Arianna appeared on C-Span's "After Words" program this weekend to discuss her latest book "Third World America" with Maria Bartiromo.
Arianna spoke about her motivations for writing the book, the current dismal state of America's political and economic system, and what we can do to turn it around.
"Over the last few years, I've begun to see something happening," she said, "which is that the country which was about the American Dream was actually now becoming the country of downward mobility for millions of people in the middle class who felt they could no longer give themselves or their children the better life that was associated with America. So I really wrote it as a warning and also to show all the ways we can turn it around."
WATCH:
Take a good hard look around. Based on advances in technology? Everywhere in the world – Europe, India, China, now even Eastern Europe – technology is advancing – catching up to America – even in some cases bypassing us.
Take the example of trains – America is the only country without high speed passenger rail services. We are proud to announce that we will build 80 mph services when the world is going 150 mph and now even 250 mph. This advances technology and jobs – yet we stick to our old ways of doing things – which drives up costs and depletes precious resources.
Just because some cultures have different ways of living does not mean all is bad there – or good. There is improvement to be made everywhere. This is where we should be putting our attention and resources. Into education, innovation, and help to all our fellow man. This is “COMPASSIONâ€â€”this is “CHRISTIANITY†We should heed the words of past history when Woodrow Wilson said that WWI was the war to end all wars.
Part of the biggest problem America has of taking great strides lies with the people. People stampede against needed advances - everything except the gluttony of oil and the vehicle to use it, AND WAR UNTIL THAT CHANGES. Silence means consent in most cases.
AMERICANS HAVE SAID IT SO LONG, THEY REALLY BELIEVE THIS COUNTRY WAS ESTABLISHED FROM INCEPTION AS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY, INSTEAD OF BY SOME CHRISTIANS, INCLUDING DEIST CHRISTIANS, And churches perpetuate that WISH. That's a great barrier to the idea of diversity and COMPASSIONATE citizenry. I believe all true religions teach COMPASSION, but MANY of us do not LIVE IT OUT. Compassion is what it takes.
Even when we know we need to curb our appetites, we still glut. Some countries advance in techno quicker because its people are not afraid to take risks in order to use technology to improve their status. They are eager to advance, e.g., China, a Communist country with a market economy. Their little kids who have access to education so far, are encouraged and taught to be "smart," innovative, and forward-looking, among other things. They are not afraid of failure. Some of us are afraid of failure.
I saw her speak in Houston yesterday at the Progressive Forum series. I would hardly call AH a liberal or conservative – more like a centrist with common sense. She can present issues and talk in plain English for the “everypersonâ€. This is what is missing from today’s debates. Instead the floor shows have been high jacked by the illiteratea (that is not misspelled). These people who have learned to grab media attention for their own egos and ratings. Unfortunately these same people do not know what they are talking about – nor do they have any common sense.
This illiteratea disease is spreading like an epidemic – without control – the party elders on both sides have lost control. The top Republican Party faces frequently have no ideas – so – no it is. What happened here? Where is the debate – where is the meeting of minds? Where are the compromises? Has Bush “my way or highway†attitude permeated so deeply into the American can do psyche?
This implies the media is some passive, neutral entity that the "illiteratea" (hehe that's great...) masterfully learned to make use of. I submit instead that the media is, on the whole, an active, non-neutral force that chooses who and what to give attention to and who and what to ignore. My interpretation implies that the media has been co-opted to serve the corporatist agenda and the lack of debate and meeting of minds is quite deliberate. It may have been something better once, when there was more competition and hence more points of view, but I would say it's become little more than a smarter, subtler version of Pravda.
As Chomsky said, the technique is to define a very, very narrow window for every complicated debatable topic, and then allow vigorous debate within that narrow window. Thus, for example, the debate for invading Iraq was not "should we or shouldn't we", it was "how many troops should we send?"
That's my humble opinion anyway. The media is one of the biggest obstacles to solving problems because the (dis)information it puts out only confuses every issue by framing the debate in ways that is not conducive to agreeing on solutions.
I had the opportunity to spend a month in Greece - where she was born. Greece gives new meaning to the term "Third World".
On the surface it seems like a nice, sunny place. However, the longer I was there, the more I saw the corruption, rudeness, high unemployment, racism towards non Greeks (especially illegal immigrants), laziness, cronyism, crime (my passport and drivers license were stolen on the first night there), unsanitary conditions in central Athens, high food prices compared to low salaries, etc. I could go on and on.
