This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook

This week; Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former war correspondent for the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and author. Some of his book titles include: 'What Every Person Should Know About War,' 'War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,' 'Fascist America: The Christian Right and the War on America,' 'I Don't Believe in Atheists,' 'Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians,' and his latest, 'Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle' which questions the viability of a society distracted to death through the illusions of "mass media, the entertainment industry, and popular culture."

 

And; Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to keep us current with the goings on on the streets of our fair city. But first, Chris Hedges and the Empire of Illusion.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca.  He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com

 

 

Perhaps humanity's most singular achievement is the ability to live in both the real and imagined world. Without the ability to abstract and imagine the future, we clever monkeys would likely still be happily hunting and gathering among the animals along the unspoiled plains of the Serengeti. But as with so many gifts there exists a dangerous duplicity, a counter point contained within the folds of our bicameral brains, that could as easily destroy as edify we recipients. Every culture recognizes the danger of the departure from creative imagination to destructive delusion, where visionary and maniac are separated by the razor-thin line we call sanity.  

In the image-driven technological first world the lines between real and imagined, sane and not so, are growing fainter by the day. We've all seen our fellows, on buses, bicycles, treading sidewalks, and driving cars with their attention fixed on small communication devices, machines relating other dimensions, and different world views. Today, it seems our collective future is destined to take place at the site of the collision of these competing realities.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, former war correspondent for the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor, and author. Some of his book titles include: 'What Every Person Should Know About War,' 'War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning,' 'Fascist America: The Christian Right and the War on America,' 'I Don't Believe in Atheists,' 'Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians,' and his latest, 'Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle' which questions the viability of a society distracted to death through the illusions of "mass media, the entertainment industry, and popular culture."


And, Victoria Street Newz publisher and CFUV broadcaster Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to keep us current with the goings on on the streets of our fair city. But first, Chris Hedges and the Empire of Illusion.