The Moral Decline of America
With the rise of the rival Chinese, doubt has settled in the United States and Uncle Sam is seeking to reassure himself. Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Kagan, two influential experts in geopolitics, each recently published books* rejecting the idea that the country is in decline. These two men, who are complete political opposites, are for once in agreement: the United States’ military and economic supremacy is not threatened.
For Chris Hedges, former war reporter for The New York Times, however, the danger is very real. Rather than being an international threat, the problem is domestic. In “Empire of Illusion,” Chris Hedges dives into the showy America, an excessive amount of virility (as defined by television), and managerial delirium that asks unstable workers to adhere to the values of unbridled liberalism. It is a somber scene further darkened by a media which is complacent towards this desire for power and by an increasing number of universities that are in service of the intellectual elite.
Nothing very new there. But Chris Hedges has managed to create a troubling sense of vertigo. He begins by discussing wrestling, that sport-spectacle that mixes built, muscled bodies and operatic-scale disagreements between the “good” and the “evil” characters incarnated in the ring by the fighters. It’s kind of the equivalent of the television series “Les Feux de l’amour” (“The Fires of Love”), but for the masculine market. What is found there is a broken-down society where the referee is powerless to make the rules respected. The moral of the show? “You cheat or you die,” summarizes Chris Hedges.
This false resemblance to reality is deceiving and numbs the viewer, according to him. Certainly the staged fights putting the richest up against the poorest draw inspiration from current events, as Chris Hedges demonstrates by narrating different mini-plays between gladiators. But in the end, the show remains a triumph of will, reinforcing the idea that failure is a personal affair and you cannot attribute it to an unhinged system. Of course, all of this “is a sham,” and no one really believes in these cheap, junky fighters. The illusion is therefore perfect. The spectator believes without believing and sinks thus into a culture that erases all authenticity.
A former seminary student, Chris Hedges discovered himself while visiting the city of sin, Las Vegas, “the corrupted and willfully depraved heart of America,” as he calls it. He goes there to attend the annual convention of the pornography industry. His exposé, then, turns into a nightmare. Patrice Roldan, ex-starlet of the genre, recounts her misadventures in this sordid universe. The presentation is sickening. The violence and scorn towards women is almost without limit. This perversity is not without effect either.
As Chris Hedges reminds us, the photographs of the detained prisoners taken by American soldiers in the Iraqi prison Abou Ghraib were directly inspired by pornography. The prisoners were forced to feign sexual acts. Once again, he finds himself using “the language of a pitiless world.”
The most complex culture transmitted in written form might offer the tools to call this vast illusion into question. But illiteracy and poverty are growing in the United States. And images remain comforting for a population whose situation is worsening.
One can judge such a reading unsustainable. The narrative drawn by Chris Hedges forms, all the while, a surprising, multilayered image. He alternates between scenes of the “American madness” and of reflections on the show-society nourished by long and numerous quotes from various authors. Notably, Philosopher John Ralston Saul, biologist Jared Diamond, communication theorist Neil Postman, and many others are brought up to denounce this moral decline. It’s the collision between literature and images. The struggle then has nothing more to pretend.
*Editor’s Note: “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power” by Zbigniew Brzezinski; “The World America Made” by Robert Kagan
For Chris Hedges, former war reporter for The New York Times, however, the danger is very real. Rather than being an international threat, the problem is domestic. In “Empire of Illusion,” Chris Hedges dives into the showy America, an excessive amount of virility (as defined by television), and managerial delirium that asks unstable workers to adhere to the values of unbridled liberalism. It is a somber scene further darkened by a media which is complacent towards this desire for power and by an increasing number of universities that are in service of the intellectual elite.
Nothing very new there. But Chris Hedges has managed to create a troubling sense of vertigo. He begins by discussing wrestling, that sport-spectacle that mixes built, muscled bodies and operatic-scale disagreements between the “good” and the “evil” characters incarnated in the ring by the fighters. It’s kind of the equivalent of the television series “Les Feux de l’amour” (“The Fires of Love”), but for the masculine market. What is found there is a broken-down society where the referee is powerless to make the rules respected. The moral of the show? “You cheat or you die,” summarizes Chris Hedges.
This false resemblance to reality is deceiving and numbs the viewer, according to him. Certainly the staged fights putting the richest up against the poorest draw inspiration from current events, as Chris Hedges demonstrates by narrating different mini-plays between gladiators. But in the end, the show remains a triumph of will, reinforcing the idea that failure is a personal affair and you cannot attribute it to an unhinged system. Of course, all of this “is a sham,” and no one really believes in these cheap, junky fighters. The illusion is therefore perfect. The spectator believes without believing and sinks thus into a culture that erases all authenticity.
A former seminary student, Chris Hedges discovered himself while visiting the city of sin, Las Vegas, “the corrupted and willfully depraved heart of America,” as he calls it. He goes there to attend the annual convention of the pornography industry. His exposé, then, turns into a nightmare. Patrice Roldan, ex-starlet of the genre, recounts her misadventures in this sordid universe. The presentation is sickening. The violence and scorn towards women is almost without limit. This perversity is not without effect either.
As Chris Hedges reminds us, the photographs of the detained prisoners taken by American soldiers in the Iraqi prison Abou Ghraib were directly inspired by pornography. The prisoners were forced to feign sexual acts. Once again, he finds himself using “the language of a pitiless world.”
The most complex culture transmitted in written form might offer the tools to call this vast illusion into question. But illiteracy and poverty are growing in the United States. And images remain comforting for a population whose situation is worsening.
One can judge such a reading unsustainable. The narrative drawn by Chris Hedges forms, all the while, a surprising, multilayered image. He alternates between scenes of the “American madness” and of reflections on the show-society nourished by long and numerous quotes from various authors. Notably, Philosopher John Ralston Saul, biologist Jared Diamond, communication theorist Neil Postman, and many others are brought up to denounce this moral decline. It’s the collision between literature and images. The struggle then has nothing more to pretend.
*Editor’s Note: “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power” by Zbigniew Brzezinski; “The World America Made” by Robert Kagan
I don’t think Brzezinski or Kagan believe half of what they say, but they don’t wish to be told that to admit to the steep American decline is to guarantee its even steeper decline. Someone has to do the cheer-leading.
Hedges is quite right in his analyses. He is a barometer of American ethics and morals. He is like a biblical prophet, and it’s interesting to see a French writer in a major French journal reading and reporting on him. It’s certainly far more than American mainstream journalists are doing.