Last night Rocky joined host Mitchell Rabin in a discussion with Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, and Barbara Marx Hubbard. It was a rich program full of straight-forward discussion about the current state of America and, conversely, the prospect we have to come together to ensure a better future.
"President Obama has now extended George W. Bush's empire range around the world in ways no one ever dreamed of," Nader said, followed by a dismayed, "True," from host Rabin. Further into his analysis of our political system, Nader explained, "Our democracy is in serious decay, and it's very important for people to support politicians, or would-be politicians -- and I'm glad you're giving some voice to Rocky Anderson, who's running for President." And later, "Until [the two party-tyranny] is broken, you will never break the grip of corporatism which now owns both parties."
Later on Rocky desribed his conviction about the social movement he believes we can advance together. "We need to reach deeply into our humanity and say we're going to draw a line -- we will not stand for this anymore -- and in doing that, we become better people."
Barbara Marx Hubbard -- agreeing with Rocky -- responded, "We now have the resources, technology, and know-how to make the world work -- if we're connected with each other in our creativity."
In closing, Barbara stated, "You are my candidate, Rocky... you've got all the evolutionaries behind you now."
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett commented
2012-08-31 12:38:22 -0600
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Oops! I apologize for the double comment. It was not intended; my social networking savvy is sans perfection. Also the semicolon where an apostrophe should be (corrected: âPRNâsâ¦). clb
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett commented
2012-08-31 12:30:02 -0600
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I listened to âPRN;s A Better World Discussion: Our Way Forward with Rocky Anderson, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, & Barbara Marx Hubbardâ (http://www.voterocky.org/prn_program?utm_campaign=prn&recruiter_id=47968&utm_medium=email&utm_source=voterocky) and it was wonderful â up to a point, the point of the horribly poor choice of Barbara Marx Hubbard as âvisionary.â
With all due respect (and, believe me, I mean well and am onboard with Kucinich, Nader and Anderson, the former two for a long time), Marx Hubbard was horribly painful.
In the future, try to get Grace Lee Boggs into your lineup; she is really, substantively outstanding, a true philosopher, an intellectual, a tremendously, deeply wise woman who speaks in understandable language, a true American treasure. One of her books: The Next American Revolution (Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige), http://boggscenter.org/
Her Boggs Center mission: âto nurture transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals, foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.â http://boggscenter.org/
In Solidarity imagining a better world,
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, author of No Land an Island, No People Apart (2012); blog: todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com
With all due respect (and, believe me, I mean well and am onboard with Kucinich, Nader and Anderson, the former two for a long time), Marx Hubbard was horribly painful.
In the future, try to get Grace Lee Boggs into your lineup; she is really, substantively outstanding, a true philosopher, an intellectual, a tremendously, deeply wise woman who speaks in understandable language, a true American treasure. One of her books: The Next American Revolution (Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige), http://boggscenter.org/
Her Boggs Center mission: âto nurture transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals, foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.â http://boggscenter.org/
In Solidarity imagining a better world,
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, author of No Land an Island, No People Apart (2012); blog: todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett commented
2012-08-31 12:29:23 -0600
· Flag
I listened to âPRN;s A Better World Discussion: Our Way Forward with Rocky Anderson, Ralph Nader, Dennis Kucinich, & Barbara Marx Hubbardâ (http://www.voterocky.org/prn_program?utm_campaign=prn&recruiter_id=47968&utm_medium=email&utm_source=voterocky) and it was wonderful â up to a point, the point of the horribly poor choice of Barbara Marx Hubbard as âvisionary.â
With all due respect (and, believe me, I mean well and am onboard with Kucinich, Nader and Anderson, the former two for a long time), Marx Hubbard was horribly painful.
In the future, try to get Grace Lee Boggs into your lineup; she is really, substantively outstanding, a true philosopher, an intellectual, a tremendously, deeply wise woman who speaks in understandable language, a true American treasure. One of her books: The Next American Revolution (Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige), http://boggscenter.org/
Her Boggs Center mission: âto nurture transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals, foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.â http://boggscenter.org/
In Solidarity imagining a better world,
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, author of No Land an Island, No People Apart (2012); blog: todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com
With all due respect (and, believe me, I mean well and am onboard with Kucinich, Nader and Anderson, the former two for a long time), Marx Hubbard was horribly painful.
