Empire of Illusion
Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle is a 2009 nonfiction book by American journalist Chris Hedges. "Empire of Illusion" examines a claimed cultural decay in the United States as a result of a malignant consumer culture and corporate influences. Contents. The Illusion of Literacy. "Empire of Illusion" begins with an exploration of the narratives found in World Wrestling Entertainment competitions, noting the increased use of class, family, and sexual conflict. Hedges compares the spectacle to Plato's allegory of the cave, and argues that the invented celebrity culture of the wider  entertainment world is creating with it a population divorced from understanding reality. The artificial relationships typical in this enterprise are noted to increasingly hold prominence in American politics with the creation of celebrity status presidents like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Hedges furthers that this heightened status of celebrity culture gives rise to the use of pseudo-events in media that distract from pressing issues. With public awareness captured by stagecraft, Hedges declares that Americans are enthralled by faith in illusion. The Illusion of Love. The following chapter decries the abuses against women in the American sex industry. The consumption  of pornography is argued to be a masturbatory act that attacks intimacy and objectifies and dehumanizes the women involved. Hedges notes the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in the industry, the rampant violation of consent in pornographic productions, the intentional monetization of adolescent viewership, and profiles the testimonies of women who were traumatized by sex abuse while performing in pornography. Many graphic depictions of abuse and psychological degradation in pornography are included throughout the chapter, along with Hedges' own critical observations regarding his trips to Las Vegas and an AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. The depravity of some gonzo pornography productions  is compared to the sexual abuse and torture documented in Abu Ghraib and the exhibition of sexual pathology in war zones. Hedges argues that pornography is increasingly an expression of necrophilia with its abuses of women and the rise of the use of sex dolls. The chapter is concluded with an outline on the mainstream presence of pornography, and argues that pornography in America now represents a cultural fixation on death. The Illusion of Wisdom. In the third chapter, Hedges accuses institutions of higher education, especially prestigious American universities, of prioritizing the teaching of sophisticated systems management over all other  fields of inquiry. Hedges charges that universities, at the behest of corporate and defense industry interests, created an academia that lacks critical thinking, overvalues strict analysis and utility, retreats into specialized language, overly accommodates students from wealthy families, indulges in bloated athletics spending, and sacrifices faculty support and the humanities. The end result, Hedges claims, is that higher education is chained to servicing decaying financial and corporate structures without the ability to critically examine and correct its role in the United States, and is thus captured by illusion despite its purported enlightenment. The Illusion of Happiness. The next chapter delves  into criticisms of positive psychology and self-help media. Hedges denounces positive psychology by pointing to its possible pseudoscientific leanings and the pervasive interests of corporations in the field that seek greater productivity and satisfaction from workers. Hedges notes that the self-deceptive and baseless nature of positive psychology is often explicitly celebrated as in the case of Shelley E. Taylor's analysis of positive illusions. Hedges charges that advances in positive psychology amount to a corporate campaign to marginalize worker dissent. The wider political effects, Hedges furthers, involves demonizing dissent and protest for being inharmonious. In the name of  improving mental health, corporations are attempting to subdue the masses with the illusion of happiness. The Illusion of America. The final chapter of "Empire of Illusion" is dedicated to the political implications of an American culture formed by illusion. Hedges claims that the current United States of America is wholly unrecognizable to its historic form. America no longer has a civic religion or well-functioning infrastructure. While American workers are impoverished by medical debt and missing high-paying manufacturing jobs due to outsourcing, corporations have seized control of governance. Hedges argues that this worsening injustice is terminal, and that collapse  at the hands of corporate tyranny is nearly inevitable. Corporations, now almost entirely unaccountable in America, have taken over the defense industry and lobby for generous kickbacks in the form of egregiously overcharged government contracts. Hedges particularly notes the neglect of popular issues and complacency with corporate power by Democratic politicians. Hedges laments the potential for a fascist corporate takeover with disingenuous Christian trappings, but balances that bleak vision with a message on the unconquerable power of love. The book concludes with the hope that love will defy the illusions of the elites. Reception. Reviews by Laura Penny in "The  Globe and Mail" and by Tirdad Derakhshani in "The Philadelphia Inquirer" both described "Empire of Illusion" as a jeremiad. Penny commented that the book may have mixed appeal for being a "declinist screed," and added that Hedges should have taken advantage of analyzing toxic Internet cultures. Brian Bethune of "Maclean's" gave a positive review of the book, calling it a "remarkable, bracing and highly moral" lamentation that was "not likely to win a lot of new friends." Caridad Svich called "Empire of Illusion" an "impassioned, mournful book" with "strong and fiery writing" that delivers an effective message, but criticized  some of its "overblown" rhetoric and charged that the book would have benefited from more thorough references to earlier works on the subject. Svich concluded that Hedges' "elegiac shout is a fully felt and bracing lament" for the deferred revitalization of American democracy. A July 2021 "San Antonio Express-News" review by Dennis Patrick Slattery was positive, saying that "[Hedges'] cultural diagnoses have become more prescient and more ubiquitous with time." "Empire of Illusion" was featured in a National Public Radio segment and inspired an art exhibit by Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf called "The Empire of Illusion." In a "Genocide  Studies and Prevention" book review, Virginia Commonwealth University professor Herb Hirsch argued that Hedges, in describing an increasingly disengaged American population, may have also elucidated a real risk for American passivity in the event of human rights abuses or genocide.