{"title":"Chris Hedge","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"death-of-the-liberal-class-book-chris-hedge-9781568586441","title":"Death of the Liberal Class","description":"The liberal class plays a vital role in a democracy. It gives moral legitimacy to the state. It makes limited forms of dissent and incremental change possible. The liberal class posits itself as the conscience of the nation. It permits us, through its appeal to public virtues and the public good, to define ourselves as a good and noble people. Most importantly, on behalf of the power elite the liberal class serves as bulwarks against radical movements by offering a safety valve for popular frustrations and discontentment by discrediting those who talk of profound structural change.  Once this class loses its social and political role then the delicate fabric of a democracy breaks down and the liberal class, along with the values it espouses, becomes an object of ridicule and hatred. The door that has been opened to proto-fascists has been opened by a bankrupt liberalism.  The Death of the Liberal Class examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a liberalism that has become profoundly bankrupted. Hedges argues there are five pillars of the liberal establishment  the press, liberal religious institutions, labor unions, universities and the Democratic Partyand that each of these institutions, more concerned with status and privilege than justice and progress, sold out the constituents they represented.  In doing so, the liberal class has become irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49643107877137,"sku":"CIN1568586442A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49972556988689,"sku":"GOR007948321","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50092575326481,"sku":"CIN1568586442VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50135729176849,"sku":"CIN1568586442G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1568586442.jpg?v=1751245401"},{"product_id":"empire-of-illusion-book-chris-hedge-9781568584379","title":"Empire of Illusion","description":"A Pulitzer prize-winning and \"NYT\" bestselling author charts the political, social and cultural consequences of the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate America that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion. The \"New York Times\" bestselling author of \"American Fascists\" travels in Empire of Illusion to the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, to Las Vegas to write about the pornographic film industry, and to academic conferences held by positive psychologists - who claim to be able to engineer happiness - to chronicle our terrifying flight as a culture into a state of illusion. Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, and moral collapse around us. He attacks the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire. Reality, we are assured, is never an impediment to human wishes. It can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealised versions of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become. The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied a growing system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets to create fictional wealth for us, and vast wealth for our elite. Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions through the mass media, the entertainment industry, and popular culture.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49661130801425,"sku":"GOR002556355","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49849447153937,"sku":"CIN1568584377A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49922701361425,"sku":"GOR013814626","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49936684777745,"sku":"CIN1568584377G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50431453397265,"sku":"CIN1568584377VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50976642695441,"sku":"GOR012537781","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1568584377.jpg?v=1750861797"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/de-ch\/collections\/autor-buecher-von-chris-hedge.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}