Henry Giroux on 'Zombie' Politics
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2013
- In his book, Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism, author and scholar Henry Giroux connects the dots to prove his theory that our current system is informed by a "machinery of social and civil death" that chills "any vestige of a robust democracy."
This week on Moyers & Company, Giroux explains that such a machine turns "people who are basically so caught up with surviving that they become like the walking dead -- they lose their sense of agency, they lose their homes, they lose their jobs."
What's more, Giroux points out, the system that creates this vacuum has little to do with expanding the meaning and the substance of democracy itself. Under "casino capitalism," the goal is to get a quick return, taking advantage of a kind of logic in which the only thing that drives us is to put as much money as we can into a slot machine and hope we walk out with our wallets overflowing.
A cultural and social critic of tireless energy and vast interests, Giroux holds the Global TV Network Chair in the English and Cultural Studies Department at McMaster University and is a distinguished visiting professor at Reyerson University, both schools in Canada.
This gentleman speaks what many people think but can't put into exact words or thought. Brilliant.
Since I haven't been able to speak since a surgery nearly 14 years ago so I can't even say it myself, even in my clumsy way.
Exactly
This man is brilliant...Henry keep on writing and talking until you die!!
This video deserves more likes. It is years old by now, but more relevant with each passing day.
Chris Hedges says the same stuff I'm glad there's other people starting to realize the world we live in
Mr. Giroux's great smile and enthusiasm tells us a lot. His face next to Chris Hedges's (who I also love) is like the two masks of the theater who totally agree on the dire problems, but G obviously can find joy in the fight. Intelligence enlightend by love. Beautiful!
I know!
Giroux and Hedges sing together in near perfect harmony.
Gives me great joy; lessens the despair a bit.
Wow, yes except I'm finding I need an intellectual I can actually recommend to others as Hedges can fail in that regard sometimes with his appeal to church in many of his writings and I feel a part of Hedges is venturing into crazy territory with his pseudo aggressive fist pumps to radical priests under the false truism that "it's no coincidence the greatest resistance comes from those who believe in God" etc. It's hard sometimes to recommend Hedges to others because he mixes his messages with nostalgia for the more violent confrontations of the past and this Giroux guy only seems to have the good. I've been looking for a stronger voice and I think I may have found one, although Henry Giroux needs to get on more shows to so he can get his voice out a little more.
Hedges has said some good stuff and his take on capitalism as inverted totalitarianism, as well as his call for a new language are insightful stuff, but he doesn't deliver this discourse as often as he writes about semi-violent radical resistance and his high praise for the church, which gets disheartening, and I think Hedges repeats his language a little too much himself. I mean how many times can a guy say "venal" for example. I met him once and spoke to Hedges and got the impression I was interacting with a guy doing a monologue or a sermon like in his days as a minister, instead of actually engaging with someone. Also if one looks at his debate with Sam Harris, although Sam was an idiot, Hedges just recited from a pre-scripted speech and didn't really engage in a debate -- that kind of stuff is unfortunate to see.
Giroux seems genuinely interested in actual debate and I think that's great stuff, and I would hope he not think he's too old (like he seemed to suggest in this interview at one point) to engage himself a little more on some programs and interviews to get those ideas broadcast a little more forcefully.
Hope to see more new stuff from Henry Giroux in the next while! Awesome and riveting interview!
Thank God for Bill. All these many years and he's still on top of the important and "real" information outside the mainstream crap, real artists, real writers--those who were taught to think for themselves and find it important to do so. Amazing. Go Bill.
Moyers dodged the draft, but helped LBJ (who sent so many of us to war) tell lies and then tried to cast himself as ethical
This is a really smart man
"Sometimes in exaggerations there are great truths"
"The ideology of hardness and cruelty runs through American culture like an electric current"
OMG! I just heard of this guy and I love everything he has just spoken! I need to read all his books!
Thank you Henry! There's still hope as long as we have people like him.
Henry Giroux for President!
Thank you for your heart, Mr. G
love this guy's brains! thanx!
Great dialogue. Thank you for the messages of hope.
Miss you Bill Moyers. Every friday night after NBR, McNeil/Lehrer, Rose, Wa Week, I could watch you followed with unfettered Frontline or Independent Lens. Sad to see such independent programming disappear or shuffled off to some 3am or sunday afternoon slot.
16:30 Very well said. Totally what is happening to modern society. Kind of similar to a "Fight club" idea.
This was so amazing!
It really amazes me how the secular left in the US have more compassion than the so called religious right. American right wingers will openly praise Ayn Rand and then condemn abortion and feminism without seeing the hypocrisy.
It's possible when the masses are uinformed and uneducated.
Excellent commentary.
Very good. Please link this to others.
17:52 is unbelievable - without direct intent he speaks so dead on about Trump (caricature, casino owner and host of a reality show) that it blows my mind.
You are stupid
What a find ^_^
Henry Giroux would be the perfect American president. Unfortunately, he's way too intelligent and a real human being.
Just Imagine 50 of the richest Actors, Musicians Rappers, Athletes and the enlightened ones. Would come together come together as one healing unit, instead of living super large just because they can.
This is terrifying to watch in 2021. 7 years after posted on TH-cam.
Young people should vote more!
Moyers finds the most fucking brilliant articulate and justice driven guests.
The dumbing down of America has been successful. But it will be overturned. Share , Educate, Agitate, Organize!
Is there any way to enable the "community contribution" setting for this video? I would like to provide the translation in Spanish to be used in my university. Thanks
@7:16!!!! "America is descending into madness"!!!! Six years ago he saw that!!!!
