In this new talk, political scientist MICHAEL PARENTI refutes the claim that the "free enterprise" system (capitalism) promotes democracy. Drawing on historical examples--from ancient Greece to the Constitutional Convention to the present day--Parenti shows how the capitalists (and their predecessors) fought democracy every step of the way--and continue to do so. Rather, democracy emerged, in fits and starts, from the struggles of average people to bring practical improvements to their lives.
Parenti spoke at the University of Illinois at Springfield on October 16, 2015. Thanks to the university, and to Dale Lehman of WZRD-FM, Chicago, for the original recording. I have lightly edited the original and done what I could to improve its audio quality.
"New World Notes" is produced under the auspices (Latin for "Freedom of Information Act") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
You can download this installment of New World Notes--in MP3 and other formats--also from The Internet Archive (www.archive.org). The page with the download links is here: https://archive.org/download/NewWorldNotes410-CapitalismVs.RealityPart1
More details, photos, nice links, & other good stuff on the show's Web site: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com
SERIES OVERVIEW -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for. "Date recorded," below, = date of first scheduled broadcast.