Not For People Who Can't Read Good
Some of you may
have already seen this Chris Hedges editorial/polemic/essay, since it was
posted on AlterNet two days ago and has already inspired more than 300
comments. It's titled "Forget Red vs. Blue - It's the Educated vs.
People Easily Fooled by Propaganda." In one sense, this could come off
as the most despicable bit of intellectual snobbery since GING (or my
referring to it as such). In another sense, it's entirely accurate (hint: the
latter is correct). I would worry about the sort of vicious comments that
should pile up below for propping such a piece, but anyone who disagrees with
this is most likely incapable of getting through the whole thing. Here's an
excerpt:
We live in
two Americas.
One America,
now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with
complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The
other America,
which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system.
This America,
dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself
from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies
and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and cliches. It is
thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide,
more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or
nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically
distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities.