The Spread of Sacrifice Zones ..new book by Chris Hedges

[dixiegrrrrl]

as discussed in CounterCurrents.org
Chris Hedge's and Joe Sacco's new book, "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt," is a treasure. Hedges wrote the plain text. Sacco produced the text-heavy cartoon sections and other illustrations, which even I -- not a big fan of cartoon books -- found to enrich this book enormously.

Hedges and Sacco visit Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to examine the misery of the Native Americans who remain there. It's nice to think that we've corrected our crimes through political correctness, and yet they continue uninterrupted -- unconscionably, intolerably, tragically. Here the human stories are told, and told by those affected and by those resisting and struggling to set things right. Ironically, the victims of the United States' first imperial slaughters are now disproportionately suffering the pain common to veterans of recent U.S. wars. That same pattern of widespread military experience is found in each of three other sections of the book as well, while other communities in this country have virtually no participation in the military.

Hedges and Sacco go to Camden, New Jersey, to examine the world of impoverished and ghettoized African Americans, whose lives have worsened by many measures over the past generation, despite the successes of the civil rights movement. Poor whites and others figure into the story as well, with special attention to those struggling to improve the world, whether on a small or large scale. Michael Doyle's voice is one of those from Camden residents that tell the story of decline and devastation that city has experienced:

"You hear people my age get up and say, 'We were poor. We put cardboard in our shoes.' We talk like that. But we didn't know we were poor. Today you do. And how do you know you're poor? Your television shows you that you're poor. So it's very easy to build up anger in a, say, a high-voltage kid of seventeen, and, he knows he's poor, he looks at the TV."

Doyle went on to say that the cause was unclear, the "enemy" was unclear to people, and "so you take it out on your neighbor." Young men with no education have no employment anymore, he said, no opportunities to be worth anything -- except through the military.

More:
http://www.countercurrents.org/swanson090612.htm

[freshwest]

1. Sounds like an excellent read. Especially when he says this:

'...the "enemy" was unclear to people, and "so you take it out on your neighbor."

Isn't that what the '99%' does in every election, what we do to each other on a daily basis in these spats we were about?

Which will only grow worse as we're reduced to having no common space to share, to our little places?

That only gets back to the heart, but instead we know for many the only way to survive may be what he says, since the commons of public education and public works is being decimated:

'Young men with no education have no employment anymore, he said, no opportunities to be worth anything -- except through the military.' This is a sad commentary, that the only way to live is through warfare for many.

Are we born to cannon fodder and little else in this life, and can we look up to ask what the war is for, when we know the people sending people to war are lying to us and have us caught in a trap they devised?

The only thing I see that is successfully opposing this is Occupy, the co-op movements of Korten and others. To give people work to do to survive for the purpose of not enriching those who made these problems, but those who actually live here.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Yes. Indeed.

To those who can see, the pattern, current and future, is very very clear.
all i can do is continue encouraging my sons to see clearly.
they do an excellent job, I am proud to say.