{"id":1163,"date":"2005-06-13T02:12:32","date_gmt":"2005-06-13T09:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2005\/06\/what_everyone_should_read_by_c\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T17:13:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:13:48","slug":"what_everyone_should_read_by_c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2005\/06\/what_everyone_should_read_by_c.html","title":{"rendered":"WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD READ BY CHRIS HEDGES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>It took James Woolcott<\/font><\/b><\/a> to lead me to a wrenching, eloquent piece on the realities and myths of war<\/font><\/b><\/a> by Chris Hedges, who begins this way and never lets up:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who
use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief. They know the lies the victors often do not acknowledge, the lies covered up in stately war memorials and mythic war narratives, filled with words of courage and comradeship. They know the lies that permeate the thick,
self-important memoirs by amoral statesmen who make wars but do not know war.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop what you are doing. Click this link<\/font><\/b><\/a> and read what Hedges has written. Then take a
\ndeep breath and, if you must, go back to work. On your way home, though, you’ll have plenty to
\nthink about, namely our deformed American ideals and how appalling this nation has become
\nunder Georgie Boy’s deluded leadership. And maybe — sad to say, a very big maybe — you’ll do
\nsomething about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took James Woolcott to lead me to a wrenching, eloquent piece on the realities and myths of war by Chris Hedges, who begins this way and never lets up: The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-iL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73964,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions\/73964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}