starting with the rock god Steven Steven
Tyler something’s right in the world
today and everybody knows it’s wrong
what I’m going to talk about here is
there’s something that I started
thinking about at least in 2005 and I’ll
begin in lunch one day when I showed up
and was talking with my major advisor at
the time who asked me question what do
you want to study and my answer looked a
little like this and he sort of went
whoa okay I could see in the space
there’s a problem here right exit
timeout there are things up here
obviously that are more recent than 2005
but this was this is sort of what every
major advisor kind of goes through with
one of their students that says well
that’s too much right and I thought to
myself I’ve been thinking myself for all
these years which is I don’t think it’s
too much I think
what’s needed is to see them all
together and I’ve been asking this
question of is there a root cause for
all of these and I think if we ask that
question we actually may have the
benefit of understanding how to work
with them a little bit differently
there’s a different context when you see
them all together rather than separately
okay and the easy answer is greed right
the this is not some sort of
sociological genius standing before you
this is a person with great hair I just
want to make sure we’re all there but
everybody would seemingly get to this
answer and what’s fascinating to me is I
get that answer too but it seems to be
ignored right I hear words like or
phrases like political economy and I get
a little right it’s sort of a yeah what
are you what are you talking about here
right now that’s not true but it doesn’t
seem to get to it now let me let me show
you what happens when you apply greed to
the question a very common question of
we have a limited view I think I think
of what we mean by social justice we
have a view that sometimes stays in the
realm of fairness and equity and I think
of course that’s important that that’s
it’s important I agree with that
I would never disagree with that but I
think when we only stay there we miss
some real important points okay in our
society when somebody advances in the US
or in Europe when they advance you
actually become more of say this but you
become more of an oppressor and that’s
you would not get that view standing in
the US or standing in Europe you would
only get that view if you sort of back
down if you reframed your frame of
reference if you looked at it globally
you kind of go oh yeah I forgot about
that part so a fuller view of social
justice if we were really paying
attention to it would look a little more
something like this which is that when
you be when you go from having to be
having been a have-not to a have you do
that on the backs of others constantly
without maybe even seeing that and that
that’s not to say we’re bad people right
but the fact that we keep missing that
is really important because in our
society to advance right into now it’s a
sort of apply of the word greed to this
a bit more it becomes a little bit
unsteady there’s something else going on
here and we need to attend to that
there’s no there’s a way that we can say
that social justice is attained whenever
there’s a system of human or
environmental exploitation connected to
it it’s not something that we can say is
oh it is social justice somebody can
advance in our society yes somebody can
have more opportunities yes true but it
always comes at a cost because our
society is hugely exploitive to the rest
of the world we’re on that train so we
have to pay attention to the train
itself and this is sort of a I guess
it’s a frame of reference movement going
so what this is what have it in science
when you go from new into Einstein you
go from the earth to the universe and I
think we need to have that frame of
reference when we’re talking about these
things it’s not just equity for me
equity for you its equity for all of us
when we keep missing that all of us part
so therefore and I’m gonna say this in
you can see that I don’t think that it’s
okay for us to say that we have social
justice in our society I think we
actually have to say it’s not attainable
in our society because of the impact
that it then ends up having and I think
we have to kind of sit and be with that
right that’s that’s an important
paradigmatic shift there’s something out
of that that will really occur I think
if we take that seriously if you haven’t
figured this one out yet you can save
the world of flowcharts yes you can okay
Oh as I was thinking about this and
thinking about how if you put greed at
the very beginning of this conversation
you actually start to see how things are
connected and if nothing else happens
from this craziness and I do mean you
know craziness um you start to see how
things are connected so here’s just how
I’ve sort of situated things together
and others might see it differently
which is absolutely 100 percent fair all
the way on the left there’s one major
branch is patriarchy so why patriarchy
greed has been situated in sort of a
global fashion with white straight sis
men they’ve been funneling the money in
their direction for hundreds of years if
not longer okay
not to say that other people haven’t
tried they just haven’t done it as well
all right
that’s an important thing to understand
where do patriarchy and come from it
comes from this impetus from this
motivation to funnel the money towards
white straight sis men it’s just not
trans right if you’re not familiar with
that term that’s key Nach women out
knock out people who are trans knock out
people who are gay and lesbian and so
forth right that is the idea knock them
out so the money comes towards me on the
