I have seen Hedges comment more recently. He concludes that socialism is the only possible solution. He does not detail what that means. The term socialism had a specific meaning when it was coined and I hope that is what he meant. It is a term taken over by anyone left of the right wing of the democratic party and used to ,malign anyone not a conservative by the conservatives. It is assumed to be proper descriptive for any current that believes capitalism can be reformed to have a humane face and function, that it can be forced o escape the economic logic of the capitalist system. Bernie, the Democratic socialist group within the procapitalist/proimperialist democratic party wear it as a mantle. but socialism in the original meaning of the term is worker councils, community councils, sector councils, upward to national councils each deciding the use of the surplus value they produce at work , and its allocation up and outwards. It is democratic organization of productive effort to benefit the entire population. It has never been practiced since the invasion of Russia in 1919 destroyed the council system and allowed Stalin to establish the bureaucracy while the leading active members of the councils fought the invaders who would have re-established imperialist control of Russia. The combination of Stalin's rule and influence of resources used by Russia combined with imperial interventions have either defeated or warped the result of every revolution since. The impulse to support the challenge to democratic party leadership has been manipulated to deplete the energy and enthusiasm for action and change many times over history , many time in my life time. It was used in the last election and is being used again in the next. AN independent working class party is required. A workers party is an instrument of the movement. Its purpose is to establish a comprehensive program, achieve education in cadre, discuss issues and strategy and goals in specific and overall class struggle, ensure members are active in existing working class organizations, locations, actively recruiting, popularizing existing struggles and goals. It participates in elections to advance the the movement and specific struggles. It wins seats when it is doing its job in the streets and work places. The Democratic party will control the result of the nomination. It may be forced to grant concessions for a short period by aligning one of the many reform candidates that clearly supports imperialism and the capitalist system with a leading candidate like Warren but even if Bernie wins, the control of the state remains in their domain. (Look at his record, not at what he has said recently.) If he actually won and tried to take their power without the organization of independent working class mobilization they would form a dictatorship using military control. Imperialism, Capitalism, the state systems of wealth and privilege do not give up power. They concede to rising threat of revolt that threatens their control but they will never release control without a revolution that takes it from them. Revolutionary conditions occur when a state system abandons the majority of population to ensure the wealth and privilege of the ruling class is maintained. Revolutions succeed when the citizens form councils to decide , when their decisions are well thought out and applicable to conditions, when they make governance by the imperialist state impossible as it applies the solutions dictated by capitalist economics and assume the role of government to maintain community that is destroyed by those capitalist solutions. We live in a period of potential social and political explosions.The economic conditions are in place already. Without an independent working class party and social movement prepared to take the fight to the streets the capita;list solution will prevail. The environmental crisis is not even mentioned but it is a part of the crisis of capitalist economics and cannot be solved in a profit system. The costs to make the change required is beyond the systems capacity to meet. Yet the survival of species on the planet is at stke. Oceans are acidic as accompanied all the great extinctions. We have lost 60 percent of the life on the plane that existed 30 years ago. It is being described as the 6th extinction. Our children and grand children mat be the last people to live in an atmosphere that sustains health rather than threatens death constantly. Their children or grand children may be the last of the species to live on earth. We have a great challenge and a short time.-

I'm a bit afraid that climate change and sea-level rise will trigger worldwide chaos with people moving away from the coast and low-lying areas, and migrating from one country to another on a large scale.

From the article;

"The empire will limp along, steadily losing influence until the dollar is dropped as the world’s reserve currency, plunging the United States into a crippling depression and instantly forcing a massive contraction of its military machine."

Maybe that's a good thing? We've followed the Roman militarism model too long. Maybe now that China will come in to world dominance, our "policing the world" will be forced out?

This is the perfect place to post this. Thank you, it's very insightful!

Its an opinion piece on a website. I don't know that that guy knows any more than a dozen others who've written opinion pieces on other websites in recent years.

Couldn't agree more with the article.

Yup right place