Book Review: Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges is a crie de coeur of a patriotic American about the state of our nation.  The book is a classic effort to speak truth to power, to describe our culture and politics as they truly are and to diagnose the nature and source of our malaise.  Cultural criticism these days is an even more dismal science than economics and in this respect the book does not disappoint.  Were it not for the facts that truth is in such short supply these days and truth is a prerequisite for repentance and reform, Hedges’ book would be one to studiously avoid.   He begins his book with a quotation from James Baldwin, “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”  Hedges has given us a book that is sufficiently forceful to stop us from concealing the horror of our predicament.  He is a voice calling in the wilderness like the prophets of old warning us of our imminent destruction if we don’t return to justice and peace.    His vision and the evidence he educes for it are compelling and ring true.  Among his targets are: corruption on Wall Street and Corporatism; Pornography; the entertainment and infotainment industries; Universities; the Military Industrial Complex; the positive psychology movement and the arrogance of our technocratic elites.  This is a familiar list of culprits and might induce a yawn in some quarters; however, Hedges’ book is not a soporific.  In fact it is at once revelatory, horrifying (particularly the section on pornography) and a bracing call to change our way of thinking and living.