At Thought Bubble we have a lot of respect for Chris Hedges’ books and columns. Recently, I read three of his books in one month and was truly inspired by his writing. Although every page reveals an ugly truth about our society and the world, the book’s conclusion always draws on the power of love. Here is a wonderful quote from The Empire of Illusion that stayed with me:
No tyranny in history has crushed the human capacity for love. And this love – unorganized, irrational, often propelling us to carry out acts of compassion that jeopardize our existence – is deeply subversive to those in power.
The Russian novelist Vasily Grossman wrote of the power of these acts in his masterpiece Life and Fate:
“I have seen that it is not man who is impotent in the struggle against evil, but the power of evil that is impotent in the struggle against man. The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is the secret of its immortality. It can never by conquered. The more stupid, the more senseless, the more helpless it may seem, the vaster it is. Evil is impotent before it. The prophets, religious teachers, reformers, social and political leaders are impotent before it. This dumb, blind love is man’s meaning. Human history is not the battle of good struggling to overcome evil. It is a battle fought by a great evil, struggling to crush a small kernel of human kindness. But if what is human in human beings has not been destroyed even now, then evil will never conquer.”
I wholeheartedly recommend checking out Chris Hedges’ books and his weekly column at Truthdig which he updates every Monday.
