Wages of Rebellion

by Chris Hedges Narrated by David deVries

Overview

Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges-who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class-investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians, and literary figures he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges' message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth polarization.

Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. Utilizing the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, Hedges describes the motivation that guides the actions of rebels as “sublime madness”-the state of passion that causes the rebel to engage in an unavailing fight against overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive forces. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life. Those who rise up against the odds will be those endowed with this “sublime madness.”

From South African activists who dedicated their lives to ending apartheid, to contemporary anti-fracking protests in Alberta, Canada, to whistleblowers in pursuit of transparency, Wages of Rebellion shows the cost of a life committed to speaking the truth and demanding justice. Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

03/23/2015
It’s time to eradicate “the pestilence of corporate totalitarianism,” according to this lurid anticapitalist manifesto. Likening global capitalism to the Beast of the book of Revelation, Pulitzer Prize–winning ex-New York Times correspondent Hedges (War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning) anticipates a nigh-apocalyptic future of deepening poverty and exploitation, ecological destruction, omnipresent surveillance, “looting, pillaging, and killing,” and perhaps even a reprise of the Black Death. Our only hope, he maintains, is to revive a revolutionary tradition that he omnidirectionally yokes to such diverse figures as Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, and Julian Assange. The latter-day rebels that he profiles are a tamer collection of Occupiers and hacktivists who mainly espouse Hedges’ own preference for non-violence. Hedges’s usual acute (if one-sided) reportage is on display—lengthy sections on unfairly prosecuted activists and the harshness of America’s penal system hit hard—but is ill-served by his lack of perspective and exaggeration of every injustice into unreformable tyranny. He suggests no substantive alternative beyond an undefined “socialism,” nor any coherent politics besides a “sublime madness” of imaginative zealotry. Hedges’s jeremiad will please left-wing romantics, but other readers may find it less inspiring. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM Partners. (May)

From the Publisher

You can’t write off Chris Hedges. . . . The worst part of his book is the way it doggedly, repeatedly asks: what kind of person, really, are you? That is, Hedges said, the defining question. It’s not what you did in life, it’s ‘what you stood for.’” —Rosemary Westwood, Metro

“Hedges delivers a lively, wholly accessible treatise that focuses on individuals—lawyers, activists and others—to demonstrate what goes into the resolve to fight for change. . . . Hedges is absolutely relevant. He comes across as a prophet on a mission. Heed his words.” —Susan Cole, NOW (Toronto)

“Hedges has penned an indispensable guide to rebellion.” —Rabble.ca 

“Like early twentieth-century muckraking journalists and, more recently, I.F. Stone, Hedges makes a boisterous, outspoken contribution to revolutionizing the national conversation.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[Chris Hedges] doesn’t miss a beat. . . . If he’s right, then hope and fear hang in the balance.” —Alex Good, The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo)
 
“This brilliant book will be uncomfortable reading, especially for progressive people. . . . His book is polemical, poetic and encyclopedic. He weaves together plenty: personal stories; analyses of the America’s role in creating terror abroad and suppressing dissent at home; citations from leading revolutionary theorists; apocalyptic prophecies; interpretations of classic literature; and exhortations to rebel non-violently. Although extremely readable, the seamless quality of the excellent writing is deceptive—its apparent simplicity belies its great depth. Thus his theme can be summarized, but the book cannot be. The cumulative effect is far greater than the sum of its parts. . . . Hedges’s view of the coming dismal times is equally eloquent and stunningly depressing. . . . This is a thought-provoking, profound and inspiring book that deserves to be read by anyone concerned about the future of our world. But be warned: it attacks whatever complacent feelings you may have and may spur you on to become a rebel.” —Lawrie Cherniack, Winnipeg Free Press

“So rich and layered.” —The Real News Network
 
“[O]ne of his best and most significant books.” —Proactive Activists Voice
 
“[A] powerful call to action that investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution and resistance and what it takes to be a rebel in modern times.” —Ian Masters, Background Briefing
 
“[Wages of Rebellion is] his most vociferous attack yet on the political and civic culture of America.” —Tirdad Derakhshani, Inquirer Sideshow

Library Journal

04/15/2015
Hedges is breathless, brilliant, and angry. His latest cri de coeur is like his previous books (Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; The World As It Is, for example), a complex, not always easy-to-follow disquisition on why we are all going to hell in a hand basket. He lists corruption, prejudice, illiteracy, misguided beliefs about education, crumbling infrastructures, corroding morality, and global warming as just a few of the horrors we're facing. Hedges is a practiced polemicist, bringing to bear (sometimes all at once) his training as a reporter, a theologian, a passionate reader of canonical books (Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is a favorite), a disgusted observer of popular culture, and his long-standing friendships with dissidents such as Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader as he tells readers why it's time for people to take things into their own hands. (He doesn't quite say how, but he does admire the recent "Occupy" movement.) VERDICT People tend to either love or hate Hedges, but librarians in public, academic, and relevant special libraries will want this book because, even if the revolution isn't about to happen, Hedges's voice is an important one.—Ellen Gilbert, Princeton, NJ

Kirkus Reviews

2015-03-01
A call for a new American revolution.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedges (The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress, 2011, etc.) continues his exhortation for nonviolent rebellion in eight feisty essays drawn from or expanding upon his weekly column for Truthdig. Without a revolution, he claims, we face a dire future, "the culmination of a 500-year global rampage of conquering, plundering, and polluting the earth" by economic and military elites. Among many incendiary claims, he asserts that climate change will lead to famine, the spread of deadly diseases, and "levels of human mortality that will dwarf those of the Black Death," a plague, the author warns, that could re-emerge. As a scholarship student at an exclusive boarding school, Hedges confesses that he developed a virulent "hatred of authority [and] loathing for the pretensions, heartlessness, and sense of entitlement of the rich," whom he sees as democracy's enemies. He decries the nation's history of violence not only in wars, slavery, and persecution of indigenous peoples, but also in an astonishingly high rate of incarceration, especially of black men; its refusal to enact gun control laws, even after tragic school shootings; and its vengeance against protestors, such as members of the Occupy movement, whom he repeatedly cites as models of moral courage. He celebrates whistleblowers Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden for raising awareness of the government's duplicity and "wholesale surveillance," which the author believes inevitably will be used to quash dissent: "This information waits like a dormant virus inside government vaults to be released against us." Despite his ominous predictions, Hedges sees a popular revolt imminent because "ideas used to prop up ruling elites" are being discredited, and "the vision of a new society" is taking hold in the popular imagination. Like early-20th-century muckraking journalists and, more recently, I.F. Stone, Hedges makes a boisterous, outspoken contribution to revolutionizing the national conversation.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169670851
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos