Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Inverted Totalitarianism

 

On the show Chris Hedges discusses the work of political philosopher Sheldon Wolin with Professor Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley, a student of Wolin’s. Sheldon Wolin, who died in 2015, is our most important contemporary political theorist, one who laid out in grim detail the unraveling of American democracy. In his books “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism” and “Politics and Vision,” a massive survey of Western political thought that his former student Cornel West calls “magisterial,” Wolin lays bare the causes behind the decline of American empire and the rise of a new and terrifying configuration of corporate power he calls “inverted totalitarianism.” Wolin throughout his scholarship charted the steady devolution of American democracy and in his last book, “Democracy Incorporated,” wrote: “One cannot point to any national institution[s] that can accurately be described as democratic, surely not in the highly managed, money-saturated elections, the lobby-infested Congress, the imperial presidency, the class-biased judicial and penal system, or, least of all, the media.” He argued that America’s system of inverted totalitarianism is different from classical forms of totalitarianism. It finds its expression in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent. #QuestionMore #RTAmerica #OnContact #ChrisHedges #WendyBrown #SheldonWolin #PoliticalPhilosophy Get exclusive content and watch full episodes now by downloading the Portable.TV app: https://bit.ly/DownloadPortable Telegram: https://t.me/RTAmerica Check out our other shows! NO show does it like this. It’s TIME TO DO NEWS AGAIN with Rick Sanchez News with Rick Sanchez: https://bit.ly/NRSSHOW It’s her take on all things political and she presents ALL the angles: News.Views.Hughes with Scottie Nell Hughes, NVH: https://bit.ly/NVHSHOW What’s your NEWS IQ? Give us 30 minutes, and we’ll take you across the globe! In Question with Manila Chan, IQ: https://bit.ly/IQ_SHOW Steve Malzberg sinks his teeth into the slander, hypocrisy, bias and lies of MSM. MMM…Delicious! Eat The Press: http://bit.ly/EatThePress Candid conversations with the most outspoken guy in Hollywood! Dennis Miller + One! Dennis Miller Plus One: http://bit.ly/DennisMillerPlusOne Let our TV time-machine bring you the week’s highlights and a closer look at the BIGGEST stories, Just Press Play: http://bit.ly/JustPressPlayShow Author and social critic Chris Hedges conducts fascinating in-depth interviews with the fiercest critics of the establishment. Watch all episodes at https://bit.ly/2QIkQZg Yep, it’s Gov. Jesse Ventura and you’re living in his WORLD! Come along for the ride. The World According To Jesse: http://bit.ly/WATJSHOW They’re watching you. Are you watching them? Are you WATCHING THE HAWKS? Watching The Hawks: http://bit.ly/WTHSHOW Follow the twists and turns of the global economy with Boom Bust, the one business show you can’t afford to miss. Boom Bust: http://bit.ly/BoomBustShow Do you keep missing the forest for the trees? Let Holland Cooke show you the Big Picture, The Big Picture: http://bit.ly/TheBigPictureShow