Empire of Illusion
The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Pulitzer prize–winner Chris Hedges charts the dramatic and disturbing rise of a post-literate society that craves fantasy, ecstasy and illusion.
Chris Hedges argues that we now live in two societies: One, the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world, that can cope with complexity and can separate illusion from truth. The other, a growing majority, is retreating from a reality-based world into one of false certainty and magic. In this “other society,” serious film and theatre, as well as newspapers and books, are being pushed to the margins.
In the tradition of Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism and Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, Hedges navigates this culture — attending WWF contests as well as Ivy League graduation ceremonies —…
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August 24, 2010CHRIS HEDGES, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, spent nearly 20 years as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was part of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism. He writes a weekly original column for Truthdig, and has written for Harper's, The New Statesman, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Adbusters, Granta, Foreign Affairs and other publications. He is the author of the bestsellers Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (with cartoonist Joe Sacco); Death of the Liberal Class; Empire of Illusion; and War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, among others.
The Class
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America, The Farewell Tour
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Wages of Rebellion
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Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt
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Death of the Liberal Class
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