America

There are times when I feel the human race should be wiped out. Sometimes it's a book that makes me feel this way, like when I was reading [b:The Three-Body Problem|20518872|The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415428227s/20518872.jpg|25696480] (maybe we're supposed to be siding with the human race in that book, but I didn't.) Anyway, this book made me feel that way too. It's not just America after all. Corporate capitalism is world-wide. And other countries--China, for example that may inherit our spot when America declines and falls, as they said of the Romans, is in many ways worse, even though conditions have improved since the start of The Three-Body Problem which took place initially during the cultural revolution. It's not just that we treat each other horribly. It's that we barely notice. That's why books like this are so shocking.

I don't think my reaction is really what Chris Hedges was going for. He gives some instructions in the last chapter on what we can do about it, as if the victims gaining power wouldn't result in them becoming victimizers like the pigs in Orwell's [b:Animal Farm|170448|Animal Farm|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1325861570s/170448.jpg|2207778] or like the abused growing up to become abusers.

Maybe if Chris and I took over it would be OK but as a theologian, he knows we're all miserable sinners so how could he think we wouldn't become corrupt? I admit I was also influenced by reading [b:The Heavens|36642622|The Heavens|Sandra Newman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1534438635s/36642622.jpg|58411384] at the same time, a novel in which attempts to fix the world seem to only make it worse.

All that said, more people need to be aware of how bad things are so this book is needed just to inform them. But can people stay with that knowledge and remain sane? After all, I'd read some of his previous books and still needed to be reminded with this one.