Caption contest resumes next Sunday. Today, background watching in preparation for "Wealth and Poverty" starting Friday
Caption contest resumes next Sunday. Today, background watching in preparation for "Wealth and Poverty" starting Friday
Think of it as pleasant homework
Appears in this episode
Thank you so much for joining me in this community. It’s an experiment in group learning and teaching about the American system — and it’s succeeding far beyond my expectations. Your interest and enthusiasm make it all worthwhile.
Please let others know!
In preparation for my course on Wealth and Poverty, which starts Friday on this page, you may find useful the documentary below. It’s called Inequality for All. I made it a few years ago with the talented director Jacob Kornbluth. It’s won many awards, and is used in college classrooms across America.
As you’ll see, the doc begins and ends in an earlier version of the same course you’ll be taking starting Friday (although you’ll be taking it remotely).
The doc runs 1 hour and 15 minutes. Think of it as pleasant homework.
(Having trouble viewing the video on this page? Try clicking this direct link.)
Caption contest resumes next Sunday. Today, background watching in preparation for "Wealth and Poverty" starting Friday
Spot on you on your assessments and much enlightenment, great insight, next need to look at the biology behind greed. Incorporate in your talks. Economics doesn’t explain why the mega rich don’t want to pay taxes, Neurosciences do. Why greed is common and will never end, like racism. Again see Robert Sapolsky‘s book, “behave,” to get an idea and why these behaviors keep repeating.
History doesn’t repeat, brain biochemistry does.
I did my homework. I listened to your video. Citizens United, a friend murdered, a changed life. You are a storyteller, a teacher, an actor. I think you studied Shakespeare along with economics. You captured me in the nineties when I heard or read your explanation of how a consumer economy works or doesn't work. You made sense, period. Afterwards I was trying to digest this lecture and for some unknown reason thought of Stanley Kunitz -
The Layers
BY STANLEY KUNITZ
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
“Live in the layers,
not on the litter.”
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.