In the future, try to get Grace Lee Boggs into your lineup; she is really, substantively outstanding, a true philosopher, an intellectual, a tremendously, deeply wise woman who speaks in understandable language, a true American treasure. One of her books: The Next American Revolution (Grace Lee Boggs with Scott Kurashige), http://boggscenter.org/
Her Boggs Center mission: âto nurture transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals, foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.â http://boggscenter.org/
In Solidarity imagining a better world,
Carolyn LaDelle Bennett, author of No Land an Island, No People Apart (2012); blog: todaysinsightnews.blogspot.com
Lee Anderson commented
2012-07-09 11:37:29 -0600
· Flag
Messaging
I wholeheartedly agree with the point of Kucinich, Nader and Anderson in that people need to understand that who they are and what they do really matter. Democracy is not a spectator sport and individual people can make a difference. Many such people aligned in common purpose can bring real progressive change and it starts with the messaging.
In that regard we need to think about how to refine the message in order to win converts and galvanize people to act on behalf of We the People. In Rockyâs interview he mentions three groups of people: those who do harm to society, those who stand by and watch and those who work to do good by all. The bystanders comprise the majority and I suggest their disengagement stems largely from distraction and confusion. This feeble mindedness can partially be attributed to ignorance and fear and those are exactly the human weaknesses that Joseph Goebbels and Edward Bernays-type Public Relations âexpertsâ target and exploit. The job of insisting that the corporate-owned ultra-conservative Reich wing is more Godly, Patriotic and Free than âsocialistâ liberals has now fallen largely to FOX and the rest of the mainstream media, which is one of the reasons they emphasize âFREE markets.â
Progressives and progressive candidates that are interested in promoting We the People should use the messaging tools that carry some heft— hypocrisy, ridicule and humiliation—with which to bludgeon the idio-illogical posturing of the greed is good and Godly crowd. The right has claimed that God is on their side. Itâs time we pointed out that most all major religions and Eastern philosophies stress a spiritual connection with and respect for the ALL and rejection of materialism as necessary for individual growth. Yet somehow we keep getting billionaire-backed millionaire politicians who profess to be more Holier than Thou yet these career politicians are extremely materialistic and war like and do not balk at exploiting Godâs creation for material gainâresources and people alike. It shouldnât be that difficult to point out this utter hypocrisy so letâs all encourage the progressive talkers and aspiring statesmen to start doing it more. Perhaps those fence sitters will start âleaning forward,â to satirize the new slogan for MSNBC.
Patriotism or rather false patriotism is another area where progressives can message much better. First and foremost, we donât live in a global community; we live in our own local community with our own water supply and our own friends and relatives and local jobs and environment. Whatâs good for the board of directors and stockholders of a trans-national corporation isnât necessarily good for us. In fact, trans-national corporate goals are more and more becoming directly at odds with community quality of life and even viability. Think of the oil companies and their penchant for fracking and the impact to the aquifers. Think of Monsantoâs terminator seeds, their GMOs and their legions of patent infringement lawyers vs. local farmers. Think of your children, wives and husbands leaving their local communities to be repositioned in foreign lands to fight and die for trans-national corporate oil and mineral profits. We should remind the feeble minded fence sitters that a lot of our veterans died fighting âThe Spread of Communismâ in Korea and Vietnam. Our nation suffered economically and psychologically during the decades-long cold war with Communist USSR. Yet our trans-national, FOX and MSM supporting global free traders see no problem with shipping our local jobs off to Communist China, enhancing their economy while ours falters. They see no problem in the fact that our trade deficit with China is helping them build up their military and that we may eventually clash—a euphemism for WWIII— over finite natural resources that we are constantly encouraged to consume and throw away by Edward Bernays and Joseph Goebbels inspired PR and marketing firms. We can remind them of this everyday but especially emphatic on Memorial Day.
If we can show the feeble minded fence sitters that FOX equals Fox guarding the Henhouse that is America, and that it might as well stand for Fascist Orwellian Xenophobes, then perhaps we can get them to see past the corporate dogma. To see that we are becoming an oligarchy, which is anything but free.
