1. |
THE TRUTH BE TOLD
02:37
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The truth be told, with some exceptions, the U.S. press, like the U.S. government, is a corrupt and troubled institution. Journalists need crises to dramatize news, and government officials need to appear to be responding to crises.
News programming has become a cheap alternative to entertainment programming, and the lines that once separated the two have become blurred.
Fox News is hell-bent on making us hate each other. They want us to live in constant fear and be confused. They want us to only trust them.
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2. |
TOO MANY PEOPLE
02:49
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Over the past two centuries, the global human population has increased from 1 billion to 8 billion.
David Attenborough has warned us: "Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now . . . Humans have overrun the world."
Overpopulation is one of the biggest challenges humanity faces and threatens the future of the planet. With fewer of us around, there would be fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less pollution and waste, more space for both us and the rest of the natural world to survive and thrive.
We are heading for steadily growing disasters, as more and more people consume steadily dwindling resources.
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3. |
TOO MANY LIES
02:43
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Trump lied about the size of his airplane, how much money he had, the number of floors in his building, even his own height – and got away with it. He was rewarded with the White House, where he set a new record for lies, culminating in the “big lie” - the 2020 election was stolen from him, which served as the foundation for his Jan. 6 coup attempt to remain in power.
George Santos is proving that the Republican Party simply doesn’t care anymore about lying. Not only is it not disqualifying, it is rewarded with congressional seats, committee assignments and proximity to power.
Gone are the days of tearful admissions, resignations and shame. The lies are here to stay.
“Anything is better than lies and deceit!”
― Leo Tolstoy
"A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
— Vladimir Lenin
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
— George Orwell
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4. |
TOO MANY GUNS
02:50
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Guns have always been a tool of power for Americans. Whites used them to subdue the native Americans and keep the African Americans as slaves.
The gun is the great symbol of American individualism. Our heroes are the cowboy, the frontiersman, and the patriotic soldier. They all impose their will on the community’s enemies with violence.
Gun violence and school shootings are a uniquely American epidemic. There are almost 400 million privately owned firearms in the US. That’s 120 guns for every 100 Americans.
Less than two weeks after Australia’s worst mass shooting, their federal government banned rapid-fire rifles and shotguns. In the next 10 years gun deaths in Australia fell by more than 50%.
In South Africa, gun-related deaths almost halved over a 10-year-period after new gun legislation went into force in July 2004. The new laws made it much more difficult to obtain a firearm.
In New Zealand, gun laws were swiftly amended after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. New Zealand’s parliament voted to change the country’s gun laws banning all military-style semi-automatic weapons.
Britain tightened its gun laws and banned most private handgun ownership after a mass shooting in 1996, a move that saw gun deaths drop by almost a quarter over a decade.
But America’s gun culture is a global outlier. For now, the deadly cycle of violence seems destined to continue.
America has TOO MANY GUNS and too few consequences.
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5. |
TOO MUCH INFORMATION
03:38
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Information is our most valuable commodity and it is available in almost infinite abundance.
Too much information dates back to Gutenberg. The invention of movable type led to a proliferation of printed matter that quickly exceeded what a single human mind could absorb in a lifetime.
With the internet, anyone can be a publisher. We are no longer restricted by centuries-old production and distribution costs.
Technology will continue to erode our attention span and make it harder for us to focus on important social issues which is critical to a functioning democracy.
There is an opportunity for us to re-imagine these tools and redesign them to become more informed and more compassionate, and to become the most functioning democracy of all times.
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6. |
TOO MANY NOTES
02:35
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"Too many notes, dear Mozart, too many notes" is what Emperor Joseph supposedly said to Mozart after a performance.
"Just as many as necessary," replied Mozart.
"Cut a few and it will be perfect," replied the Emperor.
"Which few did you have in mind?" replied Mozart.
But . . . the magic happens in the silences.
“Music is the space between the notes.” — Claude Debussy
"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.“ — Maya Angelou
"The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – that is where the art resides.“ — Artur Schnabel
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7. |
TOO MUCH GREED
02:46
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"Greed is good." - Gordon Gekko
"You can’t be too greedy." - Donald Trump
I THINK NOT.
"We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet." - Stephen Hawking
"If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed and if we are not willing to change, we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect." - Jacques Cousteau
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8. |
TOO MUCH HATE
02:37
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We seem to hate each other.
Long before the endless fake-news arguments of today, TV news and newspaper editors figured out that bad news sells. Watch the Fox News story unfold.
Hate generates more clicks than love.
The use of hate and fear of “others” by authoritarian rulers to both control and incite their citizens has a long and ugly history. Tribalism has been around as long as humans have roamed the earth. Fear, religion, and race have been the historic old standbys, spawning such atrocities as the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Hitler.
The actual effect political parties have on most peoples’ everyday lives is nonexistent. Yet politicians are telling us we should hate our fellow citizens because of their political affiliation, nationality, race, religion, or sexual preference.
Holding politicians accountable for their actions is vitally necessary.
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” ― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
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9. |
TOO MUCH WEALTH
02:38
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The issue of income and wealth inequality is one of the great moral, economic and political crises of our time. We are moving rapidly toward an oligarchy, where a handful of billionaires have enormous wealth and power while working families struggle.
Half of us are living paycheck to paycheck. Half a million of the very poorest of us are homeless. Millions are worried about evictions and families all across the country are worried about how they are going to feed their kids.
Over the past 40 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the very wealthiest people in America.
Growing income and wealth inequality is not just an economic issue. It touches the very foundation of American democracy. Faith in government and our democratic institutions will wither and support for authoritarianism will increase.
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10. |
TOO MUCH POWER
03:02
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"Jews have TOO MUCH POWER."
Jews account for approximately 0.2 percent of the global population and yet antisemites believe that this tiny minority is not only on a quest for total world domination, but is already in control of banks, the media, industry, government — even the weather.
Antisemitism is a clear and present danger. Seventy years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is once again being expressed publicly and violently.
Hitler did not invent the hatred of Jews. Jews in Europe had been victims of discrimination and persecution since the Middle Ages. Henry Ford's anti-Semitic views echoed the fears and assumptions of many Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ford "attributed all evil to Jews or to the Jewish capitalists. The Jews caused the war, the Jews caused the outbreak of thieving and robbery all over the country, the Jews caused the inefficiency of the navy…"
From Judas to Shylock, Jews have been blamed for the evils of profit and capitalism. Plenty of Jews have themselves internalized it – including no less than Karl Marx, whose writings are peppered with anti-Jewish sentiment, who referred to money as “the jealous god of Israel”, and who looked forward to “the emancipation of mankind from Judaism."
Racism and antisemitism have to be brought into the open and confronted. But first we have to admit that they exist.
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11. |
TRUMP INDICTED!
02:53
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Twice-impeached former president Donald Trump has been indicted in connection with the classified materials discovered at Mar-a-Lago by federal agents. It has been decades coming, and Trump is a most deserving recipient of actual justice.
The sweeping 37-count indictment alleges Trump hoarded national secrets. Why did he take them and fight so hard to keep them?
Special counsel Jack Smith urged the public to read the indictment to “understand the gravity of the crimes charged." Now he and his team will have to prove their assertions in court and in front of a Florida jury.
Is it too soon to celebrate?
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Steve Shapiro Oakland, California
Steve Shapiro has composed music for hundreds of radio and TV commercials, documentary films, infomercials and other TV programs. He was the music director at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, which produced hundreds of award-winning educational films and recordings. He has a BA in Music from Brown University and an MA in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. ... more
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