June 14, 2012 10:03 AM PDT
With all due respect, I think I disagree with most of what Mr. Hedges is quoted as saying (assuming he's talking about the U.S.). I'm always amazed at the almost-schizophrenic attitude we Americans have about our country. We say we love our country, then get downright hostile towards it's institutions. On one hand, we call America "the land of the free", but believe that our freely-elected governments destroy freedom. Our universities "destroy knowledge", yet students from all over the world come to get their education here. I don't know about anyone else here, but my family doctor is a smart and caring young woman who seems to work pretty darn hard at keeping me and her other patients healthy. I'm all for keeping a healthy cynicism about things, but if I were sitting down with Mr. Hedges, I would have to ask him where else he would like to live, if things here are so bad?
Is our society perfect? Obviously not. We have 300 million people here, who are about as different from each other as can be, and somehow we have to find a way to coexist. Sometimes that coexistence isn't pretty. But all in all, I'm okay with my country, warts and all. I have a nice enough house and a little land. I have access to some of the best health care in the world. And I've been in some places where folks don't have any of those kinds of things. So sometimes I have a hard time understanding where people like Mr. Hedges are coming from.
I appreciate the opportunity to give my $0.02 worth, and hopefully haven't offended anyone...
June 14, 2012 11:27 AM PDT
I will be taking a college course this fall for the first time in my life. I can't wait to be enlightened on how things should be done here in the USA.
June 14, 2012 12:57 PM PDT
Haven't really read the lad - Just the dust jackets on some his books, a few reviews of a few of his books, couple of articles in the likes of "The Nation" - Saw him 1, 2, 3 times on C-SPAN
But trust me, not a word of the above quote means what you think it means
