Ralph Nader spoke at length on 5-17-2015 at the Follen Church (Lexington, MA). His main focus was how to get really important, but seemingly impossible, things done by forming a convergence of opposite forces.
Nader is on book tour for his two most recent books, "Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State" (2014) and "Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015" (2015). The latter publishes his many unanswered letters. His very first book was "Unsafe at Any Speed" (1965), and he is author of many more. At age 80, Nader offers frequent public presentations, exuding passion and wisdom.
One of Naderâs surprising discoveries has been that diametrically opposite groups often share some really important positions. For example, true liberals and true conservatives agree in wanting universal health care, civil liberties, good minimum wage, and publicly owned and run public facilities. They also hate racism, monopolies, Wall Street, corporate welfare, and unconstitutional wars. Of course they do disagree on other issues such as marriage, abortion, guns, and taxation. Nader addresses this and calls it the âyuk factorâ that we must overcome. Heâs not talking here about middling compromises between Democrats and Republicans. Heâs talking about real change wanted by all of us.
Nader calls the elite cabal that currently runs our country âcorporatists.â Many (if not most) corporatists proclaim themselves to be conservative, but theyâre really big business radicals. Nader decided to spend some time reading the works of Adam Smith, often cited as the "hidden hand of the market" philosopher, along with other early conservative thinkers. He found that the corporatists have been quoting them out of context.
Truth and Justice Radio was there to record. Broadcasters may want to break the recordings into parts for broadcast. Nader's initial presentation was 72 minutes long; Q&A was substantive and went another 40 minutes (posted here as a separate file). We donât recommend broadcasting the organizer's 4-minute intro, also posted here; he was not near a mike, resulting in poor audio quality.
Youâll hear squeaks and bumps in the main recording. These are attributable to the antique podium where Nader spoke and our microphone sat. That podium was originally owned and used by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose daily insights Nader recommends. The site homeinsteaders.org/authors/ralph-waldo-emerson/ provides a sample of these.
Truth and Justice Radio airs Sunday mornings 6-10am on WZBC 90.3FM, serving Greater Boston, also available live and archived online. The program describes itself as âFour hours of spirited examination of warmaking, empire, corrupt justice, engineered poverty, lying politicians, jingoism, corporate criminality, and media disinformation.â Go to its website, truthandjusticeradio.org, for further information, including detailed weekly playlists and access to audio archives.
Ralph Nader speaks 5-17-2015
Getting Important Things Done with Left-Right Convergence
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