Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges

Apr 15, 2013 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hedges is an over the top and mirthless moral scold, drawing sweeping, damning conclusions not necessarily warranted by the louche behaviors and exhibitions he has assembled as denunciatory evidence herein—and yet he is an effective writer whose energetic choler and keen insight within generalization induced me to read on through each of the five illusions he espies operating their baleful influence upon modern American civilization and reducing the latter to a brittle shell. Notwithstanding tha...more Hedges is an over the top and mirthless moral scold, drawing sweeping, damning conclusions not necessarily warranted by the louche behaviors and exhibitions he has assembled as denunciatory evidence herein—and yet he is an effective writer whose energetic choler and keen insight within generalization induced me to read on through each of the five illusions he espies operating their baleful influence upon modern American civilization and reducing the latter to a brittle shell. Notwithstanding that Hedges fulminates opinion cast in the form of inarguable verity, I cannot help but feel that he has gotten a measure of the pulse of our modern ([North] American) cultural turn—that there is something misanthropic and grotesque and irremediably shallow to be found in how we've reacted in the face of abundance and immediacy across a wide variety of spectra; at how our upgraded or displaced faith-form impulses, our hopes and fears, have been warped and weft upon the loom of informational, propagandistic and technological overdrive, wherein the self has been provided for beyond previous measure and yet remains unserved (or unfulfilled) in vital needs even while losing its grip upon some of the humanistic conceptions and convictions of our forebears.

That is to say, I found Hedges to be credible in his bitter polemic without denying that he can be guilty of roseate and selective nostalgic turns, of inconsistency and inaccuracy in both his targeting and his delivery, of being unable or unwilling to think beyond the set piece standards of his black and white redoubt. Much like his oft-quoted forbear John Ralston Saul, Hedges can be hit-and-miss within the same page. His declamations against the cultural, political, and moral slippage he avows has taken place over the past decades are organized around the thematic poles in which he discerns such as America's cultural entrenchment and self-uncentred turn towards the enthused vapidity of celebrity worship (and fantasy) and the enervating aspects of the entertainment industry upon the mass culture it helps engender and manipulate; the pervasive spread of pornography and the growth of its ugliest, most misogynistic elements, these last two symptomatic of our increasing inauthenticity, our willful inability to pursue genuine relationships, emotions, and connexions when we can acquire ersatz ones from the painless and power-assuaging comfort of our cocoons; academic environs turned fully utilitarian and beholden to the centres of power it should be questioning and holding to account; the irresponsible (and unrealistic) promotion of a pseudo-happiness administered via chemical metastasis and a filmy envelopment inside personal support measures in lieu of personal responsibility; and all within a democratic structure threatened by the illiteracy, across a broad front, of a populace held in thrall to distraction and selfish absorption and—in desiring a heroic figure to settle the unsettlement of terrorist threat and economic collapse, of the burgeoning uncertainty of the future itself—unaware or unconcerned about the corporatocratic capture of the political structure and wealth share of twenty-first century America. In this apathetic and yet fearful environment the rule of law and due political process are increasingly viewed as impediments towards, rather than vital constitutive structures of, the proper execution of liberal democracy. Entrapped by the mythological promotions of what Americans were, are, and should be, in such invented states we are falling away from all that is vital for a healthily functioning polity and its citizenry, seduced by the inane blandishments and torporific gaudiness of the Society of the Spectacle and unconcerned about how the two political parties of the United States are serving one and the same interest.

So sayeth the Gus of gloom, and without leaving the slightest room for doubt. Is there lost in the process that which he cannot or will not see? Is he suffering under his own illusion that America ought to be morally, culturally, and politically structured in a manner that Chris Hedges deems appropriate, and any other implementation, around which reasonable people might disagree, simply doesn't cut the standards of his high falutin' and potentially overly-preserved mustard? Does he spread a blame that ought to be more pointed across a mighty thin swathe, even while castigating elites when reason suggests he should allow his acid to splash down upon the ovine masses below? I think yes to all three. But that kind of drilling accuracy is not what the book is intended for—it's rather a high level jeremiad that takes in the view from above and can see that while individual components might be sound as Sunday, the whole is curdling and darkening and taking on some mighty ugly and desperate features, a trend that shows few signs of abating. It all makes for a disheartening and hopeless reading experience, notwithstanding the absurd note of optimism tacked on as the faintest intimation of dawn amid the storm of ruin raging across a deepening darkling night. That there is much one could take issue with, through the entirety, does not, for me, suffice to derail the likelihood that Hedges has acceptably gauged a current that is proceeding in a perilous fashion towards a potentially monstrous cataract. Countermeasures would seem to be called for—but don't look for them to come from the author. Empire of Illusion is purely about the blast, not the clean-up. And it remains that all of it must be set against how many bodies Hedges claims from a single shot, and that dirges of decline such as his have never ceased resounding and echoing since the first society of humans deemed themselves civilized and hence ever threatened by the flood of barbarism from both below and within.(less)

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Jun 30, 2010 Ellen rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Masochists

Shelves: theory, visual-culture

President Obama - "a product of this elitist system" - by Chris I'm-So-Bitter-I-Could-Die Hedges

Just finished Chris Hedges' book, and am irked on so many levels, I'd be hard put to count the ways… Hedges' slim book, rather ponderously entitled, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle places it firmly in the ample literature of visual culture and spectacle. Yet, despite the fact that a) Hedges cites numerous theorists throughout the book, that b) he is well educated -...more

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Apr 11, 2010 Bob Redmond rated it 2 of 5 stars

AN ELOQUENT SCREED

Chris Hedges, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his war reporting for the New York Times, has written an eloquent screed against the negative effects of our entertainment-driven culture. As a complaint, it's spot-on. As a critique, it falls short: Hedges blames easy targets and fails to offer any sympathetic understanding of his victims (or perpetrators), or a constructive response to the crisis.

