Roger Waters meets Chris Hedges

As noted seven years ago in the fab four: a personal view, my childhood was milestoned and made bearable by the Beatles. Not far behind, however, was the arrival in early adolescence of a Cambridge outfit which first caught my ear with the dreamlike Syd Barret composition, later covered by David Bowie no less, See Emily Play.

Put on a gown
That touches the ground [guitar wail]
Float on a river
Forever and ever

That was before Syd, after a tab or three too many, had been gently – compared to the ousting of Brian Jones by bandmates Mick ‘n Keef – removed to allow Roger Waters to set the controls, if not for the heart of the sun then certainly the future direction of a Pink Floyd destined to make – with no loss of the creative edge which had excited me from the start – the best selling album in the history of rock music.

Unlike the early Bob Dylan, I’d never seen Floyd as markedly ‘political’, other than in the sense that all of ‘prog rock’ could be viewed that way. (As could the influence of LSD, for which I – my first trip in 1970, my last before the decade was out – remain profoundly grateful. It saved me the way others say Jesus did. And even those of my generation who never touched it could not escape the fallout from a psychedelic revolution in part foreseen by the writer and mescaline dabbler Aldous Huxley in the essay, The Doors of Perception, that would inspire the name of Jim Morrison’s band. ¹ )

But the man stepping into Syd’s shoes, child of Christian converts to Communism, was indeed ‘political’, though this only became noticeable after his toxic divorce from the band. And it only became gob-smackingly obvious through his stand for Palestine, decades before October 7 and in defiance of ‘Lobby’ career sabotage; a defence followed by one no less resolute of history’s greatest ever journalist – if we use as our metric the screeds of dark empire secrets exposed ² – Julian Assange. ³

And Chris Hedges? I’ve lost count of the times I’ve cited this ordained Presbyterian Minister’s incisive dissection, three years ago, of US ‘democracy’ …

Those who wrote trade deals to profit from underemployment of U.S. workers and sweatshop labor overseas are omnipotent. The insurance and pharmaceutical industries that run healthcare for profit are omnipotent. The intelligence agencies that spy on the public are omnipotent. The courts that reinterpret laws to excuse corporate crimes are omnipotent.

Politics is a tawdry carnival act where a constant jockeying by the ruling class dominates the news. The real business of ruling is hidden, carried out by corporate lobbyists who write the legislation, banks that loot the Treasury, the war industry and an oligarchy that determines who gets elected and who does not. It is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, the fossil fuel industry or Raytheon, no matter which party is in office.

Let’s stop pretending America is a functioning democracy

… often as not to point out its applicability, with only the mildest of tweaks, to the ‘democracies’ of the West at large.

So that’s Roger and that’s Chris. Here’s a forty-six minute conversation they had two days ago.

Now if you’ll excuse me, part 4 of Road to WW3 ain’t gonna write itself …

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1. More rock trivia. Jim Morrison’s dad was a US rear admiral involved in one of America’s best known uses of a false flag, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, to create a casus belli. Like Pearl Harbour and 9/11, it allowed Washington to embark on a war sought by sections of the US ruling class but hitherto deemed politically off-limits.
2. Should anyone out there have a better metric for journalistic greatness, I’ll be happy to consider its merits.
3. On other matters including those, like Syria and Ukraine, where standing on the right side of history draws somewhat less approval from the liberal blinded, Roger has shown a courage unseen in Bono, Bob Geldof or, more disappointing to me than either, Bruce Springsteen.