Subtitled "The Moral Imperative of Revolt".
Essentially a look at the current political and social situation in the United States and how it resembles other historical situations where revolt or revolutions took place. Symptoms - growing use of force against any different opinions or points of view; ruling elites growing inability to listen or hear the public at large; restriction of freedom of speech and even thought to a point; fracturing of society and retreat into various mythic historical dreams of past greatness; xenophobia; minority phobia.
Hedges examines these things through looking at the lives of people who have paid a price for trying to make a difference: Occupy leaders, Abu Jamal, Julian Assange, people who have spoken out on certain causes and found themselves in jail.
When you read these life stories, you realize how far from its idealized press image the current U.S. situation is. The situation is more and more similar to other repressive regimes - Putin, Nazis, Fascist Italy, Erdogan's Turkey, Sisi's Egypt, Isreal's Palestine.
It would seem many Americans have more or less lost touch with the reality of their country and have become lost in bizarre mythical dreams and stories of their world.
Another idea he brings up through an interview with Abu Jamal is how the prison system actually manages to monetize and extract value from the lives of poor, unemployed people through the system of privatized prisons and per prisoner funding from the government. A form of modern slavery. Convenient, especially now that you can end up in jail simply for disagreeing and acting on it in non-violent ways, as it also serves to remove and control potential leaders of critical movements.
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