After a general opening essay, Hedges examines various ideals which have all b...more

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Dec 23, 2009 AC rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-events, fascism

This book is not as flawless or as originally brilliant as American Fascists; also, there are passages that are more rant than analysis, and places where is lack of familiarity with the full spectrum of issues shows through -- as in some of his discussions of the economic crisis, and of Universities. But these are quibbles. The book is a powerful indictment of the rise (and triumph) of corporatism in the United States. It is grim, the picture he paints.

His main focus, though, is not on the polit...more

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Feb 25, 2013 Michael Herrman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hedges doesn’t present many new ideas in this book, but the synopsis doesn’t promise any. Rather, he gathers otherwise disparate data points, anecdotal observations, and events into an argument that most of what passes for American culture has devolved into an oblivious form of aggressive stupidity. I gave it 2 stars for being accurate, at least according to my own understanding; 1 star for a passionate delivery --that Hedges believes what he says isn’t in doubt-- and a fourth star for accomplis...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Jenn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Empire of Illusion is a good book that’s badly marketed. The type of people who see the title Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and think, “Oh, hells yes, I am so reading that!” are the type of people who already know just about everything discussed in it. With a title like The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Chris Hedges is guaranteed to be preaching to no one but the choir. What’s sad about that is, the book is written simplistically and enterta...more Empire of Illusion is a good book that’s badly marketed. The type of people who see the title Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle and think, “Oh, hells yes, I am so reading that!” are the type of people who already know just about everything discussed in it. With a title like The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Chris Hedges is guaranteed to be preaching to no one but the choir. What’s sad about that is, the book is written simplistically and entertainingly (despite that it skewers people for reading only simplistically written books and demanding to be constantly entertained); the average amoral entertainment junkie, the type of person who needs to read Empire of Illusion, would be able to comprehend and stick with this short book. But that person who needs to read this book, and who can read this book, won’t read this book. Why? Because it’s freaking called Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. Hedges or his editors or whoever is responsible for this book’s title should have called it How Pro Wrestling, Porn, Yale, and the Law of Attraction Are All To Blame For Your Sucktacular Life, with "Your Sucktacular Life" written in huge font and Life in quotation marks. That’s a good title for this book. That title says, “Hey you, you with the People magazine. Come read me,” while telling the person with the stack of Noam Chomsky books, “You can read me too, but don’t expect much.”

Empire of Illusion is a decent overview of what’s wrong with consumer culture, but it’s not groundbreaking and it offers little if any elaboration for each of its many assertions. Most of the people who are attracted to this book because of its title will be disappointed by it. The only chapter that offers any new information is the one on pornography. Chris Hedges brings his experience as a war reporter to a porn convention in Las Vegas and interviews current and retired actresses, producers, and porn enthusiasts. What this discourse reveals is a commodification of women in the porn industry that mirrors the commodification of soldiers in war. The actresses talk about their experiences being degraded on film; the prostitution that many of them do when they’re not filming by selling their bodies to fans of their films and the anxiety that attends not being able to perform in reality the way they appear to perform in porn; the contracting of STIs, including, frequently, HIV; and the producers’ refusal to allow actors to wear condoms, even though condoms can be digitally edited out, because the actors' lives aren’t worth the cost of purchasing an editing program. In many of the women he interviews, Hedges recognizes PTSD.

This is a good introductory book about the illusions we commonly surround ourselves with, and that others surround us with, in order to stave off thinking about real problems. It's not the most in-depth book, but I'd recommend it, along with some other titles that offer more detailed analysis, to someone for whom critical ideas about consumer culture are new or unexplored.(less)

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Mar 11, 2012 Ryan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Carl Sagan once said that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Chris Hedges would have done well to heed that advice when writing Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of the Spectacle.

Hedges draws our attention to five pervasive illusions within American culture in the aftermath of the recession: the illusions of literacy, love, wisdom, happiness and America.

The first chapter is terribly organized and would have benefited from careful editing. And a preface.

T...more

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Dec 15, 2011 Sam Dye rated it 4 of 5 stars

Frustrating first two chapters with to me distasteful examples of illusion of literacy and illusion of love (pro wrestling and porn industry). The last three chapters were very powerful (Illusion of Wisdom, Happiness and America). From page 103 (Illusion of Wisdom) "The bankruptcy of our economic and political systems can be traced directly to the assault against the humanities. The neglect of the humanities has allowed elites to organize education and society around predetermined answers to pre...more Frustrating first two chapters with to me distasteful examples of illusion of literacy and illusion of love (pro wrestling and porn industry). The last three chapters were very powerful (Illusion of Wisdom, Happiness and America). From page 103 (Illusion of Wisdom) "The bankruptcy of our economic and political systems can be traced directly to the assault against the humanities. The neglect of the humanities has allowed elites to organize education and society around predetermined answers to predetermined questions. Students are taught structures designed to produce these answers even as these structures have collapsed. But those in charge, because they are educated only in specializations designed to maintain these economic and political structures, have run out of ideas. They have been trained only to find solutions that will maintain the system."
From page 113 "Obama is a product of this elitist system. So are his degree-laden cabinet members. They come out of Harvard, Yale, Wellesley, and Princeton. Their friends and classmates made huge fortunes on Wall Street and in powerful law firms. They go to the same class reunions. They belong to the same clubs. They speak the same easy language of privilege, comfort, and entitlement. The education they have obtained has served to rigidify and perpetuate social stratification. These elite schools prevent, to use Arnold's words, the "best selves" in the various strata in our culture from communicating across class lines. Our power elite has a blind belief in a decaying political and financial system that has nurtured, enriched, and empowered it. But the elite cannot solve our problems. It has been trained only to find solutions, such as paying out trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to bail out banks and financial firms, to sustain a dead system. The elite, and those who work for them, were never taught how to question the assumptions of their age. The socially important knowledge and cultural ideas embodied in history, literature, philosophy, and religion, which are at their core subversive and threatening to authority, have been banished from public discourse."
He tells how he went to prep schools then 8 years at Colgate and Harvard and taught at Columbia NYU and Princeton. Then on page 98 "These institutions feed students, no matter how mediocre, the comforting reassurance that they are there because they are not only the best but they are entitled to the best. You saw this attitude on display in every word uttered by George W. Bush. Here was a man with severely limited intellectual capacity and no moral core. Bush, along with Scooter Libby, who attended my pre-prep school, exemplifies the legions of self-centered, spoiled, intellectually limited and wealthy elitists churned out by places like Andover, Yale, and Harvard."(less)

