Chris Hedges, author of the important Empire of Illusion, spoke tonight at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, offering a somewhat dark outlook on the direction of the nation, which he views as steeped in illusion and unwilling to face the reality of what has happened and is happening.
The national meltdown — the erosion of the working class and destruction of our manufacturing base, the gambling by the financial sector which packaged and repackaged debt, sold it and created an ugly and unstable Ponzi scheme, our decaying environment and the growth of corporate power and American empire — has created conditions that are ripe for fascism.
The cracks in the illusion can “propel people into this level of desperation” and a “profound personal and economic despair sits at the center of fascist and totalitarian movements,” he said.
Our corporate culture — which “perpetuates a never-ending childishness, an infantilism” — robs everything of its moral value. We have a cult of self, have lost all sense of community or shared sacrifice or understanding that we are all heading toward the same ends. Everything is commodified and, “when everything is commodified, a society commits collective suicide.”
Hank Kalet 
I like most of what Chris Hedges writes and he does offer some compelling insights into the current spiritual health of America. Corporatism and plutocracy have gone hog wild in this country, that is all true but Hedges's vision is so unrelentingly dark and pessimistic that I have some nagging doubts. Haven't we always been at risk for fascism, especially during the Gilded Age when the giant trusts were just as big and arrogant as the current crop of corporate robber barons?We once had a society based on slave labor, wasn't that a form cultural, spiritual and national suicide? America somehow survived the crime of slavery but at a great cost and we are still paying.