2 of my absolute favorites , Hedges & Prashad come together enlighten us. Vijay's encyclopedic knowledge is bewildering and not just memory but penetrating insights with compassion & empathy. The Society would be so much better if it's member's read hedges & Prashads rich quality of work. I'd appreciate it if Chris interviewed Morris Berman as well. God bless both of you. 💘 ❤ 🙏

I always love hearing Prashad's point of view - another great interview from Hedges 😃

Vijay and Chris in one show - fantastic

Free Julian Assange, free Palestine and end all sanctions!! Keep that Fire Hedges!!

"Struggle makes us human", what a great title! And yes I'm among the demoralized, so this interview hits home and is very helpful. Thanks for a great show with a great guest, as usual!🙏

As usual Hedges is excellent at educating and informing. The same with Vijay. Thank you!

Thank you so much, Chris and Vijay, for speaking Sounds of Sanity and Humaneness in this world of insanity which is spinning out of control, faster and faster.

Loved your interview of Vijay Prashad. He is a very wise person and most acute to what is going on in our society. Thank you so Much!

When I lose hope, Mr. Hedges never disappoints!

Amazing as usual. Always a pleasure to hear from Vijay Prashad. Thank you so much Chris, for having him on & for the excellent questions.

The US has a vested interest in being the prime example of excess in the worst sense. It unfortunately will never change, at least in our lifetime. I appreciate people like Hedges, Greenwald, Blumenthal and Martin putting themselves out there as the voices of reason and truth. I just am afraid that the country is too far gone to be fixed.

This was easily the most important piece of media I have consumed this year. Thank you!

What an INCREDIBLY bright, intelligent, cultured and all around GOOD human being Vijay Prashad is... Thank you Chris Hedges for this interview and look forward to hearing your own take/ analysis on the Comic Relief show going on in the Capitol hill under the façade of "Saving the Democracy" by running a Dog and pony *January 6th hearing* spectacle.

Vijay Prasad and Chris Hedge . Blessings and prayers 🙏❣️

It’s so frustrating to know we could all be better off by taking care of all the people instead of dividing and choosing hate. I love to hear how simple life could be if we could only work together.

Vijay’s point about one extreme act of violence having a homeopathic effect in the direction of violence is such an astute one. love how this man can bridge high theoretical conjectures with really personal on the ground stories of humanity.

So glad to see Vijay so eloquently breakdown these concepts from a perspective of someone who has seen society in disarray. Chris’ work in Yugoslavia also allows for his interpretation to arrive at a similar conclusion. Simply put, Americans have America brain and cannot see our society for what has become.

Such an interesting conversation. I am definitely going to read Vijay Prashad's book : Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism. Thank you Chris

Once again I salute you Chris for another amazing interview. It’s just unfortunate to hear again what’s ahead of us in a world that’s imploding quickly

Well done real news for giving a platform to Chris .

I read his book. It is outstanding! He is a brilliant author.

Great convo by two from the top tier. I've long wished that this show was 60 rather than 30 minutes. Given Chris's stature and the quality of his guests/topics, it sure feels like it deserves it.

Thanks Chris & Vijay

Thank you Vijay & Chris!

I LOVE what Vijay says about how, globally, we've become mere spectators in events that touch every aspect of our lives. Indeed, my fellow earthlings, we cannot remain Spectators in the Question of Our SURVIVAL.

This just discussion just came on my cell phone this morning, it said a few hours ago, and now it says 5 months ago. This seems to be happening quite a lot. Apparently since my knowledge of technology is not that good, I rely on my intuition that I get news sometimes later than most. I do always appreciate Chris Hedges when he speaks, also Vjay. Integrity matters. Read many books, about American history on all sides, world histories, philosophy, religious divisions starting about 2500 years before Christ always challenged me to want to know more. Human nature 101. Thanks for this discussion between two men with intelligence that keeps one on a path of discovery.

Chris Hedges, Vijay Prashad are rare Commodities critical needed in the tough time we face today. I thank you Gentlemen.

Vijay Prashad raises some very concerning issues about violence in schools. The causes of school violence are as many as the causes of violence in general in the US. Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary School, and Columbine had many similarities. The latest shooting at Robb Elementary School seems different in that racism had an important part in forming a motive. Those bent of destruction seem to find that schools for many,. many reasons provide a target where the lethal forces that drive them is carried out. The far right wants to turn schools into fortified bunkers with school staff armed to the teeth. Insanity carried to an exponential level!

I could have listened to an entire day of this.

Vijay has a weekly show : "Give the People What They Want" with Zoe Alexandra and Prasanth... Fridays... maybe check it out...

Outstanding conversation, two brave and brilliant thinkers

Thanks a million for these unbelievably fantastic and educational programs !!!, full of real informed!!, honest!!, and extreamly inteligent !!! Both are my heros!!!

An enlightening conversation between two highly intelligent people.

Such excellent and apparently 'obvious' points once spoken, it's a bit of a puzzlement why they're spoken by so few! Many thanks to you both.

Excellent piece

Thanks for hanging in there Chris -- you're back and we are all so glad to see you!

Vijay and Chris ....just brilliant.

People feel hopeless and powerless, government became a monster perceived as impossible to tame.

Vijay, good show, thanks.

Thank you Chris and Vijay. For what its worth I bought a ticket and watched Ralph Nader's presidential campaign speech here in Portland Oregon in 2000. At one point Nader said something that sticks in my mind to this day. He quoted Louis D. Brandeis, former Supreme Court Justice, from a speech he made in 1933. Louis D. Brandeis declared: "We can have democracy in this country or we can have the great concentration of wealth in the hands of a few but we can't have both." To me this quote is as relevant today as it was during the progressive FDR Administration. However, after 60 years of the Republicans rolling back the New Deal, the labor movement, socialist and communist parties which had united to force FDR to make sweeping reforms for the people has all but disintegrated. Essentially FDR forced the wealthiest Americans to pay a 90% progressive income tax to finance the New Deal. For the sake of humanity, In my opinion workers of the world need to unite through whatever means necessary in order to save the planet and themselves from the grip of neo feudalism and corporatism, the growing inequality that empowers our capitalist masters to rule over civilizations like kings ruled over their fiefdoms during the middle ages. There will be a day of reckoning forcing the oligarchy to change their ways, or human civilization and all life on he planet will die whether it be through nuclear Armageddon or climate change..

Again. Love must stay with the people. No more hurting one another! Even come to late, Thank you both!

Brilliant interview. Thank you!

Humans have always been the same. This civilization as others before has come to its conclusion. Selfish greed brings mass extinction.

Thank you for the introduction to Prashad!

wonderful interview! A good return from On Contact

Thank you Chris For interviewing one of my favorite logical, honest and humanitarian people, Vijay Prashad. The title of his new book Struggle makes us Human speaks for itself. I will be buying this book.

Vijay raises a good point when he says we are now spectators in our democracy and that has allowed it to be undermined by vested interests. We have been convinced through subtle but persistent messages in our culture to accept whatever is going on because there is nothing we as individuals can do about it. Hence the rise of false hope that benevolent oligarchs can get something or other done.

Learn a lot from these two intellectuals & great teachers 👍🙏🏻

Thanks Chris, thanks Vijay!!!

Thank you Vijay and Chris...

Our first language is dance, the visual arts came about next, we made our icons and meaning, the pursuit of meaning brought about the spoken language developed words and critical thinking, hans you are having this talk! The visual arts always lead revolutions. The arts develop the personality of social thinking that have the power to bring about change. should humanity have and worthy roll, it is the stewardship of earth. i will realize this .

Prashad's perspective is a breath of fresh air, he tells the truth, no punches pulled with him. His point about our public schools being the locus of American violence is profound. It's disturbing and incredibly sad, especially when you have kids and grandchildren in public schools just trying to survive!

always a good guest.

Thank you for introducing me to Vijay, Chris! I love authentic and honest intellectuals.

Two of my favorites!

Thank you - have been asking for a Chris interviews Vijay show since before RT was disappeared!

Another outstanding piece of work.

A wonderful interview thank you.

A great interview to catch after reading Fanon and Rodney!

Excellent insightful interview. Thank you Vijay.

25k views in two weeks. I love Chris's talks and interviews, he has a good perspective on things and dives into topics not heard elsewhere. These issues need to be more widely discussed. This was a very informative conversation about why we're where we are and where we're headed, what drives society to behave as it does and how that behavior is perceived. The structural violence in the United States is real, yet not understood by most of the population. Poverty, homelessness, hunger, disenfranchisement, marginalization, etc., are seen as a nuisance,as opposed to problems that require solutions, and are largely ignored or attacked. In my city, police sliced up the tents of the homeless and just made a bad situation worse. That's violence. Kids needing assistance for school lunches are not addressed adequately. And feeding the kids is just basic humanity, but we don't do it with any purpose. That's violence. Our veterans and military guys have been committing suicide to the count of 20 per day for 30 years now. It's rarely spoken of and is a national disgrace in my view. I'm not a supporter of our militarism, but for a nation that widely champions it, the suicide issue is just ignored. That's violence. I could list examples like these all day, hardly anyone would equate any of it as violence, but that's exactly what it is. We're actually pretty lucky that most suicide victims don't lash out first before their ultimate annihilation. But, we see plenty of episodes where someone does lash out. And the normal routine of thoughts and prayers, public debate over our gun dementia and within a day or two another act occurs. The routine of physical violence is being fed by a system of structural violence and nobody will acknowledge the possibility of that being true.

Great interview Chris and Vijay.

I read through the 30~40 comments and I am astonished - a unilateral support of the show and not a word against its content! Is it possible? Where are different points of view? Where is criticism?

Chris takes amazing interviews and interferes just the right amount.

In the West, if you went door to door, many people wouldn't even open the door. In the US many would reach for a gun before answering.

Great interview! 🔥💯🔥

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT BEING A HINDU? By Francois Gautier. *Diversity in Divinity and Unity in Spirituality.* 1) Believe in God ! - Aastik - Accepted 2) Don't believe in God ! - You're accepted as Nastik 3) You want to worship idols - please go ahead. You are a murti pujak. 4) You dont want to worship idols - no problem. You can focus on Nirguna Brahman. 5) You want to criticise something in our religion. Come forward. We are logical. Nyaya, Tarka etc. are core Hindu schools. 6) You want to accept beliefs as it is. Most welcome. Please go ahead with it. 7) You want to start your journey by reading Bhagvad Gita - Sure ! 8) You want to start your journey by reading Upanishads - Go ahead. 9) You want to start your journey by reading Purana - Be my guest. 10) You just don't like reading Puranas or other books. No problem my dear. Go by Bhakti tradition . ( bhakti- devotion) 11) You don't like idea of Bhakti ! No problem. Do your Karma. Be a karmayogi. 12) You want to enjoy life. Very good. No problem at all. This is Charvaka Philosophy. 13) You want to abstain from all the enjoyment of life & find God - jai ho ! Be a Sadhu, an ascetic ! 14) You don't like the concept of God. You believe in Nature only - Welcome. (Trees are our friends and Prakriti or nature is worthy of worship). 15) You believe in one God or Supreme Energy. Superb! Follow Advaita philosophy 16) You want a Guru. Go ahead. Receive gyaan. 17) You don't want a Guru.. Help yourself ! Meditate, Study ! 18) You believe in Female energy ! Shakti is worshipped. 19) You believe that every human being is equal. Yeah! You're awesome, come on let's celebrate Hinduism! "Vasudhaiva kutumbakam" (the world is a family) 20) You don't have time to celebrate the festival. Don't worry. One more festival is coming! There are multiple festivals every single day of the year. 21) You are a working person. Don't have time for religion. Its okay. You will still be a Hindu. 22) You like to go to temples. Devotion is loved. 23) You don't like to go to temples - no problem. You are still a Hindu! 24) You know that Hinduism is a way of life, with considerable freedom. 25) You believe that everything has God in it. So you worship your mother, father, guru, tree, River, Prani-matra, Earth, Universe! 26) And If you don't believe that everything has GOD in it - No problems. Respect your viewpoint. 27) "Sarve jana sukhino bhavantu " (May you all live happily) You represent this! You're free to choose, my dear Hindu! This is exactly the essence of Hinduism, all inclusive .. That is why it has withstood the test of time inspite of repeated onslaught both from within and outside, and assimilated every good aspects from everything . That is why it is eternal !!! There is a saying in Rigveda , the first book ever known to mankind which depicts the Hinduism philosophy in a Nutshell -" Ano bhadrah Krathavo Yanthu Vishwathah"- Let the knowledge come to us from every directions

such a joy to have this conversations share to us, thanks

Back to back Vijay lives?! What a morning

This was a great and thought provoking interview.