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Apr 28, 2013 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
© 2009 Chris Hedges
232 pages

Do we live in a world where images are more important than reality, where perception has supplanted substance? Chris Hedges thinks so, and in Empire of Illusion he deplores the death of authenticity in literacy, education, love, happiness, and politics. The result is a singularly disturbing work which provokes deep thought, even though it doesn't established a common cause and answer the obvious quest...more Empire of Illusion: the End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
© 2009 Chris Hedges
232 pages

Do we live in a world where images are more important than reality, where perception has supplanted substance? Chris Hedges thinks so, and in Empire of Illusion he deplores the death of authenticity in literacy, education, love, happiness, and politics. The result is a singularly disturbing work which provokes deep thought, even though it doesn't established a common cause and answer the obvious question of why things have deteriorated so.

Hedges' title prepared me to think he would be building a case here against some malignant factor in American society while detailing its deprivations, the end result being a call to arms that would allow us to make meaningful change. Instead, Hedges shocks the reader with five separate exposés and leaves us to consider the ramifications. It's almost dispiriting, especially the end piece, "The Illusion of America", in which he mourns the death of civic government to corporate corruption and imperialism. Other essays only examine facets of life, elements which can be isolated and repaired -- but the problem is foundational. All this is delivered with considerable skill: one can't read more than two sentences without being stung by some scathing rebuke or despairing observation. This is dramatic prose, and the horrors he reveals almost seem gratuitous -- especially the chapter on the Illusion of Love, which took on the pornography business. I've read some gruesome works before, like Eugene Sledge's memoirs of the Pacific War, but Hedge's look inside smut left me feeling sick in a way I can't remember; exploitation doesn't do justice as a description.

Empire of Illusion is a distressing work, partly because it's meant to do and partly because we're left with no answers. Hedges believes American society is doomed. Politics is utterly corrupt, the educational system only promotes the failing status quo, and those elements in society worth caring about are powerless at the present time. Perhaps there's no singular cause, but Hedges' work makes me think of James Howard Kunstler's comment in The KunstlerCast that it was interesting that architecture became cheap and contrived -- cartoonish is a word he uses only as an insult -- at the same time that television was beginning to dominate the American mind, "pushing its ethos on us". I think, too, of Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, and of Nicholas Carr's The Shallows. Both works attributed a decline in literacy, in thoughtfulness, the expression of substantive ideas to the media of television and the Internet, and I wonder if those media play a larger role than Postman or Carr ever attributed to them.

Although the central criticism is one worth considering, this isn't a book I'd be enthusiastic to recommend. Compelling and on the mark as Hedges is, it is more shocking and disheartening than constructive.

I may re-read this at some point to see if stewing on the ideas make them more helpful. At the moment, two weeks after finishing it, it still leaves me feeling numb.

Related:
The Age of Absurdity, Michael Foley
Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing To Our Brain, Nicholas Carr
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Jan 06, 2013 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Basically one gigantic liberal rant against the world. I had thought the book was going to be about how undependable our media is, reporting stupid and useless news while not bothering to investigate the news that really matters. Instead, the book just rants against the entertainment industry, porn, the university system, positive thinking, and (briefly, near the end, for about 20 pages) the news industry. The authors opinions are blatantly clear and fall exactly in line with the stereotypical l...more Basically one gigantic liberal rant against the world. I had thought the book was going to be about how undependable our media is, reporting stupid and useless news while not bothering to investigate the news that really matters. Instead, the book just rants against the entertainment industry, porn, the university system, positive thinking, and (briefly, near the end, for about 20 pages) the news industry. The authors opinions are blatantly clear and fall exactly in line with the stereotypical liberal positions (gun control, universal health care, etc), but are stated in a black and white manner, not even requiring justification. Because there are so many such statements throughout the book, often not really tied back into the material, the whole book just comes off as rant-y. There is very little evidence, or even any attempt, to justify the author's claims. The reader is just supposed to automatically trust the author as he cherry picks several disparate factoids to draw a conclusion like "Americans have been denied the tools of literacy, and are unable to distinguish reality from illusion". Much of the book also sounds like a giant conspiracy theory, that the elites of the country have conspired to keep the country stupid and incompetent. Some of the symptoms may be true, but I think it's a bit far-fetched to believe that this is the result of some greater plan imagined by the wealthy. Overall, I found the book a chore to read because of the arrogant, know-it-all, "what I say is automatically true" tone of the book. There are times the author unfairly, and somewhat mockingly cherry picks pieces of other peoples work (such as Shahar's "Happier", Csikszentmihalyi's "Flow") to declare the positive thinking "industry" ludicrous.