Arianna's homeland Greece makes America look top notch - even with all of America's recent economic problems.
I met a Nigerian in Greece. He was a student at one of the universities. Even he was shocked at just how "Third World" Greece is. He says Greece was worst than his African country.
Thank You A H
Very sad, but we had our time. Peace.
Were I to ask an American Muslim what patriotism means to him, or a Christian what it means to him, or a Hindu or Buddhist or Satanist what it means to them, I wonder what the answers would be. That is, if they aren't averse (or adverse) to sharing it for political reasons. Patriotism linked to anti/pro war believers, abortion wrongs/rights, gay rights or lack of, Ground Zero pro/con territorial sentiments, pro/anti civil rights and aspirations, and so on, should not be bandied about as they are among people.
All these named deal with people & their needs and feelings, not political lobbying of the word PATRIOTISM. It is a tool used to try to guilt people into seeing things their way. It's misused and abused almost as much as the poor Constitution is abused and misused to meet a group's or a person's whimsical position at any given moment.
the die is set.
check history we are in the last steps every nation goes through.
it is about ten to 12 steps we are in the last steps we must go through all the steps to renew our nation.
this decline is a result of a mentality. ie a national paradigm.
wealth and power can be as harsh of a teacher as poverty.
we are witness to this now.
the decline of a nation.
thank the universe we are in this steep decline.
what if capitalism really worked a paradigm of profits over people.
GIVE US OUR OIL ROYALTIES!
STOP KEEPING US POOR SO WE WILL LITERALLY PROTEST FOR JOBS THAT DESTROY THE VERY ENVIRONMENT WE LIVE IN!!!
FREE LOUISIANA!
http://ragingpelican.wordpress.com
{{{Fanned!}}}
When I left home in '95, a bizarre incident while moving to Dallas caused me to lose the $2,000 I had saved for an apartment and I became homeless.
I lived in my car for over 2 months.
Once, to prepare for a job interview I went to an old fashioned car wash and showered myself.
To this day I still feel a sense of shame and guilt for stealing a Snickers Bar from a Stop 'N Go store and I wrote 3 or 4 hot checks for food and gasoline.
I did find another way to make money; A bar had a "Hot Buns" contest and I won a cash prize.
I checked into a Salvation Army Men's Dorm for 2 nights and they charged me $7 each night.
I didn't feel safe sleeping in a wide open dormatory with a hundred homeless men and I really never fell asleep so I went back to sleeping in my car.
I met people who were on the streets and I spent a lot of time with them.
They knew the safest place to park overnight where the cops wouldn't hassle us.
I met another teen who was homeless and took him in as a "roomate."
They showed me a myriad of ways to cope with living on the streets, it was an eye-opening experience.
Fortunately, my homeless experience was short-lived and not one that I'd wish upon anyone.
It ain't easy being homeless.
I commend you and thank you for sharing a personal slice of the world that is. We need to inform one another’s existence, and thereby we are made whole and full. Downturn can happen to anyone, and may anyone be capable of compassion.
On this great planet of ours, there should never be hunger or "no place at the inn" for people desperate to get in. However, ours is an environment of selfishness due to fear of time -- running out. Thus, the rule becomes, grab all you can get before the clock runs out and other rules can be bent as well as broken towards that pursuit...as well as necks and backs of others as one makes their ascent to the top only to find -- the bottom or the essence, which straddles wealth gaps and class chasms and brings it home for all to feel, hear, and see.
Summertime and the living is easy, fish are jumping and consumption is high, somebody is considered rich and good looking, hush now baby down on the concrete, don't you cry, and by all means do not look to society, as you live, and as you die.
That's why the world has a shortage of housing, land, money, and all good things a human soul is supposed to enjoy as God said (even though he said the poor would be with us always - for a reason). Those who have he expected to minister to the poor. Who is despised in this world? THE POOR. The horders are those who can't get enough of anything you can name.
Ten thousand acres are not enough for some to live on, they need more. They spend $ like water and buy just to spend, while others starve literally to death - they never wince. But when their crying time comes they have to learn how to pray without a sense of entitlement - they have to learn humility. The rich/poor & wise/fool go the same route - to the grave, but the takers care not.