I've mentioned earlier that I intended to dive into Chris Hedges' latest tome Death Of The Liberal Class. I find that the words within said book, already quite relevant, take on an additional immediacy and relevance with the Obama Tax Deal Bruhaha of the last week or so. The deal has some goodies for those of us below $250 grand, for sure, but while there's meat in that turkey, I've yet to find evidence of a vertebral column. Hedges' book perhaps offers the best explanation I've seen as to why.
In a short phrase, those in the labor/government/academic worlds who have made their careers spouting leftward-sounding rhetoric, have sold out. The very fact that many have made their careers saying one thing and doing/living another, the mark of hypocrisy, is called out numerous times and in numerous ways. The net effect of this grand sell-out is to reduce the liberal establishment in this country to nothing more than a singing, dancing marionette for the puppeteers who really run this country - the left has been reduced to legitimizing the right, and providing a veneer of "credibility" to our "democracy". Chris Hedges writes in an un-academic, easy to understand manner, and pulls no punches.
In short, a highly recommended read. It should be available at Powell's Books (go there first, please - support the smaller booksellers before heading to the West Bank of Amazon). If not at Powell's, then Amazon should have it.
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