Despite all this, there were some thought-provoking nuggets to be found though.

- Our university system has turned into a glorified vocational school. Instead of teaching people how to question, we are only taught how to problem solve (though, the author does take this to an extreme to suggest that MBA programs produce nothing but corporate drones unable to think outside of the box)

- Real inflation is (or may be?) far worse than we think it is - due to constant tweaking and substitution of CPI items to ones where the price does not change, the government has been able to hide the true effects of inflation. The author believes the true rate of inflation is more like 10% a year. However, the source of this 10% figure is questionable, and offers only conclusions, not evidence.

- Real unemployment is greater than reported. Part of this is what we already know (unemployment numbers only includes those looking for jobs - this was a change during the Clinton era? A quick google search reveals no additional evidence for this change), but the author also claims Reagan's inclusion of the 1.5M armed forces members decreased made the unemployment rate look 2% lower (this makes no sense mathematically, as the population was about 275M during the Reagan era; furthermore, adding 1.5M to the numerator and denominator would have 0% effect, and even if they were just added to the numerator it is still only result in a 0.5% increase).

Anyway, the conclusion of the author is 50 page chicken little rant about how we're headed off a cliff, how we will be subsumed by our debts and that the world is about to end. Overall I wish I had quit reading this book earlier, as the content is depressing, yet so full of holes it makes me mad just thinking about how absurd some of the conclusions are.(less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Logan Young rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book is badly organized, horribly researched, and comes off as a long angry rant. I tend to agree with most of Hedges opinions, but the way he presents them completely turned me off. I got through the mess of the first chapter, but the second chapter about pornography made me delete the book from my kindle. He makes such aggressive negative generalizations about porn with zero facts to back them up. It is amusing to me that he chastises people for using stereotypes to ignore the complexity...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Tim rated it 2 of 5 stars

I first heard of this book at a dinner party conversation, and was quite curious to check it out and not really knowing what to expect.

In the book, Chris Hedges paints a very bleak picture of contemporary American society, ranging from the porn industry to the increasing commercialisation of the university system. In many ways, it's a very eloquent rant about the problems he perceives, but it's very anecdote driven, one-sided, and sometimes lacks a coherent argument. It's not a book that one wo...more

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May 28, 2012 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hedges essentially posits that we are in Plato's cave, a shadow world where emotion replaces thinking, pornography replaces love, elitism replaces wisdom, and crony capitalism replaces democracy. I have not thought to myself "Lord come quickly" as many times in a reading as I have with this book. The book is well-researched, but often anecdotal. It does what I want a book like this to do: It reminds me of some of my convictions that I let slide while challenging some other convictions that I hav...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Greg Bates rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Chris Hedges is an angry, angry man. Angry about illiteracy, reality TV, pornography, corporations, institues of higher learning and just about everything having to do with popular culture. You wouldn't expect him to hate them equally, yet Empire of Illusions is a 240-page litany against all these and more, an ode to the degradation of societal values brought on by the erosion of our democracy to corporate power over the last thirty years. Hedges is concerned primarily with lies, from the Big Li...more Chris Hedges is an angry, angry man. Angry about illiteracy, reality TV, pornography, corporations, institues of higher learning and just about everything having to do with popular culture. You wouldn't expect him to hate them equally, yet Empire of Illusions is a 240-page litany against all these and more, an ode to the degradation of societal values brought on by the erosion of our democracy to corporate power over the last thirty years. Hedges is concerned primarily with lies, from the Big Lies that governments and corporations have fed us about our worth and ability to affect real change within the American system to the little lies we tell ourselves each day, how one day we're going to be rich and famous and respected if only we work a little bit harder. Hedges is right more than he's wrong, and his keen eye and armada of statistics skewers everything from bailouts to The Secret with an egalitarian spirit that I find frankly baffling, assuming most people would not consider both things equally responsible for America's woes.

One weakness Hedges has is a consuming bent to tie each of the book's segments together with an all-purpose metaphor, using it to elucidate the point he's trying to make about modern life. Sometimes this works wonderfully, as in the book's opening chapter - his descriptions of pro wrestling as a working-class mirror held up to our social and class mentalities is penetrating, eye-opening and thoroughly entertaining. Sometimes it all goes south, however, as in the book's second chapter, "The Illusion of Love," which Hedges anchors with a woeful look at the pornography industry. In this segment, Hedges comes off less as an enlightened teacher and more of a cranky old man angry about the pr0nz. His off-putting, overly long descriptions of "gonzo" and bondage porn also smack of a personal titillation that feels completely at odds with his stated goal. It's an uncharacteristically dark and wrongheaded spot in what's otherwise an illuminating novel of ideas.

