He's not at all upbeat on the future, to say the least. But does say their are steps that can be taken to prepare for it.

Pulitzer-winning author and former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges has a revolutionary worldview. In the video below, his recent “Endgame Strategy” piece for AdBusters is read aloud by George Atherton. His conclusions are chilling, but not entirely hopeless. “We will have to take care of ourselves,” he wrote. “We will have to rapidly create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. It will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and cultural values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. It is either that or become drones and serfs in a global corporate dystopia. It is not much of a choice. But at least we still have one.” This video is from YouTube user wepollock, published June 22, 2011.

And here is the text that was done for Addbusters. http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/96/chris-hedges-revolution-in-america.html Hedges does suggest that one of the only ways to survive is to form our own communities outside the establishment.

The game is over. We lost. The corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation and the planet is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. Most of us will struggle to make a living while the Blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the Forbidden City and Versailles. These elites do not have a vision. They know only one word: more. They will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. And they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. Do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. We will have to take care of ourselves. We will have to rapidly create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. It will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and cultural values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. It is either that or become drones and serfs in a global corporate dystopia. It is not much of a choice. But at least we still have one.

Now there are those in the six figure salary range, like all the members of congress, who would of course scoff at this since for them everything is just fine thankyouverymuch. And for now it probably is. And the mere though of the country going down the drain and the possibility of dragging them along with it, scares the piss out of them. So they simply refuse to even accept the possibility and even see the reality of what is going on. And for the rich elites at the top 2% or so, they absolutely believe they are some how isolated from the inevitable consequences of the current economic and social policies.

Both groups of course will find they are totally wrong but you will have a very hard time convincing them of this since they live in their own little worlds.  It is those of us who have learned to make do and get along with out and help one another in the process who have the best chance of weathering the coming storm.