Thanks for hosting the talk; Absolutely fantastic perspective on violence and understanding the far right ideologies that take a toll on society

Enlightening conversation, as one would expect from these two advocates of humanity.

Informative.

Profoundly insightful. Absolutely worth watching and indeed studying! 👍

I love Vijay he is such an inspiration, thanks Chris

Chris, another great show!

Vijay and Chris....u r powerful

That was great thanks !

As a union member I can say don't join a union, but fight for solidarity with your fellow workers. Start co-ops, worker collectives, unions just prop up capitalism. China has a state union and it represses worker uprisings, just as American unions sell workers out for "harmonious relations" with management.

What is a song on the very opening of a show....it is so mesmerizing I would like to know more about the author and background of the song. If someone knows ,please...

Thank you Chris and vijay,super great!

Amazing thinking, Vijay.

The quote at 29:00 is great. It makes me want to go out and do something positive.

Fascism is ideologically highly compatible with neoliberal capitalism. The core of neoliberal capitalism is about empowering technocrats and disempowerimg the vast working class majority. Likewise, fascism is about elevating a cult of perfection and purity, based on genetic and national superiority, basically a modern retread of feudal ideologies of "noble blood*.

Incredible, and explains so much going on!

Love them both.

When you hear sane arguments that accurately reflect what the nature of what is going on you realise that this kind of discussion is almost completely missing from regular television news. In the West, most governments' stance towards any country that isn't part of their `gang' is ruthless, judgemental and provocative from the outset so there is never any room for diplomacy. This approach is even used against countries that could wipe us all out at the touch of a few buttons. It is far from any kind of wisdom. They endlessly print more and more money and the players in the system partake in desperate practices to generate enough income to overcome inflation, which often does nothing but long term harm. We're at the end of this cycle of insanity and the results are going to be quite shocking, I think.

"Lawfare". Yes.

The lockdown did not change my grocery buying habits because I purchase a lot of produce. There is a wide variation in quality on offer at the market so I prefer making those selections myself, and while I am there, I pick up whatever else I usually source from the market. I suppose if one fills their shopping cart with fabricated food-like product, one frozen microwavable burrito sourced from the same multi-national food conglomerate is much like another so online grocery shopping would be a viable option for them, but is it really food that they are purchasing?

If there must be two different codes of justice, then those who have sworn and are compensated to make and enforce those codes should be held to the stricter set. And those who have and are not should get the more lenient one.

I'm listening.

My friend and I call psychiatrists "fascist" when they function as compliance officers for the pharmaceutical industry.

Struggle can also break a person.

'The centre has moved rightward' - this may or may not be the case in other parts of the world - but in Britain this is NOT the case. Even many Tory voters accept that the water industry, for example, should be publicly owned and that privatising it has been a disaster. The NHS - the pinnacle of social democratic achievement in Britain remains hugely popular with the public who support NHS nurses and ambulance drivers who are now on strike. The British Conservative Party is miles behind the social democratic Labour Party in opinion polls and is regularly trounced in by-elections. The centre has moved leftwards in Britain and the social democratic tradition is very much alive.

This conversation. Mahalo and Aloha.

Thanks for the. Would be great to hear more authors and and thoughts on the "dream deferred."

What's that song at beginning of show

Chris, Mr. Vijay reminds me of the days when the word "decency" defined what "being human" meant.

20 June 2022 ENGAGING EXCHANGE about present realities. I particularly liked Prashad's discussion of state violence, hence January 6 occurrence at Capitol. Hilary Clinton's 'deplorables, whose voices do not get heard. PLEASE CHRIS, WHY DON'T WE GET THE FULL TALK???? I deplore these random segments that are posted without further reference. Writing from Greece 🇬🇷.

Speaking as a former teacher from Wisconsin. Wisconsin public employee unions were ENDED and 10% of 5.5 million took a 22% pay cut in benefits and pensions. The supreme court was stacked, a right to work law was passed, abortion outlawed right now, and it was hell. I'll tell you something for all the decades I've read, marched, and been involved we didn't get the ATTENTION the storming of the Capitol did in Jan 6th. Killing people is wrong. So I didn't support it, but damn people noticed. People don't notice when we march. If it worked life won't be like it is. We need different ways.