While I agree with most of Hedges' positions, I have to admit that Empire of Illusions' main fault is that it fails to achieve it's stated goal, to conquer the 'illusion' of society. He rails about information overload (even reprinting the famous quote comparing Orwell and Huxley), then overwhelms the reader with an abundance of statistics and long-winded diatribes that don't do enough to advance the narrative to justify their existance. It's strange for such a short book to feel so long-winded.
I also find it somewhat disingenous to anchor the incredibly depressing 238 pages of this 240 page novel with a sudden, hamhanded message about love conquering all - this felt absolutely hollow coming directly after a twenty-plus page rant about the doom and gloom awaiting us in the coming decades. The people this book is written to enlighten, the people living in the author's "second America" of Reality TV, positive thinking and celebrity cults are precisely the people least likely to read it - and somehow that strikes me as exactly what Hedges wants. (less)

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Jan 23, 2012 April Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Chris Hedges writes a thought provoking masterpiece on America the (not so) great. Hedges links several hallmarks of our culture (reality TV, privacy, the war on terror, big business) with the decline of humanity. Hedges paints a picture that shows how the United States sold her soul to big business- and how "they" are now dominating everything, focused on producing a society of consumers who will not question authority, but simply buy, buy, buy until there is nothing left. Hedges provides facts...more Chris Hedges writes a thought provoking masterpiece on America the (not so) great. Hedges links several hallmarks of our culture (reality TV, privacy, the war on terror, big business) with the decline of humanity. Hedges paints a picture that shows how the United States sold her soul to big business- and how "they" are now dominating everything, focused on producing a society of consumers who will not question authority, but simply buy, buy, buy until there is nothing left. Hedges provides facts and figures that are alarming, and should be a call to arms for Americans to wake up from their distracted states and start fighting back.

While I found the book to be thought provoking and in line with my own beliefs, I was not entirely pleased with the chapter on positive psychology. While it is true that there are "pop psychologists" looking to milk theories like the "Law of Attraction" purely for a profit, to say that the entire field of positive psychology is quack science designed to teach big business how to manipulate is not true. To say that is to deny a tremendous amount of research on neuroscience, the biology of beliefs, and quantum biology/psychology showing that there are quantitative measurements evidencing the impact of positive psychology on an individual. That isn't to say that there aren't those who are trying to make a quick buck selling "secrets", but those people are not truly teaching positive psychology. Someone who is truly teaching positive psychology is not teaching you to simply ignore reality and delude yourself into believing fantasies, but will instead teach you how to be an observer of your negative feelings instead of ruled by them. Someone teaching positive psychology will help you learn to change your perceptions to start looking at problems as though they have solutions, instead of an end all, be all barrier to success. They will teach you to create an opportunity. Too often, we fall into negative thinking that leads us into learned helplessness- positive psychology deters this thought process and instead allows the individual to be proactive.

Other than that, I thought it was a great read. It really gave me a reminder on why I do what I do and inspired me to keep advocating for important issues- education, health care, fair living wages, and sustainable living.(less)

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Jan 09, 2012 Jonny-Loves-ta-Read rated it 4 of 5 stars

Empire of Illusion is all about the deliberate connections between cultural phenomena and political agenda in America. Chris Hedges guides the reader through what he believes to be are three different, but closely related illusions: the illusion of literacy, the illusion of love, and the illusion of wisdom.

This book was entertaining and challenging from the beginning. References to Plato, Aristotle, Adam Smith, George Orwell and FDR are explained to the extent that these political and historica...more Empire of Illusion is all about the deliberate connections between cultural phenomena and political agenda in America. Chris Hedges guides the reader through what he believes to be are three different, but closely related illusions: the illusion of literacy, the illusion of love, and the illusion of wisdom.

This book was entertaining and challenging from the beginning. References to Plato, Aristotle, Adam Smith, George Orwell and FDR are explained to the extent that these political and historical figures relate to what Hedges is trying to communicate. It would seem that Chris Hedges is well read, but not in the least bit pretentious. He communicates clearly his ideas and connections through anecdotes and interesting examples of the corruption he is talking about. Hedges uses professional wrestling, the pornography industry and the inner workings of Ivy League schools to demonstrate how the circus show of culture keeps Americans from understanding the demise of the American Empire abroad and at home. In this short book, he examines how pornography disproportionately exploits and harms women, how reality television is a mirror into the declining and often absent values in American society, and how elites maintain power through unfair means. Chris Hedges does all of this concisely. In short, Chris does not mess around.

This is the first work I have read by Chris Hedges and I must say I am excited. His investigations into interesting and provocative subject matter are razor sharp. He speaks not often with authority, but frequently with honesty and easy to follow logic. His examples lead the reader easily to his thesis. A person does not need a degree in the Humanities to appreciate all of the references Hedges make, but such a degree would make you appreciate his writing even more so.

The book does end on an overly sentimental note. But his rantings about the triumph of love over evil and hope over circumstance are a welcome break from the depressing content of some of the chapters in this book. Hedges ends his book positively, if not a little too quickly. I get the sense he was writing his book and dinner was burning on the stove. He quickly wrote the last few pages in an effort to tie everything together seamlessly and without mess. The result is heartwarming and disorganized.

A quote on the front of the book reads “Remarkable, bracing, and highly moral, Empire of Illusion is Hedges’ lament for his nation” – Macleans.

I strongly agree.
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Dec 06, 2011 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, culture

How to review this book? The idea is certainly true -- or at least deeply resonant with me at the moment. We as a culture have become addicted to illusion and spectacle. Prominent examples from the book include professional wrestling, porn, and our obsession with celebrities. We are surrounded by distraction -- TVs everywhere blaring a 24-hour fluff news cycle and somehow no programs of substance, twitters and Facebook statuses on constant rolling feeds, all in 140 characters or less, all of us...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Caitlin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was totally into this book for the first four sections. The Illusion of Literacy, discussing celebrity culture, the Illusion of Love, concerning pornography, the Illusion of Wisdom, about our education system, and the Illusion of Happiness, about positive psychology, are all intriguing. Hedges rubs salt in the wound of what is wrong with America: it's all things that you kind of know, that make you uncomfortable - he exposes and explores them. And these things are a wound; each day they chip a...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Ross rated it 2 of 5 stars

