Chris Hedges -America: The Farewell Tour – Review

 

The American Empire has passed its use-by-date and is currently falling into economic and social despair. In Hedges' book, America: The Farewell Tour, he writes exactly what he witnesses and records the people he interviews that describe a once viable nation to one that is crumbling due to late-stage capitalism and a government captured by corporations.

A common theme runs through the entire text: late-stage capitalism and the corporate elites have systematically impoverished the American people in all aspects of life. As a result, infrastructure across the states is falling apart; once lively cities are now ghost towns. Poverty is rampant, and what follows is massive drug addiction, sexual perversion, and prostitution become a last resort for single mothers. Under these circumstances, gambling addiction grows like an epidemic,  and a general tone of anger pervades, turning into hopelessness.

Although corporatism has been around for a long time, when the US really began its economic decline was after the Clinton administration created NAFTA. Once secure, employment vanished overnight. Car manufacturers and manufacturing across the board were permitted to send their companies overseas because labor was a fraction of the cost. As a result, entire towns and cities fell into abject poverty. The so-called American dream had vanished for the majority, never to return.

Since this valuable text was first published, the national situation has worsened. Covid 19 spread across the country, killing millions. Lockdowns destroyed small businesses and put thousands out of work. The new president promised a hike in the minimum wage that never eventuated, causing it to remain at 1950 levels. Medicare continues to be a predatory exercise, and big pharmaceuticals keep necessary medicines at ridiculous prices.

Recently the American government approved $40 billion more for military aid to Ukraine. This is a proxy war of Russia vs. the US/Ukraine, and the people are paying the price with their lives. A fraction of this money could have been poured back into the US economy. Instead, corporations run the country, and the government is simply their tool.

Another example of corporatism was the crash of 2008. Wall Street created a mortgage boom that crashed the economy. Millions of people lost their homes. The government ignored the plight of its citizens and rewarded Wall Street with a massive bailout. Who are the true masters of the U.S.?

This denigration of democracy to plutocracy is getting much worse. The solution that Hedges proposes is not something we can do overnight. It will take grassroots organizing. Protests must be non-violent, and efforts must aim directly at the problem: big banks, corporations, and voting corporate politicians out of office.

As the US was once my home, growing up in suburban Denver, Colorado, knowing what America has become is heartbreaking. Reading this text was an emotional trial facing a dark reality. We are in late-stage capitalism. The economy is a mess, and as history has revealed, totalitarianism is the logical next step under these conditions. We can see fascism growing with massive surveillance, militarised police acting like special forces in Iraq on the ordinary people, and our fundamental constitutional rights (free speech, free press) disappearing before our eyes.

Chris Hedges' book reveals the horrific reality of America's state of affairs.

Emotionally the read is a difficult reality to come to terms with. But Hedges gives us hope that through a recognition that we all share a common foe, change can be possible.