Norman Rockwell’s Fever Dream, The Negation of American Reality and This Week’s Reading, Viewing and Listening Recommendations

Even Norman Rockwell, whose The Saturday Evening Post paintings often depicted an American lifestyle that was more mythology or aspiration than reality, came to terms – to some degree – with the truth of American politics and standing in the world. Despite his rather conservative beginnings, Rockwell eventually turned his paintings into political art initially inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Four Freedoms” State of the Union Address. Rockwell – not content to continue to depict an America that no longer represented the concerns and mindset of the world in which he now found himself, turned his attention and art to the subjects of poverty, racism and freedom of speech.

Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We All Live With“

There are many today, however, who still dwell in the land of Rockwell’s fever dream of a “safer” and more “noble” time. Those who believe that Joe Biden is an ally to the working class and a direct opponent to big-business and corporations. Those who believe America’s global mission is a righteous one borne of a desire to spread freedom and democracy. Those who believe Israel is “defending” itself and that pro-Palestinian protestors are actually anti-semitic terrorists in league with Hamas. Those who believe China and Russia are the world’s violent aggressors, not the United States, and that those in charge of the U.S. are our most-educated, worldly, informed, virtuous and best-equipped to lead the world to a safer and freer place. Any voice who dares challenge that Rockwellian narrative is either publicly derided, considered outright criminals and traitors, or relegated to the bin of conspiracy theorists bent on revolution and anarchy out of a twisted desire to set the world on fire.

It is personally challenging for me when I come face-to-face with this dystopian mindset from friends and family members I dearly love. Part of me understands fully the life-long propaganda and beloved narratives that allow us to move through the world more comfortably if we simply believe. I, like so many, am a product of this political and social indoctrination and agitprop.

At what point, however – and this is a question I ask regularly here on these pages – does one start to question those propagandistic narratives when faced with the most extreme and – I would say – seemingly undeniable realities? It is a question that may never be answered for me. Perhaps because the answer for many is “never.” It is simply not an option. Routine and desire are powerful weapons of mass distraction: I get my news here because I always have. I support these politicians or this political party because I always have. I maintain these beliefs because I always have.

To do so requires a blacking out or dismissing of some of the most educated, knowledgeable and articulate voices, not only in the United States, but across the globe.

So I try and share those voices here on these pages. Not because I insist that you agree with them, but because I believe it is critical to at least hear them. I believe it is critical to understand what is happening and why. And where we are headed. Or, at the very least, to understand genuine independent journalistic insights and the historical timeline we are on. If we don’t coalesce in large enough numbers against the current corporate monopoly of our democracy and governmental system, we will lose it all. For me, that means a full rejection of and civil action against the two-party system and its candidates:

…If we can pull 10, 15, 20 million people, that’s the only way we can put pressure on the Democratic party not to, essentially, serve its corporate Masters – which became especially the case after the Clinton presidency. Clinton essentially turned the Democratic party into the Republican Party. Joe Biden’s voting record is essentially Republican. And it pushed the Republican party so far to the right it became insane. The problem is we didn’t stand up after NAFTA. We should have never voted for a Democrat. We didn’t use the power we have, the power of numbers.

I can’t vote for Joe Biden. You know, in the end, genocide is not a political issue, it’s a moral issue. They’re the ones who did this to the country. Why? Because they wouldn’t hold power without corporate money. Hillary Clinton or Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden – they wouldn’t exist as political figures. I mean, even in the primaries the Democratic establishment had to pressure everyone else to drop out because nobody wanted Biden. They’re the ones who are doing this to the country. And why? Because they don’t want to lose their first class seats, they don’t want to lose their positions by antagonizing their corporate funders, the people who make their political careers possible. They are creatures of corporate power and they serve their masters. And they’re the ones who have distorted and destroyed our democracy and I’ve written numerous books about it DEATH OF THE LIBERAL CLASS; DAYS OF DESTRUCTION, DAYS OF REVOLT; AMERICA: THE FAREWELL TOUR…

They’re the ones who betrayed the working class. 30 million American workers losing their jobs since 1996 when figures were first recorded in mass layoffs. That’s the engine behind a figure like Trump. It’s rage and it’s a legitimate rage. And for us to, you know, the quote/unquote “liberal class” to go around and scold a dispossessed working class that they’re not grateful, that they’re not showing enough gratitude to the Democrats is insane.

So the problem is by not standing unequivocally with a dispossessed working class, with the working poor against these forces in the long term, we have no credibility. And that’s why the liberal class and the Democratic party has no credibility. In fact, of course, it’s fused with the old establishment wing of the Republican Party – Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney and others – just to become one big, ruling party against Trump’s white man’s party. But they’re the ones who destroyed our democracy and our economy and the social programs and pushed through austerity… they did that and we’re not responsible for that. We’re responsible for standing up against that. As painful in the short term as it’s going to be because, like you, I do fear a Tump presidency, but there’s no way I’m voting for Biden.” – Chris Hedges, Interview with On Strike!

Below are some videos and writings from this past week with several of those voices that I believe speak truth to power in a culture that tries to do everything it can to drown them out. But the truth has a strange way of getting through anyway. Perhaps not to those who are so set in their ways that altering their perspective would mean sacrificing their personal identities, but for many whose identities are not married to a single school of thought and who are more interested in seeing the world around them as clearly and as honestly as possible. Never an easy task when you live in a culture and a political system dependant on controlling the narrative to suit the needs of a few and not the many.

Unless you are relentlessly committed to the early works of Norman Rockwell as your looking glass into the United States and the world, I strongly recommend engaging with the videos and writings below. They are but a taste of things to come. They are also a call to action. So if inaction is your default (or your mantra), then they will undoubtably challenge you.

First up is Glenn Greenwald‘s most-recent interview with economist, renowned public policy analyst and professor at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs. This interview has been broken up into sections for easier access to the subject matters discussed. There are few voices that will give you a more concise, more detailed, more historically accurate, more unapologetically honest and more coherent breakdown of these subjects than Jeffrey Sachs in this interview:

Next up is John J. Mearsheimer‘s talk in Sydney, Australia at the Centre for Independent Studies about the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. Mearsheimer is a political scientist, an international relations scholar, author and the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago:

Next we have the ON STRIKE! interview with journalist, author, activist and former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief, Chris Hedges. ON STRIKE! is the video broadcast of Workers Strike Back, hosted by Kshama Sawant and Bia Lacombe. Kshama Sawant served on the Seattle City Council from 2014 to 2024 and is an Indian-American politician and economist. Both Kshama and Bia are members of Socialist Alternative.

For me, Chris Hedges is one of the single most trusted voices in both journalism and in the anti-war movement. I have found his insights and knowledge to be absolutely indispensable.

Continuing here with Chris Hedges is his recent article on the continued punishment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for the crime of responsible journalism. Assange is being held (and has been for 5 years now) in England’s high-security Belmarsh Prison without charge simply because the United States wants him extradited for revealing U.S. war crimes. He is Joe Biden and the United States’ example to other journalists around the world NOT to report on or reveal U.S. war crimes. It is a direct attack on freedom of the press and another sweeping example of the authoritarianism currently being enhanced and vigorously promoted by the Biden Administration and the Democratic Party.

And finally, Chris Hedges article, The Nation’s Conscience, on the attempted silencing of student voices in their global protest against genocide. You can either read the article or listen to it read by Eunice Wong.