536 - Beyond Hierarchy (Anarchist Audiocollage)

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Episode #536 - Beyond Hierarchy (Anarchist Audiocollage)

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⌚ Sat 29 January 2011  ☻Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, Alfie Kohn, Michael Parenti, Michael Albert, Derrick Jensen, Jeremy Rifkin, Howard Zinn, Robert Jay Lifton, Phillip Zimbardo, Chris Hedges, Gwynne Dyer, Juliet Schor, Emilio Palcull, Jack Shaheen, Laura Flanders, Martin Luther King, Robert Monks, Anita Roddick, Ray Anderson, Milton Friedman, Arundhati Roy, Peter Phillips, Erich Fromm

Download Hour1 Download Hour2This week we mark a year since Lyn's last new episode by deviating from our usual format. Instead of a few separate speeches, an audio collage of speakers, some with backing music. The most prominent voice is Noam Chomsky's, but he is supported by a couple of dozen others from earlier episodes and other sources. The overarching theme is the need to question the existing reality, especially to shake off the hierarchical institutions and prejudices of the past, and embrace a new spirit of autonomy that respects the individual.

This week's show was inspired by, and is based upon "The Evilness of Power", by Jonathan Shockley, which he describes as a 90 minute 'anti-authoritarian video collage'. I've adapted it for radio and expanded it to 2 hours using highlights from earlier Unwelcome Guests episodes to amplify its main message.

It starts with Jonathan Shockley directly challenging one of capitalism's key false assumptions - asking passers-by whether they would still contribute to society if they had enough money to meet their needs. After hearing Murray Bookchin on how deeply hierarchy is ingrained in modern society, we hear a section on the bushmen of the Kalahari. This provides a counterexample to some of developed man's fundamental misconceptions about how life has to be - for example, that all societies use money or have some notion of property.

Noting how hierarchy violates the golden rule, we hear Derrick Jensen on the asymmetry of the way that violence is treated in US society, a point underlined by Robert Jay Lifton, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn and audio from the Stanford Prison experiment on how social situations can induce particular behaviour. Zinn challenges the idea that humans are naturally warlike, supported by Chris Hedges and Gwynne Dyer on the carefully calculated process of military training used to overcome the natural disinclination to kill. Chomsky looks at how commercial media is used by the rich to dumb down the workers and to set the agenda of which issues are important, and frame public discourse on them. Thus, US aggression is presented as defending the national interest, workers are distracted with irrelevant diversions such as sport to keep them divided and distracted, while the business of wealth extraction goes on unabated.

In our second hour, Juliet Schor looks at the consequences of consumerism for its young participants. Jack Shaheen reviews how US culture and especially Hollywood has vilified Arab culture. We hear a section from The Corporation exploring the psychopathic nature of corporations and modern organizations in general, and hear Noam Chomsky and Peter Phillips on how corporate PR twists public perception of the truth. Erich Fromm reflects on expropriation of human self-worth by materialism, a point underlined by Jonathan Shockley's survey of US passers-by.
Music: Various short samples, mainly Pink Floyd
Thanks to Jonathan Shockley for his video, which is available here.
This episode rebroadcasts content from 240, 311, 312, 425, 509, 510, 513 & 518.
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Source archive: Evilness of Power (93 min) Jonathan Shockley UG#240.1 (60 min) Noam Chomsky, Anita Roddick, Roy Anderson, Milton Friedman UG#311.1 (60 min) Derrick Jensen UG#311.2 (60 min) Derrick Jensen UG#312.2 (60 min) Robert Jay Lifton UG#425.1 (60 min) Juliet Schor UG#509.1 (60 min) Alfie Kohn UG#510.1 (60 min) Jeremy Rifkin UG#513.1 (60 min) Gwynne Dyer UG#513.2 (60 min) Gwynne Dyer UG#518.1 (60 min) Peter Phillips Our Leaders Are Psychopaths (65 min) James Corbett On Professionalism (2 min) Howard Zinn Globalization (5 min) Laura Flanders War Is A Force That Gives us Meaning (48 min) Chris Hedges Applauded (6 min) Martin Luther King & Peter Gabriel

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To link to this episode, please use the short, permanent URL: http://UnwelcomeGuests.net/536

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