George Carlin and Noam Chomsky on democracy...

[Ben]

George Carlin and Noam Chomsky on democracy - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o4u7KbJnIY)

[Ben]

Corporations Love Deficits - Links Between Profit and Recession - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3wCq-JjHjw)

[Stavros]

Ben, if you compare the situation of Americans in 1952 to 2012, you will find that it is now illegal to discirminate against people on the grounds of their sexual orientation, the colour of their skin, their religious beliefs, their 'disability', and that the whole attitude to so-called 'minorities' has changed -in my opinion, for the better. Even in 1952 some US states retained the anti-miscegenation laws dating from the 17th century that made it illegal for a 'White' man to marry a woman who was not also 'White' and vice versa.

The 'Hays Code' that Hollywood adopted in the 1930s meant films that before the code had been challenging on issues of sex, crime, and politics, had to 'smarten up' so that, for example, in a film like The Big Sleep, the character called Geiger who sells 'Rare Books' in Chandler's book sold porn, but the film was not allowed to show that, although it does lead Bogart into that wonderful scene in the Acme Bookshop across the road. The musical South Pacific was a radical film because one of the main characters not only has a love affair with an Asian girl, he also kisses her on screen. You might think it quaint now, it was important at the time. Robert de Niro has twice married black women, without being denounced by the Catholic Church or the other groups in the USA who for several centuries believed mixed marriages were an abomination and would lead to the dilution and eventual disappearance of the 'white race', whatever that is.

How did these changes take place? Through you, the American people, practising democracy. If you follow through all the public demonstrations from the Civil Rights era, most of which would have been illegal in many countries in the world, and look more closely at the housing and education campaigns that Saul Alinsky organised in Chicago, you will find that in all case Americans were using their democratic rights to put pressure on legislators, and in most cases they won.

If you really think Democracy doesn't change anything, you are ignorant of the history of your own country. If you don't like what is happening now, use democracy to change it, just as those who came before you did.

[Ben]

Interviewing Noam Chomsky on Campaign Finance Reform - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-7GW6lgjLY)