Chris Hedges: The US Government Is “Inverted Totalitarianism”

Recently, journalist Chris Hedges was interviewed by “Russia Today”, the video of which is presented here. The substance of Hedges’s discussion regards how the United States has evolved into a form of what Sheldon Wollin calls “inverted totalitarianism”. He also discusses the inevitable collapse of the US infrastructure, as well as Obama’s uselessness as a “political brand”.

In a recent article, “Democracy in America is a Useful Fiction”, Hedges defines “inverted totalitarianism”:

“Inverted totalitarianism represents “the political coming of age of corporate power and the political demobilization of the citizenry [...] Inverted totalitarianism differs from classical forms of totalitarianism, which revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader, and finds its expression in the anonymity of the corporate state. The corporate forces behind inverted totalitarianism do not, as classical totalitarian movements do, boast of replacing decaying structures with a new, revolutionary structure. They purport to honor electoral politics, freedom and the Constitution. But they so corrupt and manipulate the levers of power as to make democracy impossible.”