And as for Citizens United, Corporations are People and money is freedom of speech, perhaps an analogy will help demonstrate the fallacy of this. Consider a city park, a world class singer, say John Lennon, Neil Young, Jim Groce sits down in a chair with an acoustic guitar and begins to play melodic music, the lyrics are about love and peace and living in harmony. People gravitate to the singer, their spirits resonating with the harmonious music. But the oil and military industrial complex doesnât like this message of peace and love. Thereâs no money in peace. Itâs better to make people afraid of other people and make them fear these people and then offer them protection from these evil people. But theyâre so fixated on greed that they canât think creatively so they hire a PR firm and the PR firm comes up with a scheme. They decide to field another band in the park and drown out the message of peace and love. They hire a crappy right wing musically irrelevant band, say Ted Nugent, and provide them with mountains of speakers and amplifiers drawing precious megawatts of power from the city grid. The cacophonous screeching is practically inaudible, the ears bleed with discordance, but the sheer amplitude begins to draw people in. Many linger at the electric induced spectacle infused with obligatory lyrics about God and country, freedom ringing outrage against those who tolerate anything less than American supremacy. The feeble minded are assured they have chosen the best show in the parkâwhy else would they have all the well-known corporate sponsors.
Messaging is all important. It doesnât take money to get on message.
I wholeheartedly agree with the point of Kucinich, Nader and Anderson in that people need to understand that who they are and what they do really matter. Democracy is not a spectator sport and individual people can make a difference. Many such people aligned in common purpose can bring real progressive change and it starts with the messaging.
In that regard we need to think about how to refine the message in order to win converts and galvanize people to act on behalf of We the People. In Rockyâs interview he mentions three groups of people: those who do harm to society, those who stand by and watch and those who work to do good by all. The bystanders comprise the majority and I suggest their disengagement stems largely from distraction and confusion. This feeble mindedness can partially be attributed to ignorance and fear and those are exactly the human weaknesses that Joseph Goebbels and Edward Bernays-type Public Relations âexpertsâ target and exploit. The job of insisting that the corporate-owned ultra-conservative Reich wing is more Godly, Patriotic and Free than âsocialistâ liberals has now fallen largely to FOX and the rest of the mainstream media, which is one of the reasons they emphasize âFREE markets.â
Progressives and progressive candidates that are interested in promoting We the People should use the messaging tools that carry some heft— hypocrisy, ridicule and humiliation—with which to bludgeon the idio-illogical posturing of the greed is good and Godly crowd. The right has claimed that God is on their side. Itâs time we pointed out that most all major religions and Eastern philosophies stress a spiritual connection with and respect for the ALL and rejection of materialism as necessary for individual growth. Yet somehow we keep getting billionaire-backed millionaire politicians who profess to be more Holier than Thou yet these career politicians are extremely materialistic and war like and do not balk at exploiting Godâs creation for material gainâresources and people alike. It shouldnât be that difficult to point out this utter hypocrisy so letâs all encourage the progressive talkers and aspiring statesmen to start doing it more. Perhaps those fence sitters will start âleaning forward,â to satirize the new slogan for MSNBC.
Patriotism or rather false patriotism is another area where progressives can message much better. First and foremost, we donât live in a global community; we live in our own local community with our own water supply and our own friends and relatives and local jobs and environment. Whatâs good for the board of directors and stockholders of a trans-national corporation isnât necessarily good for us. In fact, trans-national corporate goals are more and more becoming directly at odds with community quality of life and even viability. Think of the oil companies and their penchant for fracking and the impact to the aquifers. Think of Monsantoâs terminator seeds, their GMOs and their legions of patent infringement lawyers vs. local farmers. Think of your children, wives and husbands leaving their local communities to be repositioned in foreign lands to fight and die for trans-national corporate oil and mineral profits. We should remind the feeble minded fence sitters that a lot of our veterans died fighting âThe Spread of Communismâ in Korea and Vietnam. Our nation suffered economically and psychologically during the decades-long cold war with Communist USSR. Yet our trans-national, FOX and MSM supporting global free traders see no problem with shipping our local jobs off to Communist China, enhancing their economy while ours falters. They see no problem in the fact that our trade deficit with China is helping them build up their military and that we may eventually clash—a euphemism for WWIII— over finite natural resources that we are constantly encouraged to consume and throw away by Edward Bernays and Joseph Goebbels inspired PR and marketing firms. We can remind them of this everyday but especially emphatic on Memorial Day.
If we can show the feeble minded fence sitters that FOX equals Fox guarding the Henhouse that is America, and that it might as well stand for Fascist Orwellian Xenophobes, then perhaps we can get them to see past the corporate dogma. To see that we are becoming an oligarchy, which is anything but free.