If this book was only the last chapter, titled "The Illusion of America," I would have given it 3 and perhaps even 4 stars. In this chapter, Hedges writes with far more purpose and conviction and gives a scathing (and ominous) assessment of our present state of affairs. The first, third, and fourth chapters (The Illusion of literacy, the illusion of wisdom, and the illusion of happiness respectively) are terrible. In "The illusion of literacy," he uses "we" and "us" statements throughout, arguin...more If this book was only the last chapter, titled "The Illusion of America," I would have given it 3 and perhaps even 4 stars. In this chapter, Hedges writes with far more purpose and conviction and gives a scathing (and ominous) assessment of our present state of affairs. The first, third, and fourth chapters (The Illusion of literacy, the illusion of wisdom, and the illusion of happiness respectively) are terrible. In "The illusion of literacy," he uses "we" and "us" statements throughout, arguing that we are an image-obsessed, illiterate populace that doesn't question authority or think critically. We don't read books, listen to thought-provoking radio, etc. The whole time I was reading it, I was thinking either I am part of a much smaller group than I think or Hedges has no idea how big my group is. The third chapter ("The illusion of wisdom) uses the opposite approach, this time he replaces "we" and "us" with "they" and "them." In this chapter, we are told (through incredibly anecdotal evidence - like an interview with an adjunct professor) that Ivy League students are trained not to think, not to question the status quo and that most of them (or at least an alarming percent) don't deserve to be there. Never mind that Hedges himself went to these institutions, including boarding school for secondary school. He explains this away with perhaps the worst line in the book: "The people I loved most, my working-class family in Maine, did not go to college. They were plumbers, post-office clerks, and mill workers." I regurgitated my lunch upon reading this. The 4th chapter is just weird and attacks a flimsy science (The psychology of positivism) by trying to tie its adherents to some greater scheme to dupe all Americans. The chapter just seems very odd and disingenuous. The 2nd chapter (The Illusion of Love) is worth reading, both because it is shocking and because he does seem to successfully argue that there has been an overall degradation of societal norms. In this chapter, he chronicles pornography's move from the art house to the mainstream. Quite frankly, the chapter is disgusting, but does manage to put America up to the mirror...it ain't pretty. In short, if you're going to read this book, just save time and read the last chapter. If you want to explain to someone (like a young man) why pornography is not the appropriate way to measure one's relationships or their perception of the opposite sex, read chapter 2.(less)

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Jul 04, 2011 Marko rated it 5 of 5 stars

I happened to be reading this at the same time as Paul Goodman's Growing Up Absurd, published in 1956, and though the focus of the two books are very different, the problems they address are at root the same. The intervening fifty years has only shown that America has spiraled farther away from reality and its consequences. In Hedges's critique, published in 2009, the situation seems much worse for having becoming normal, and unchallenged even by the so-called liberal educated class. The once fi...more

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May 17, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Everybody should read at least the last chapter of this book ("The Illusion of America") which opens "I used to live in a country called America. . . .but only the shell remains." Hedges' pessimistic rant about the coming collapse of our society is unrelentingly dire, but his summation of our current situation seems accurate and (two years after it was written) prescient. Whether or not we are on the verge of complete and utter national collapse, as Hedges claims, our collective appetite for esc...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Matt rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've never liked Chris Hedges' writing, and this book hasn't changed my mind. He undermines the genuinely good points that he makes with his rambling, sanctimonious, and conclusory passages. I'm fairly certain that he thinks he's Jesus, and regularly presents a half of one side of the story before proceeding to draw wild conclusions from it.

He contradicts himself all of the time. For example, he laments the fact that the Ivy Leagues only reward "analytic thinkers" and legacies and always do the...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Lauren Albert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: cultural-studies-theory

The world has been ending since it began--over and over and over again. Hedges needs to read more history if he thinks that this is the first time that people have claimed that the "no nothings" have taken over and civilized thought and life is coming to an end.

Where to begin--first of all, the book is a mishmosh of topics put together simply because the writer thinks they are "bad"--he mostly makes no attempt to show that they are connected in any other way.

I guess I'll give my criticisms whe...more The world has been ending since it began--over and over and over again. Hedges needs to read more history if he thinks that this is the first time that people have claimed that the "no nothings" have taken over and civilized thought and life is coming to an end.

Where to begin--first of all, the book is a mishmosh of topics put together simply because the writer thinks they are "bad"--he mostly makes no attempt to show that they are connected in any other way.

I guess I'll give my criticisms where I have them a chapter at a time.

Chapter 1: Celebrity--here's another phenomenon that is new all over again. Maybe Hedges should read Tom Payne's "Celebrity--What the Classics Tell Us About Our Cult of Celebrity."

Chapter 2: Here I agree with reviewer Ellen--Hedges dwells on the gruesome details of "gonzo" porn (Porn verite as he defines it) at such excruciating and repetitive length that you have to wonder if he isn't enjoying it just a wee bit. He also gives us no evidence that the incredibly degrading and violent porn he describes is "typical" of the porn industry. He writes as if this is the only kind of porn that is selling when it could be selling to a very small segment of the consumer base. If there are 5 devil-worshiping serial killers in the country, you can't use it as proof of a general melt down....But since Hedges wants to see meltdown, meltdown he sees.

Chapter 3: Being a former academic, Hedges totally lost me when he wrote "In the hands of academics...who rarely understand or concern themselves with the reality of the world, works of literature are eviscerated and destroyed." (97) How many academics does he know exactly? The irony here is that there have been many other "end of civilization as we know it" books that claim that literature is being over-politicized by the academy. I agree with a fair amount of what he says in the chapter, especially about the crushing of the humanities, but he's not really making a case for saving them here, is he?

