Chris Hedges: Throw Out the Money Changers

[marmar]

from truthdig:




Throw Out the Money Changers

Posted on Apr 18, 2011
By Chris Hedges


These are remarks Chris Hedges made in Union Square in New York City last Friday during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America.


We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is determined by the ability to amass wealth and power at the expense of others, where laws are manipulated, rewritten and broken, where the endless treadmill of consumption defines human progress, where fraud and crimes are the tools of business.

The two most destructive forces of human nature—greed and envy—drive the financiers, the bankers, the corporate mandarins and the leaders of our two major political parties, all of whom profit from this system. They place themselves at the center of creation. They disdain or ignore the cries of those below them. They take from us our rights, our dignity and thwart our capacity for resistance. They seek to make us prisoners in our own land. They view human beings and the natural world as mere commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. Human suffering, wars, climate change, poverty, it is all the price of business. Nothing is sacred. The Lord of Profit is the Lord of Death.

The pharisees of high finance who can see us this morning from their cubicles and corner officers mock virtue. Life for them is solely about self-gain. The suffering of the poor is not their concern. The 6 million families thrown out of their homes are not their concern. The tens of millions of pensioners whose retirement savings were wiped out because of the fraud and dishonesty of Wall Street are not their concern. The failure to halt carbon emissions is not their concern. Justice is not their concern. Truth is not their concern. A hungry child is not their concern.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky in “Crime and Punishment” understood the radical evil behind the human yearning not to be ordinary but to be extraordinary, the desire that allows men and women to serve systems of self-glorification and naked greed. Raskolnikov in the novel believes—like those in this temple—that humankind can be divided into two groups. The first is composed of ordinary people. These ordinary people are meek and submissive. They do little more than reproduce other human beings in their own likeness, grow old and die. And Raskolnikov is dismissive of these lesser forms of human life. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/blocking_the_gates_to_the_temples_of_finance_20110418/

[Overseas]

1. K&R!

[90-percent]

2. The line that got the biggest applause

"Barack Obama serves corporate interests as assiduously as did George W. Bush."

Now off to look up "assiduously"

-90% jimmy

[zeemike]

3. K&R a must read for people of faith or not.

And is a perfect analogy of the situation.
The god they worship is Mammon...which has a particular meaning to those of faith.

[Moostache]

7. It is for THIS reason I am so offended by the co-opting of religious people by the right.

They quite literally spit on the beliefs of the people who are most loyal to them - both in actions (tax cuts for the wealthy, and service cuts and assistance cuts for the poor) and in thoughts (their belief is centered only on maximizing profits and ways to retain an ever higher % of them).

Republicans truly DO only serve one master - Mammon; yet every election for 30+ years they preach about loving Jeebus and abortion and gays and continually the sheeple of the religious right dutifully show up and vote the vampires back into office. The hypocrisy of it all is stunning and I cannot believe that people of a religious bent cannot recognize themselves being duped over and over and over and over...

[zeemike]

9. It is hard to believe but there it is.

But this is not the first time in history that it has happened...
In the time of Jesus they were called the Pharisees and Saducies....and they keep the ordinary men chained to a system that was in reality the worship of Mammon.

[BobbyBoring]

4. The really sick part is

An asshole with 1 billion is upset because another asshole has 2. The asshole with 2 is jealous of the asshole with 3. And so it goes~

[90-percent]

6. I really like Post #4 above! n/t

[Truth2Tell]

5. K&R. nt

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[bertman]

10. I wish I had more than one REC to give this commentary. Thanks, marmar. nt

[Gregorian]

11. Absolutely spot on. Mr. Hedges, you are now my idol.

I've never had an idol. Until now. I always knew this man had things clearly sorted out.

I will add that I believe the two most powerful forces are not greed and envy, but greed and fear. But that's another subject.

Brilliant. Can we please clone a million of this guy.

[Historic NY]

12. I agree.

[felix_numinous]

13. K&R!!

Wish I could rec this 10000.

[florida08]

14. Chris Hedges doesn't doesn't dance to the piper

I like that..and like others I wished I could rec this to the moon! Great piece

[RainDog]

15. I think this is the best thing he's written n/t

[xxqqqzme]

17. I think you are right.

There is passion in his words.

[drokhole]

16. HUGE Kick & Rec!

Holy shit, that was awesome. :applause:

[socialist_n_TN]

18. Like a pic and caption I saw around Xmas said........

"Be like Jesus. Whip a moneychanger's ass today!" It summed up what I feel nicely.