And as for Citizens United, Corporations are People and money is freedom of speech, perhaps an analogy will help demonstrate the fallacy of this. Consider a city park, a world class singer, say John Lennon, Neil Young, Jim Groce sits down in a chair with an acoustic guitar and begins to play melodic music, the lyrics are about love and peace and living in harmony. People gravitate to the singer, their spirits resonating with the harmonious music. But the oil and military industrial complex doesnât like this message of peace and love. Thereâs no money in peace. Itâs better to make people afraid of other people and make them fear these people and then offer them protection from these evil people. But theyâre so fixated on greed that they canât think creatively so they hire a PR firm and the PR firm comes up with a scheme. They decide to field another band in the park and drown out the message of peace and love. They hire a crappy right wing musically irrelevant band, say Ted Nugent, and provide them with mountains of speakers and amplifiers drawing precious megawatts of power from the city grid. The cacophonous screeching is practically inaudible, the ears bleed with discordance, but the sheer amplitude begins to draw people in. Many linger at the electric induced spectacle infused with obligatory lyrics about God and country, freedom ringing outrage against those who tolerate anything less than American supremacy. The feeble minded are assured they have chosen the best show in the parkâwhy else would they have all the well-known corporate sponsors.
Messaging is all important. It doesnât take money to get on message.
Eliot Bernstein commented
2012-06-14 05:22:40 -0600
· Flag
Eliot for President in 2012 Campaign Speech 1 with No Top Teeth, Don’t Laugh, Very Important
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuIHQDcwQfM
Eliot for President in 2012 Campaign Speech 2 with No Top OR Bottom Teeth, Don’t Laugh, Very Important
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOP3U1q6mM
Eliot for President in 2012 Campaign Speech 3 Very Important
https://www.facebook.com/iviewit?ref=tn_tnmn#!/note.php?note_id=319280841435989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuIHQDcwQfM
Eliot for President in 2012 Campaign Speech 2 with No Top OR Bottom Teeth, Don’t Laugh, Very Important
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOP3U1q6mM
Eliot for President in 2012 Campaign Speech 3 Very Important
https://www.facebook.com/iviewit?ref=tn_tnmn#!/note.php?note_id=319280841435989
Steve Moyer commented
2012-06-12 10:57:34 -0600
· Flag
We need to WANT a new system more than we WANT more money.
Steve Moyer commented
2012-06-12 10:46:47 -0600
· Flag
I agree with Jeff. We have a dysfunctional economic system. I didn’t hear any of these people address the fact that we need a new economic system. They all pretended like the system was fine but the people were the problem. It’s symbiotic. The economic system creates the politicians and the politicians create the system. They feed off each other and magniffy the problem. Fundamentally the problem is believing in the necessity of CONTROL. We need a paradigm shift from the CONTROL paradigm to the CONSENSUS paradigm. Virtue is consensus. Teach virtue. It will take us into the new paragigm. http://virtue.nodes.org
Freedom requries choice. If you have “no other choice” than to play the “money game” then you are living under a tyranny … the “tyranny of money.” We need a new economic system to challenge the hegemony of the debt-based control paradigm system we have now. Imagine a voluntary economy. http://vfc.nodes.org
Break the tyranny! Create a new system! Or two ro three new systems.
Steve Moyer
http://steve.nodes.org
Exposing money
http://em.nodes.org
Economic Solutions
http://es.nodes.org
Freedom requries choice. If you have “no other choice” than to play the “money game” then you are living under a tyranny … the “tyranny of money.” We need a new economic system to challenge the hegemony of the debt-based control paradigm system we have now. Imagine a voluntary economy. http://vfc.nodes.org
Break the tyranny! Create a new system! Or two ro three new systems.
Steve Moyer
http://steve.nodes.org
Exposing money
http://em.nodes.org
Economic Solutions
http://es.nodes.org
Jeffrey Gold commented
2012-06-12 10:25:31 -0600
· Flag
Unfortunately for the most of us, unlike the distinguished guests, we are not financially independent to take the time to do anything—-ironically, for the reasons stated in the program. The vast majority of us needs whatever time we have to just make ends meet. It is a direct result of the criminal quietude of our leaders during the last few decades while the going was good. Many of us do not want to repair the current system; we would rather see it fail and start over. It is the only way to ensure those who perpetrate this are routed out of the System. Either you are with us or you are against us.
