Bill Moyers and Chris Hedges on Capitalism's 'Sacrifice Zones'
There are forgotten corners of this country where Americans are trapped in endless cycles of poverty, powerlessness, and despair as a direct result of capitalistic greed. Journalist Chris Hedges calls these places "sacrifice zones," and joins Bill this week on Moyers & Company to explore how areas like Camden, New Jersey; Immokalee, Florida; and parts of West Virginia suffer while the corporations that plundered them thrive.
"These are areas that have been destroyed for quarterly profit. We're talking about environmentally destroyed, communities destroyed, human beings destroyed, families destroyed," Hedges tells Bill. "It's the willingness on the part of people who seek personal enrichment to destroy other human beings...
And because the mechanisms of governance can no longer control them, there is nothing now within the formal mechanisms of power to stop them from creating essentially a corporate oligarchic state."
The broadcast includes images from Hedges' collaboration with comics artist and journalist Joe Sacco, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which is an illustrated account of their travels through America's sacrifice zones. Kirkus Reviews calls it an "unabashedly polemic, angry manifesto that is certain to open eyes, intensify outrage and incite argument about corporate greed."
A columnist for Truthdig, Hedges also describes the difference between truth and news. "The really great reporters -- and I've seen them in all sorts of news organizations -- are management headaches because they care about truth at the expense of their own career," Hedges says.
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The Gary Null Show - 6/14/12 - CHRIS HEDGES
Chris Hedges: A look at our nation's "sacrifice zones" as evidence of rapid soci-economic decay across the US.
Guest:
Chris Hedges is one of our nation's most insightful cultural critics and authors. For almost 20 years he was a foreign correspondent in war zones and conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans, having reported for The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and other news outlets. While at the Times, Chris received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on global terrorism. The same year he received Amnesty International's Global Award for Human Rights Journalism.
Chris' most recent book, co-written with the renowned cartoonist and author Joe Sacco, is "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" -- which takes a hard look at areas in the US that are the "sacrifice zones" -- where the well being of people have been most impoverished in the name of profit and progress. He also writes a weekly column for the award winning political blog Truthdig.
Original Podcast:
http://prn.fm/2012/06/14/gary-null-show-061412/
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connect the dots...
Greco