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Related: About this forumBernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Otherwise, we'll be sure to let you know when the lecture comes to MTV.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)Actually, it's the MTV types who can't read or write and insist on video feeding. I don't have time to invest 5-10 minutes into every random 90 minute video that comes along.
It makes much more sense for one person (the OP) to take ten minutes to summarize and sell the video. Then everyone else has to invest only 30 to 90 seconds to decide whether to watch the 5 or 20 or 90 minute video.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I'm afraid I assumed that most people know who Gar Alperovitz is and what he's been advocating for decades.
That was obviously a big miscalculation on my part.
In short, Alperovitz is suggesting that our problems are systemic and that we need to completely rethink our economic model by, among other things, increasing the instances of democracy in business and in the workplace. Co-ops, such as credit unions, provide a good example of this. Single-payer healthcare (which theoretically is run by us rather than by insurance companies) would be another quite different example. The source of optimism from this talk is that although it's not publicized, there are already more than 100 million Americans who are part of worker-owned businesses. (Credit unions and ESOPs are two of the biggest.) Also, although single-payer was taken "off the table" on the national level, there are numerous statewide efforts to make it happen.
In addition, Alperovitz, who once worked for the Congressman who helped to start Earth Day, quite provocatively, criticizes Bill McKibben (whom he nonetheless respects) for attempting to roll back carbon emissions in an economy that is predicated on profit and growth. He also points out that when economic times get tough, environmental concerns are often some of the first things that are "temporarily" set aside. (Although Alperovitz doesn't mention this, I would argue that a struggling economy and the relentless need for growth are what make the Keystone XL pipeline palatable to people who would otherwise consider the whole proposition insane and suicidal.)
My apologies. Sincerely.
Ironically, I think the very fact that Alperovitz is unknown to many of us is symptomatic of the systemic problems he highlights in his talk.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)Thanks again for taking the time that the OP did not. Much appreciated.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)I'd suggest skipping the chairman's intro. Not especially illuminating...
marmar
(77,090 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)Hopefully you have learned a few minutes spent summarizing by the OP can save your potential converts more than a few minutes (multiplied by hundreds you hope end up watching), and get a higher percentage to invest time watching.
The few seconds I spent posting can help the community.
In the end I did get a good summary and that persuaded me to watch and I'm glad I did.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)He has obviously given a lot of thought and research to this topic and I found the talk extremely informative and thought provoking. fo posting.
suzanner
(590 posts)aggravated by the political stalemate going on today with historical contexts and arguments.
I think I would like to read his book. I applaud anyone trying to come up with real solutions. He is challenging MIT students to get in the game and preparing them for the 'long haul'.
That's what I got out of it.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)The talk is full of real solutions and provocative ideas. Sorry if it lacked the glitz and graphics that some people require to maintain their attention span, but given that its whole thesis rests on the need for systemic change, it's understandable that it wouldn't go over well with the quick-fix, sound-bite folks.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)take the pain any more. I wonder if that is what is slowly happening now...
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Desperate times require desperate measures, etc.
Except, of course, they aren't desperate measures. In fact, they are incredibly down-to-earth and sensible measures.
One of the more appealing points Alperovitz makes is that these solutions have something fundamentally American about them. People joining together at the local level for the common good.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)At some point we have to critical mass enough to effect change in Washington. I love that VT has single payer health care insurance and North Dakota has a socialized state bank. But even the innovative and determined people joining together at the local level must eventually get to the point where national change occurs will be have the change we need. We are a mature nation and a super power. It's time...
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)It's almost a humanitarian version of Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine." If a system is well established at the local level and then a larger entity needs to implement significant change, it's easier and more appealing to adapt something that has already proven successful on a smaller scale. States like Vermont and North Dakota have systems that will be ready to be adapted and expanded when the need arises -- although many of us would argue that the need has long since arisen.
That said, I agree that even the very best systems or intentions at the local level can be all too easily undermined by bad federal policy.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)It is where you have the most control and ability to get change through. And god love that effort!
So I guess the next question is: how do we get from here to there? How can we effect that change, happening in many different places in the U.S., to national change? Getting change to work at a smaller level is great...you can see it and feel it, but others in more remote areas from you may not. How do we bring it all together? A new national Progressive Party?
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Hope would be a sense that these efforts aren't futile. (although even Alperovitz left open the possibility that they could be). Success stories -- which get next to no publicity -- would be helpful and inspiring in this respect.
Information would enable groups to hit the ground running and begin work to make their communities and country better without starting completely from scratch. Think of it as a grassroots, progressive knowledge base.
Oh yeah, I thought of three more things:
Organization, organization, and organization.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Another FDR-like push. I hope, without the depression style catastrophe that accompanied it!
It seems to me that FDR incorporated all of your 3 ingredients: vision, hope and information. It worked. and of course, so did organization, but it was easier because it was done nationally.
RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)Unions.
Sure, there were locals. But unions were a national phenomenon.
They still exist today, but kind of the way that the polar ice caps still exist.
This is probably too arcane, but arguably the biggest factor in the surge of nationwide strikes and labor organizing during 1933-1934 was Section 7a of the National Industrial Recovery Act, which appeared to guarantee (although business owners hotly disputed this) that workers had a right to collective bargaining and a right to join unions without retribution.
We don't have that sort of national organizing muscle anymore.