Very interesting. Lots of POVs agreed. One thing though I gotta add is if there will be those parties or organizations emerging in the near future, I just hope they won't end up like hippies in 70s who ended up turning into same people they were protesting and opposing to.
Long live freedom and democratic equality
I agree, I agree, I agree.
Now 2021 and see .... :(
Giroux is a badass
A protest without bloodshed is not a protest for change.
He is so on target! But even in explaining, the terms need reexamination. He refers to "pepper spray." Yes, it is a horrendous example, but it would be even more horrendous if we had a term that really described what it is: not pepper spray which is horrible if it gets in your eyes or tongue - but a military grade of chemical that is hundreds of time as painful! Far worse than hot peppers in your eyes! Impossible to imagine! Let's start calling it what it is, a military weapon, a chemical weapon.
"Capsaicin is not soluble in water, and even large volumes of water will not wash it off."
Walter Teague And I thought that it was only the "bad" countries' governments that used chemical weapons on its own citizens... Another lie that we are told by "our" media. So many lies, so little truth.
Julian Casablancas (juliancasablancas.com/henry-giroux-on-zombie-politics/) brought me here. Thanx, Jules.
frank zappa for prez henry for vice
When pbs was still decent.
greetings... #ZionPolitics brought me here AGAIN because of my prepper lifestyle in #totality
Don't worry, we progressives love our money and we work very hard for it, laying our lives on the line for Democracy. Like Marx, we believe in the even distribution of power. For example in the classroom, teachers are colleagues with students as co-investigators in the Age of Information! Teacher simply takes roll then rolls up her (I'm talking about me here) and the students do the rest...explore! Free! Truly DEMOCRATIC!!!
Thatcher said that?! Society doesn't exist? Well, it should!
Search ‘Set’-god of anger, chaos, and destruction opposing the godhead of love, peace, and harmony in ancient Egypt. This was predicted then that the kingdom of Set would arise. We are that kingdom…
Want to know more about politics? Watch it here -
Moyers didn't serve in Vietnam, but help tell lies for Lyndon Johnson and then sought to portray himself as some paragon of ethics.
And Islamic Law is meanwhile endeavoring to fill in the gap: Ponder and take heed!
!
D:
"why aren't we in the streets?" life on the plantation. have a nice day?
"ordo ab chao." is that not madness? have a nice day.
There is no such thing as a social contract. This man is part of the problem, not the solution.
I'm sorry, and I'm sure I'm offending someone with my stupidity, but most of this moves so fast, and they're using so many big words, I'm beginning to suspect that they don't even know what they're talking about.
(Disclaimer: I know they're probably very smart. I'm simply trying to say I can hardly understand them, by making a joke. I am not trying to hurt any feelings, just stating my personal confusion.)
If you want to understand the jargon, try watching some of Ron Paul and Noam Chomsky videos first and then come back to this video. It might get clearer to you ;)
+Colin Bunting exactly what the destruction of our education system has caused. I do not have a college education, I am a construction electrician, but I grew up in the 1960's when our education system was one of the best in the world. It has been attacked over and over, dumbing down our whole population.
I resemble that remark! Ha.
+Colin Bunting
Don't be dismayed and give up, Colin.
It isn't the words, its the ideas.
I remember when I first read Chomsky (Hegemony). The man made no sense. I had to read line by line, and re-read. About a quarter of the way through the book, suddenly the words and sentences were making sense. The ideas had been so outside my experience, I could not at first comprehend them.
I then started the book all over again and everything began to fall in place. My life perspective was re-born.
Namaste and care,
mhikl
If the CEO's of the pop culture lived on a $1.000 dollar a day budget for three years. The youth would have spiritual heros. The Hip Hop CEOs could become Mandela just by living a humble God fearing way of life. The souls of the youth are crying because those in charge have marketed a dark way of life.
I would love to see the end of capitalism while I'm still living. Unfortunately I don't think I have enough time. My health is shot so I spend my time between books, TH-cam and my black arabian stallion. I really love that horse but he will outlive me so I'm working on choosing a home for him from amongst those who want him before I go although they don't get him until I'm gone.
Interesting. Inherited wealth... sounds a lot like Europe when it had a lot of Kings. Or some of the present day French upper crust. Think before you vote?
All systems have weakspots, no exceptions.
Even the Death Star.
Jared Berg That exhaust port is no bigger than a womp rat.
Henry,
They're calling these kids' generation, "Failure to Launch"! How does agency enter into the discourse? Where to begin?
He's mistaken about education: public schools don't exist because children have a right to education. If they did, attendance would not be compulsory, for clearly you cannot have the right to something that you do not also have the right to refuse. (Before you object that kids don't have to go to public school because they can homeschool, consider that the right to choose homeschooling belongs to parents, not children. A child whose parents want him in public school will be found in....public school.) We don't pay taxes because we have a "right" to support military contractors, and children are not compelled by law to go to public school because they have a "right" to education. This Orwellian idea is a sacred cow of the liberal intelligentsia, who should find a different justification for compulsory schooling. This one is broken.
👁👁
Only if Americans actually listened to what Henry Giroux has to say! Sigh
All he is doing is stringing one stock, leftist cliche after another. Empty promise after empty promise without the slightest hint how it could actually be done. I guess he's going to use magic. I've tried the magic route, but so far the results just aren't what I would have hoped. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
So, in 2012, the last year this is available, Professor Giroux was paid $266,000.00. And he is a critic of casino capitalism? That he is the Global TV Network chair of something or another just adds injury to this posturing pseudo-radical crap.
Henry Giroux: Bullshit.