This Brave Nation: A Defining Moment

This Brave Nation: A Defining Moment

Legendary activist Tom Hayden talks with Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine, about the state of the fourth branch of government.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket

Author, activist and former California State Senator Tom Hayden talks in
depth with the author of No Logo and The
Shock Doctrine
, Naomi Klein,
about the state of the fourth branch of government: journalists. Both
Hayden and Klein became serious journalists in college, and it was
during that time that both experienced defining moments.

When Hayden interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr at the 1960 DNC in Los
Angeles, he asked questions while imagining the headline, “Tom Hayden
Interviews MLK,” but by the time he wrote the article he knew there were
more important things in the world than personal glory. Klein rebelled
against her feminist mother until Mark Lepine gunned down
fourteen women in what became known as the
Montreal Massacre
. It was then she realized people were dying for
the beliefs her mother fought for, and that realization awakened the activist
within her. After both events, Hayden and Klein dedicated their lives to telling
the truth about the world, and doing everything in their power to not use subjects like
“they,” but use “we” instead. It is that distinction that defines their
journalism to this day.

A kind of “living history” project composed of short videotaped
conversations, This Brave Nation
brings together the most intelligent, passionate and creative voices of
one generation with the activists, journalists and artists of the next to
dialogue on loves, lives, politics and history. Each discussion will be produced as both a
five-minute video and a thirty-minute mini-documentary, which will be
collected in a DVD
box set
. There will also be house
parties nationwide
to screen the series on July 13, including a live event with
Nation editor

Katrina vanden Heuvel

and Brave New Films
founder

Robert Greenwald

.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

Ad Policy
x