Professors have to pay bills, watch the value of their retirement funds fall, watch the cost of living go up, just like the rest of us. They have to try to protect their children from the worst of popular culture just like everyone else. And they are, every day, confronted by the realities of the changing culture in the form of their own students. So don't tell me they don't concern themselves with the reality of the world. For every "absent minded," "ivory tower" professor who hasn't read a newspaper in years there are thousands of hard working and politically-concerned faculty.

Chapter 4: Ironically enough, I have been (by chance) also reading "The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work." Hedges makes no attempt to distinguish between empirically-oriented psychologists and self-help gurus. When I was very young, I came across the work of Abraham Maslow, the first "positive" psychologist. What he said made so much sense to me and still does--he wanted to know why psychologists only studied the ill, the dysfunctional. He thought it important to study the mentally healthy, the happy as well (not instead of). I'd like Hedges to tell me exactly what is wrong with trying to understand what makes a human being happy. And frankly, if corporations discover that making employees happy is good for business, I don't begrudge them the extra income. The book I am reading doesn't describe a corporate world intent on convincing miserable people that they are really happy. His goal when he works with corporations is to help them make their employees genuinely happy. For instance, he emphasizes the importance of letting employees socialize and have downtime.
Hedges also tries to makes some kind of a connection between coercive persuasion and attempts to increase employee motivation. He blurs important differences here. Perhaps he needs to open and run a small business and to learn first hand why a company would want to increase employee motivation and job satisfaction and why it doesn't have to mean brainwashing.

What I see here is what I've seen in a lot of jeremiads of late--a blurring of differences and a lumping together of what should be distinguished. But perhaps that is just one more example of the loss of reason in the triumph of spectacle.(less)

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Dec 31, 2010 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 21st-century, political, current-affairs, american-writers, culture, religion

There are few books I've read that are as powerful, depressing, and unnerving as Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion. Within these pages are a grim and blistering condemnation of how far America has fallen down the rabbit hole into a superficial dreamland of breast implants and positive coercion- errr, psychology. It leaves little doubt in my mind that an urgent paradigm shift is needed now, more than ever.
Sadly though, this message will most likely end up just preaching to the choir, and that's i...more There are few books I've read that are as powerful, depressing, and unnerving as Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion. Within these pages are a grim and blistering condemnation of how far America has fallen down the rabbit hole into a superficial dreamland of breast implants and positive coercion- errr, psychology. It leaves little doubt in my mind that an urgent paradigm shift is needed now, more than ever.
Sadly though, this message will most likely end up just preaching to the choir, and that's its one, fatal flaw. The message is powerful, but the people who need to read it most of all will not be likely to pick it up.
For those of us who are marginally a part of the "choir" but aren't full fledged singers yet, this can be an incredible call to arms. As a feminist, I was especially grateful for Hedges' delving into the slimy underbelly of pornography. I was vaguely aware of the potential for exploitation, abuse, and trafficking in the pornography industry, but few books seem to tackle the issue without delving into pseudo moralist musings. Hedges deals with coercion, drug abuse, sexual abuse, and pornography's newly discovered (past 20 years or so) deal with degradation and humiliation as part of the pornographic experience, leading to bodily, emotional and psychological damage for the actors involved. This all builds towards an illusion of sex and love that can never be sustained off-camera.
The chapter on positive psychology was enlightening, in the vein of Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided. He delves into the positive psychology's marriage to big business, and how inevitably, the worker is the loser in this meeting of the minds. Particularly reminded me of the Charlie Chaplin classic "Modern Times" in some descriptions of workers as cogs in the machine of efficiency.
As a college student, I particularly agreed with his opinion on how universities have fallen from being bastions of critical thought and great centres for radical new ideas. They have evolved, he argues, into complacent factories for military research and the moulding of the nu worker: Positive, perky, compliant, and a group member, never an independent thinker. In my experience, these observations are sadly true. On my own campus, you can hear the distinct chip chipping away at humanities and liberal arts, while more lucrative but spiritually empty fields dominate, students care more about their grade than lessons learned, and discourse and protest are seen as quaint.
The only reason this book doesn't warrant a five-star perfection seal is because, like I stated earlier, it's not going to reach the people who need it most. We have the diagnosis, but no prescription for these great woes facing my home country.
Maybe a sequel is in order. My suggestion for a title would be to go with a Muse song, such as Uprising, or City of Delusion. Appropriate. (less)

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Dec 21, 2010 Mauberley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Good but not great observations on the decline of America. The chapters on wrestling, pornography, and positive psychology were interesting but around three quarters of the way through them, I found myself skimming rather than reading. For me the best chapters were 'The Illusion of Wisdom' and 'The Illusion of America'. If you saw 'Capitalism: A Love Story', you may remember Michael Moore's opening lament for the passing of an America where Dad, working hard on the line at an automaker, was able...more

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Dec 04, 2010 Meika rated it 3 of 5 stars

I almost didn't make it past the first chapter with this book. He didn't do his research on the reality of professional wrestling (WWE etc), and committed the cardinal sin of saying it is all stagecraft and choreography. It isn't. Lucky for him, his point about the spectacle-ness of it still holds. That said, I didn't really trust him for the rest of the book because one overgeneralization is one too many when you put all this stuff in writing and call bullshit on the US of A.

