Chris Hedges Quotes
There are always people willing to commit unspeakable human atrocity in exchange for a little power and privilege.
Hedges, Chris. Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt. Nation Books, 2015.
Mark Twain referring to and reflecting on his encounter with the Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Aziz.
Iturbide, known also as Agustin I, was the first Emperor of Mexico who was executed by a firing squad.
The human rights abuses in the Belgian Congo were horrible. Natives who refused to work for the low wages were murdered or had their hands chopped off. The indigenous population was markedly reduced. Word of the atrocities started leaking out to Europe. It is not known whether the King really wanted any reform or just sent the instructions to cover himself. The instructions were not followed; the atrocities continued, and Leopold never took any steps to discipline his agents and minions. The Belgian Congo had the worst atrocities in the world until WWII.
He was expelled from Parliament for such.
This quotation so impressed Thomas Jefferson that he wrote it in his Commonplace Book.
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Presbyterian minister, author and television host. His books include War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction; Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (2009); Death of the Liberal Class (2010); Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), written with cartoonist Joe Sacco, which was a New York Times best-seller; Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015); and his most recent, America: The Farewell Tour (2018). Obey, a documentary by British filmmaker Temujin Doran, is based on his book Death of the Liberal Class.
