By Chris Hedges
Posted on Jun 18, 2012
Posted on Jun 18, 2012
In
every conflict, insurgency, uprising and revolution I have covered as a
foreign correspondent, the power elite used periods of dormancy, lulls
and setbacks to write off the opposition. This is why obituaries for the
Occupy movement are in vogue. And this is why the next groundswell of
popular protest—and there will be one—will be labeled as “unexpected,” a
“shock” and a “surprise.” The television pundits and talking heads, the
columnists and academics who declare the movement dead are as out of
touch with reality now as they were on Sept. 17 when New York City’s Zuccotti Park
was occupied. Nothing this movement does will ever be seen by them as a
success. Nothing it does will ever be good enough. Nothing, short of
its dissolution and the funneling of its energy back into the political
system, will be considered beneficial.
Those who have the largest
megaphones in our corporate state serve the very systems of power we are
seeking to topple. They encourage us, whether on Fox or MSNBC, to
debate inanities, trivia, gossip or the personal narratives of
candidates. They seek to channel legitimate outrage and direct it into
the black hole of corporate politics. They spin these silly, useless
stories from the “left” or the “right” while ignoring the egregious
assault by corporate power on the citizenry, an assault enabled by the
Democrats and the Republicans. Don’t waste time watching or listening.
They exist to confuse and demoralize you.
The engine of all
protest movements rests, finally, not in the hands of the protesters but
the ruling class. If the ruling class responds rationally to the
grievances and injustices that drive people into the streets, as it did
during the New Deal, if it institutes jobs programs for the poor and the
young, a prolongation of unemployment benefits (which hundreds of
thousands of Americans have just lost), improved Medicare for all,
infrastructure projects, a moratorium on foreclosures and bank
repossessions, and a forgiveness of student debt, then a mass movement
can be diluted. Under a rational ruling class, one that responds to the
demands of the citizenry, the energy in the street can be channeled back
into the mainstream. But once the system calcifies as a servant of the
interests of the corporate elites, as has happened in the United States,
formal political power thwarts justice rather than advances it.
Our
dying corporate class, corrupt, engorged on obscene profits and
indifferent to human suffering, is the guarantee that the mass movement
will expand and flourish. No one knows when. No one knows how. The
future movement may not resemble Occupy. It may not even bear the name
Occupy. But it will come. I have seen this before. And we should use
this time to prepare, to educate ourselves about the best ways to fight
back, to learn from our mistakes, as many Occupiers are doing in New
York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and other cities. There are dark
and turbulent days ahead. There are powerful and frightening forces of
hate, backed by corporate money, that will seek to hijack public rage
and frustration to create a culture of fear. It is not certain we will
win. But it is certain this is not over.
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