I do think, in spi...more

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Nov 26, 2010 Zombiestopperuno added it

The central thesis of this book is that we have as a society become so detached from reality that we’ve lost any ability to influence our political or economic destiny. The author asserts that this detachment is no accident. It’s a product of corporate efforts to alter the culture in such a way as to enhance their short-term interests. Various tactics are employed including: mis-directing the anger of the economically alienated; distracting the public with celebrity obsession; manipulating the e...more The central thesis of this book is that we have as a society become so detached from reality that we’ve lost any ability to influence our political or economic destiny. The author asserts that this detachment is no accident. It’s a product of corporate efforts to alter the culture in such a way as to enhance their short-term interests. Various tactics are employed including: mis-directing the anger of the economically alienated; distracting the public with celebrity obsession; manipulating the educational process so as to encourage compliance and discourage debate; brainwashing employees under the guise of “positive psychology” training techniques; corrupting the political process through campaign financing abuse, blitzkrieg lobbying, and lucrative post-government employment; and domination of the political dialogue through the use of “expert” news commentators. All of these efforts combine to create a disempowered public too distracted, apathetic, cynical or deluded to resist expansion of corporate power, even when that power is being used to drag down the standard-of-living of most American citizens.

Hedges maintains that the loss of the critical skills of literacy have led us to become incapable of thinking for ourselves. We have become as malleable as children. In his effort to convince readers of the severity of the problem of low literacy, Hedges employs a dramatic style that some might call hyperbole. Others might accuse him of mucking about in the sewers to dig up the worst aspects of society in professional wrestling and the porn industry. There’s no question that Hedges is calling our attention to all sorts of unpleasant realities. He believes in the necessity of dealing with reality, despite its unpleasantness. He also understands our reluctance to do so. He writes, “The worse reality becomes, the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it ...”

I’d say that I’ve arrived at similar conclusions as Mr. Hedges regarding the issue of literacy. However, my concept of “marketing literacy” is less grandiose than what he’s advocating. Mine is a more functional literacy with no need for references to dead philosophers. Marketing literacy is something that could be taught in high schools, junior colleges, or the local learning annex. Students don’t need much in the way of pre-requisites to be able to inoculate themselves against deceptive marketing techniques. The main obstacle is one of overcoming the tradition of “exploitive leadership” in which charlatans try to build their own credibility by decrying other charlatans. I believe that capable followship is possible provided we start with some honest leadership.

To the list of illusions that Mr. Hedges provides, I’d like to add one more: the illusion of inclusion. This is the illusion that we all have whereby we believe that we will be included among the fortunate few because misfortune happens only to those who deserve it. There are plenty of people who understand that the corporate model is one in which there are squeezers and those who are to be squeezed. This model requires a plantation economy morality that exalts the insiders and denigrates the outsiders. Those content with this arrangement obviously view themselves as insiders even when they work for companies that are actively shedding employees. Many of these people are happy to be making good money for digging shallow graves, never stopping to wonder if maybe someday one of those graves might be their own.

This is a disconcerting book and Mr. Hedges seems to believe that we have good reason to be disconcerted. I tend to agree although he may have painted a picture that’s gloomier than the reality it’s meant to depict. There are still millions of people actively critiquing the politico-economic culture of this country and this book is a valuable tool to help in doing so.
(less)

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Nov 25, 2010 Kurt rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-events, non-fiction, politics, civilization

One of my favorite quotes comes from one of my favorite writers, Edward Abbey, who said, "Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion." Over the years as I have witnessed and learned about the decline of our civilization and our society I have noticed that most people prefer the comfortable delusions. The delusions come in the form of mindless entertainment, increasingly opinionated and sensationalistic "news", eagerness to blame complex problems on simplistic bogeymen, and an unwillingness...more One of my favorite quotes comes from one of my favorite writers, Edward Abbey, who said, "Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion." Over the years as I have witnessed and learned about the decline of our civilization and our society I have noticed that most people prefer the comfortable delusions. The delusions come in the form of mindless entertainment, increasingly opinionated and sensationalistic "news", eagerness to blame complex problems on simplistic bogeymen, and an unwillingness to read or research issues to learn the complex and often inconvenient truths.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges addresses this sentiment in Empire of Illusion. A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies, he claims. Those who cling to fantasy in times of despair and turmoil inevitably turn to demagogues to entertain and reassure them -- to tell them what they want to hear. And these demagogues, as they have throughout history, inevitably lead the crowd toward despotism and totalitarianism.

The last chapter is really the essence of this book. The preceding four chapters focus on specific examples of how Americans choose to occupy their time and their minds with illusions and spectacles of fantasy and well-being that divert their attention from their own often unpleasant reality. The examples include professional wrestling, pornography, the modern American University, and the self help and positive psychology industries.

The first four chapters seemed a little too detailed and too anecdotal. They were also mostly just quotes from experts on the subject. The chapter on pornography was especially puzzling. We all know what pornography is, yet the author wrote page after page describing specific disturbing and even repulsive examples which really did nothing to promote his thesis, other than make readers aware of how severe this particular problem has become.

The last chapter is gold, though. It should be read and re-read by everyone.(less)

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Oct 29, 2010 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a rather depressing book about the current state of affairs in the United States, one that does not paint a pretty picture for the future of the country. I read his previous books (War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning and American Fascists) and found them interesting. This book continues in the vein of his previous works, but is a little more negative in its outlook. The most significant flaw of the book is the writer's tone-deaf use of Wittgenstein's statement, "Whereof one cannot speak...more

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Oct 11, 2010 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

If you look at the title of this book and read the jacket synopsis and think, "Yeah, this sounds like something I will agree with," then put the book down and don't waste your time. For a book so clearly aimed at the literate, it offers nothing new.
The recounting of professional wrestling seems less like an exposé and more like classist gossip.
His opinions of pornography are fatalistic; ALL porn is exploitative and abusive; ALL consumers of porn are bound to eventually seek vile and violent mat...more

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