Saturday, November 22, 2014

Conspiracy and Class Power

Part 1: New World Notes #351, 29:36 (November 25)
Broadcast quality MP3 (41 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (14 MB)

Part 2: New World Notes #352, 28:30 (December 2)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

 Occupy Zurich, 2011
Apres moi, le deluge, I believe the signs say.

Another installment in our series of classic talks by political scientist Michael Parenti.  Parenti gave this talk (to a very enthusistic audience) in Berkeley, Califormia, in 1993.

Long before 9/11, Americans were trained to dismiss any claim of concerted wrongdoing among the elites as a crackpot "conspiracy theory." Parenti argues that conspiracies are real and common--just one tool among many that the wealthy and powerful use to advance their own personal and class interests.

He discusses several examples of claims first dismissed as "conspiracy theories" and now accepted as historical fact--for instance the Gulf of Tonkin fabrication and the FBI infiltration of civil-rights and antiwar organizations.

Parenti's trademark wit, humor, and incisive analysis are much in evidence in this classic--and still extremely relevant--lecture.

Many thanks to Maria Gilardin and TUC Radio for making this archival recording available.





A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Potpourri 3

New World Notes #350, 28:10 (November 28)
Broadcast quality MP3 (29 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

ZDoggMD (left)

A fragrant blend (or should that be flagrant?) of different themes and topics. We examine . . .
  • The ebola hysteria in the US--with a funny song parody by ZDoggMD and a newspaper story of school administrators in Milford, Connecticut, having an ebola panic  (A student had come within 1,000 miles of Liberia.)
  • Comedian Bill Hicks--with 2 routines we didn't have time for in our Hicks show in April (NWN #318). Plus KD compares the art and the careers of Hicks and George Carlin.
  • How high tech promotes high alienation--with a neat rap/poem by Marshall Soulful Jones.
Plus miscellaneous commentary by KD.

Bill Hicks



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Sunday, November 2, 2014

Plutopia

Part 1: New World Notes #348, 28:54 (November 4)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Part 2: New World Notes #349, 28:53 (November 11)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)


Current events--Halloween, early Christmas ads, and a plutonium explosion in New Mexico--lead us to Kate Brown's history of two utopian factory towns created in the 1940s: Richland, WA; and Ozersk, Russia.

Both factories made plutonium. To ensure obedient workers, each government built a wonderful town, restricted freedom, controlled the press, kept out minorities, spied--and gave workers an amazingly high standard of living.

Through radioative poisoning of the environment, both factories also destroyed the lives of their workers and many other people in the region. Over four decades, each factory polluted the environment with twice the radiation released at Chernobyl.

It's quite a story. And it's still going on.

And maybe Richland is not just a place but also a metaphor for our whole consumer culture--and our willingness to give up liberty and even health in exchange for a luxurious lifestyle.

Kate Brown

Kate Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She spoke in Seattle on July 22, 2013.  Original recording (video) courtesy of Pirate TV. Audio (here lightly edited by KD) courtesy of unwelcomeguests.net.