Capitalism’s “Sacrifice Zones”
Jul 26, 2012
Print ArticleEditor’s note: Watch this spellbinding interview by Bill Moyers with Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, a former bureau chief for the NY Times. Those of you fighting Big Wind will resonate to the theme, “capitalism’s sacrifice zones.”
Notice Hedges’s call for civil disobedience. Hear hear!
Our thanks to Dr. Sarah Laurie for bringing this interview to our attention.
Bill Moyers and Chris Hedges on Capitalism’s ‘Sacrifice Zones’ from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
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.
Comment by Andreas Marciniak on 07/26/2012 at 9:02 pm
Thanks to Dr. Sarah Laurie and you, Calvin, for bringing this interview to our attention. It’s like a mirror of what is happing all over the world, and the wind power turbine developers are part of this. Just look at what they have done before and after they get into any town or country! It is time for people to wake up to this powerlessness and despair as a direct result of capitalistic greed.
Thanks to journalist Chris Hedges and Bill Moyers for airing the suffering of so many while the corporations that plundered them thrive.
Hedges’s call for civil disobedience. Hear hear!
Comment by johana on 07/26/2012 at 9:03 pm
Canadians are very fortunate to have one of those rare journalists in Parker Gallant, who cares more about people and truth than “the news.”