 2011-2013 (Pepsi, Nike, Adidas).
Legal system is almost always on the state side... so Václav Havel says utter and complete transparency and rigid adherence to non-violence, including not damaging property.
Occupy activists argued for non-violence and no property damage so that masses are more likely to join in. Violent and property damaging tactics privilege those with privilege under the law. People of color more likely to be arrested for property damage than white people (we saw this play out in 2020 protests).
We call for accountability and transparency!
On Obama, "it exposes him for what he is: the ideological heir of Booker T. Washington, a black accommodationist, whose core message to black people was, in the words of W.E.B. DuBois, of adjustment and submission. Obama's message to the black underclass in the midst of the corporate rape of the nation is drawn verbatim from the Booker T. Washington playbook. He tells them to work harder (as if anyone in the country works harder than the working poor) to get an education, and to obey the law."
"40% of our babies are living in poverty, living without enough food, and Obama comes to us and says quit whining. He doesn't say that to the corporate elites!"
Prison Watch letters that describe how prisoners are being abused and sexually abused by prison workers as well as psychological torture like sensory and sleep deprivation and extended solitary confinement.
Eugene B. Debs: "Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said it then as I said it now, that while there is a lower-class, I am in it. And while there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." ********
"Thomas Payne is America's single great revolutionary theorist."
-Go read Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason. Calle for Civil society to be separated from the state.
"Do you think we should rape people who rape? We don't rape rapists because we think about the people who would have to commit the rape... We can't imagine replicating a rape and holding onto our dignity, but because we think we've found a way to kill people that is civilized and decent, we are comfortable." Bryan Stevenson
Jeremy Hammond. Activist and hacker. Goal is to build leaderless collectives based on free association, consensus, mutual aid, self-sufficiency and harmony with the environment. "It's essential that we all work to cut our ties with capitalism and engage in resistance that includes mass organizing of protest."
"The rebel shows us that there is no hope for correction or reversal by appealing to power. The rebel makes it clear that it is only by overthrowing traditional systems of power that we can be liberated. The denunciation of the rebel is a matter of self-preservation for the liberal class."
I stumbled on this thinking it was more about literal 'wages' and labor strikes. Instead, it is about the way that rebels and revolutionaries have endured in spite of attacks from the state, the corporate oligarchy, and even left-leaning liberals. Hedges talks to and about revolutionaries who challenge power in radical ways, with subjects from Thomas Payne, Louis Auguste Blanqui, Bryan Stevenson, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Václav Havel, Prison Watch, Eugene Debs, and others. This was published in 2015 so I'd have loved Hedges to include more from the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests and how that rebellion has taken a toll on some of its founders.
This book has some powerful ideas with quotes and stories that reiterate the need to challenge power aggressively by coming together to organize with solidarity and mutual aid at the forefront of movements.
"The rebel shows us that there is no hope for correction or reversal by appealing to power. The rebel makes it clear that it is only by overthrowing traditional systems of power that we can be liberated. The denunciation of the rebel is a matter of self-preservation for the liberal class."
------Notes--------
"The idea that the very oppressed and poor are important as initiating and maintaining revolutions is a bourgeois one... No government has ever fallen before its attackers until it has lost control over its armed forces."
-I believe this is a quote by Britton in the introduction
"Louis Auguste Blanqui dismissed the idea, central to Marx, that human history is a linear progression towards equality and greater morality. He warned that this absurd positivism is the lie perpetuated by oppressors...I am not amongst those that say progress can be taken for granted, that humanity cannot go backwards."
-I should read more Blanqui!
"As a species, we're doomed by hope. Reality is dismissed when it is unpleasant."
-Margaret Atwood
re the supreme court refusing to hear certain cases of government imprisoning based on "If we do not rapidly build militant, mass movements to overthrow corporate tyranny, including breaking the back of the two-party duopoly that is the mask of corporate power, we will lose what remains of our liberty."
It was only after Snowden leaked the documents that the conversation about the problems actually started. Others had tried working within the system, but it all failed and often led to the people trying to work within channels getting in trouble too.
Rebellion against oligarchal elite is percolating. Thousands of factory strikes have happened in China in 2011-2013 (Pepsi, Nike, Adidas).
Legal system is almost always on the state side... so Václav Havel says utter and complete transparency and rigid adherence to non-violence, including not damaging property.
Occupy activists argued for non-violence and no property damage so that masses are more likely to join in. Violent and property damaging tactics privilege those with privilege under the law. People of color more likely to be arrested for property damage than white people (we saw this play out in 2020 protests).
We call for accountability and transparency!
On Obama, "it exposes him for what he is: the ideological heir of Booker T. Washington, a black accommodationist, whose core message to black people was, in the words of W.E.B. DuBois, of adjustment and submission. Obama's message to the black underclass in the midst of the corporate rape of the nation is drawn verbatim from the Booker T. Washington playbook. He tells them to work harder (as if anyone in the country works harder than the working poor) to get an education, and to obey the law."
"40% of our babies are living in poverty, living without enough food, and Obama comes to us and says quit whining. He doesn't say that to the corporate elites!"
Prison Watch letters that describe how prisoners are being abused and sexually abused by prison workers as well as psychological torture like sensory and sleep deprivation and extended solitary confinement.
Eugene B. Debs: "Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said it then as I said it now, that while there is a lower-class, I am in it. And while there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." ********
"Thomas Payne is America's single great revolutionary theorist."
-Go read Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason. Calle for Civil society to be separated from the state.
"Do you think we should rape people who rape? We don't rape rapists because we think about the people who would have to commit the rape... We can't imagine replicating a rape and holding onto our dignity, but because we think we've found a way to kill people that is civilized and decent, we are comfortable." Bryan Stevenson
Jeremy Hammond. Activist and hacker. Goal is to build leaderless collectives based on free association, consensus, mutual aid, self-sufficiency and harmony with the environment. "It's essential that we all work to cut our ties with capitalism and engage in resistance that includes mass organizing of protest."
"The rebel shows us that there is no hope for correction or reversal by appealing to power. The rebel makes it clear that it is only by overthrowing traditional systems of power that we can be liberated. The denunciation of the rebel is a matter of self-preservation for the liberal class."
j_ess_reads's review against another edition
5.0
This book feels incredibly timely given today's political climate, and given the gravity of the topic, I needed to take it in small doses (I also admit that I'm not the most focused of audiobook listeners, which was the format I used). I found it fascinating and frightening at the same time. I will probably try to find a physical copy for a closer reread.
cpa85's review against another edition
5.0
This is a must-read for anyone looking for insight into the current state of civilization and the work that must be done to establish justice.
yowlyy's review against another edition
5.0
"There is no free press without a willingness to define law and expose the abuses and lies carried out by the powerful."