A Virtual War On Poor People Trying To Navigate The Despair Machine
“Navigating the netherworld of America’s criminal caste system”
The “E-comm Cafe” (Ashtabula, Ohio)
[Update: 11/14/21 – Chris Hedges explains how this all works in his talk American Sadism. ~~~ end update]
In a 2013 book and essay, Professor and writer Henry Giroux wrote of today’s Neoliberal US political economy as a spirit crushing “dis-imagination machine” (emphases mine):
The commanding economic and cultural institutions of American society have taken on what David Theo Goldberg calls a “militarizing social logic.”[1] Market discipline now regulates all aspects of social life, and the regressive economic rationality that drives it sacrifices the public good, public values and social responsibility to a tawdry consumerist dream while simultaneously creating a throwaway society of goods, resources and individuals now considered disposable. […]
The political, economic, and social consequences have done more than destroy any viable vision of a good society. They undermine the modern public’s capacity to think critically, celebrate a narcissistic hyperindividualism that borders on the pathological, destroy social protections and promote a massive shift towards a punitive state that criminalizes the behavior of those bearing the hardships imposed by a survival-of-the-fittest society that takes delight in the suffering of others.
Giroux sees the “rise of a dis-imagination machine” as a response to this punishing and humiliating Neoliberal economy and culture:
The “disimagination machine” is both a set of cultural apparatuses extending from schools and mainstream media to the new sites of screen culture, and a public pedagogy that functions primarily to undermine the ability of individuals to think critically, imagine the unimaginable, and engage in thoughtful and critical dialogue: put simply, to become critically informed citizens of the world.
Giroux provides several specific examples of the dis-imagination machine (read the whole 2013 article, many of his examples have proven prescient). And Giroux is not alone in his analysis.
Today, in part 2 of the interview of Chris Hedges on his brilliant new book: “Our Class – Trauma and Transformation In An American Prison“, Hedges explains how Giroux’s “dis-imagination machine” operates in the lives of black men and their families and communities.
I found this anecdote of the life experience of one of Hedges’s students in what Hedges calls “navigating the netherworld of America’s criminal caste system” to be especially disturbing and terrifying (emphases mine):
If you come out [of prison] without a strong support system – and that’s not just a family, but a family that has some financial means – then you are cast aside. … No matter how hard you try, there are all these mechanisms to beat you down. And that’s what’s so criminal on the part of our society.
All of these people who …want to reintegrate, who want to have a normal life: a car, an apartment, a job, all of these mechanisms work to deny them that possibility and drive them into deeper and deeper despair and frustration and anger.
I can assure you – from personal experience – that these mechanisms are real, that they do “beat you down“, and that they do not operate only on black people, “criminals”, or formerly incarcerated people.
These kind of local prohibitions on sleeping are proliferating, essentials criminalizing homelessness
After an Ivy League graduate education, home ownership in an upscale community (Hopewell NJ), and a 30+ year solidly middle class professional career, I now live a nomadic life and have limited means.
I hope that it is a life of “integrity”, especially as Chris Hedges characterizes the word in his “final sermon” to his prison class.
I have daily experiences with these mechanisms, including: harassment by law enforcement and the judicial system; exploitation by the financial system; disrespect, rejection, and even outright hostility by bourgeois society.
And despite having personal resources to cope with these attacks, sometimes I feel an overwhelming overall frustration with daily life, including the simple basics of a daily routine.
All of it seems to be designed to humiliate and harass poor people, almost all of whom lack the privileges I have been able to take advantage of.
I literally can not imagine what they must experience and frankly, can’t understand the lack of rage and political rebellion given the gross injustices, corruption of corporate capitalism, and ugly nature of this dynamic.
This is the dynamic that explains the “deaths of despair” as well as the political apathy (or “dis-imagination”) that impedes democratic political revolution and reforms.
No public restrooms – even porta-potties are locked up. And this is in “liberal” Boulder, Colorado
Something’s gotta give. And soon.
This level on inequality can not persist: (Gatsby Meets The Green New Deal – Saratoga Springs, NY – that’s a 1930 Pace Arrow):
Let’s hope the revolutionary tide breaks left – but many signs indicate a right wing Fascist moment is in the cards.
Port Townsend, Washington
In “enlightened” Saratoga Springs NY – home of many Black Lives Matter lawn signs – look closely, the guy on the porch is white.