left side there and also to be careful
with this one we know through history
religion has supported this there’s been
moral codes that have supported slavery
that’s not okay you have to be on the
lookout for that constantly the middle
branch colonization colonization is
really about taking resources and taking
the people away from resources and shift
their mindset so you can take their
resources it’s still a greed thing and
one of the one of the ways this is not
the entirety but I think it’s important
to understand that when we talk about
racism racism is grounded in greed even
today it was grounded in greed then and
still ground and greed today it’s about
knocking people out so the money keeps
coming in my direction that doesn’t mean
it’s the totality of racism but it’s
certainly a major part of it I again I
think it shifts how we think about
things when we really bring it to that
level in today’s world we have shifted
from plantation style slavery to
globalization slavery it’s still going
on folks right 12 cents an hour is no
different than zero cents an hour I mean
let’s be real okay you can’t justify
that and in today’s world you’re gonna
see in a second but all of this
industrialization which has been
attached to greed as well Karl Marx must
be really happy right now
it’s resulted in lots of pollution going
into the atmosphere as we all well know
so as a symptom of greed global warming
exists and we don’t see that connection
and that’s crucial at this point in time
we need to see that connection right and
I want to add this too because this is
of course is what’s we’re experiencing
at the moment which is this this
tricking of poor and working-class white
men that they see themselves somehow as
different than everybody else who’s
suffering and that they’re gonna speak
out and they’re gonna aim their anger
and energies in this sort of white
nationalist fashion as if somehow the
billionaires are closer to them than
they are to the people they’re standing
side by side with suffering in the same
exact way or close to the same exact way
that’s crucial
that’s hugely missed the other part here
is this thing called hegemony and I know
that’s a very academic word at this
point but what does it really mean it
means that people who are being
oppressed stand
that oppression they participate in the
oppression that’s hurting themselves and
that’s really key for us to understand
because that is us and we have to see
that what narratives are we buying into
that’s keeping this whole entire
structure going what narratives and in
practices do we engage in that keeps the
money still funneled towards the people
who already have the money that’s what
that’s about right there you know going
back to the the oligarchs if the
peasantry didn’t stand in in sort of a
docile controlled manner there would be
no royalty there would be no kings or
queens but they believed because they
were told to believe and they told each
other to believe that the kings and
queens were divine that’s hegemony right
what narratives do we have today and of
course there’s a long discussion about
that but that’s key there’s this
political collusion piece and there’s a
[Music]
power piece right that is key as well
governance is designed with that
funneling in mind and it’s okay so
before it’s had this impact it’s had
this this filling up of the atmosphere
with this toxin that we know has
troubles this big greed there’s little
greed and we have to see our part in it
there is no path to sustainability if we
don’t work with this greed piece and
just to take a note from Martin Luther
King those who love peace must learn to
organize as effectively as those who
love war that’s what we’re talking about
today you can take the words peace and
and war and put in different right but
that’s what we’re doing right now so we
have to see what is it that we can
actually do what’s the path forward look
like well I’m starting with the word
solidarity here and by solidarity what I
mean is equal membership whether I give
it to you or not
I’m acting with that in mind I don’t
have to give it to you if I do give it
to you I have the power there is no
buddy in power when there’s true
solidarity going on so starting with
that in mind because when people when I
show people the first flow chart they
say oh okay what’s the positive stuff
right oh yeah what’s the positive stuff
come on
so solidarity so it’s broken down into
three ways is just as well the left look
you know nothing’s ever perfect on a
planet but feminism has been on point
since the 1700s give it the program
people not it’s not been perfect and
there’s a lot of arguing internally so
I’m I’m just saying so this has been
about affirming and having full
inclusion of people the middle column
here decolonization well that just makes
sense that was an easy one I was a gimme
but what we’re really working towards is
localization and globalization and the
globalization with sort of a
responsibility behind it what does it
look like to be globally responsible but
localization provides more prosperity by
the way right when you concentrate
business as has been done on our planet
you create more poverty the opposite of
hegemony empowerment right and so
there’s a lot of things here that we can
start to work with and in schools one of
the biggest ones is greatest
contribution what can our kids and we’ve
been talking about this tonight but what
is it that exists in our kids that they
can contribute in a very valuable way
instead of teaching towards making them
docile workers for somebody else how
about making them the people who they
want to become we have this issue here
of a strong democracy people being
involved in a daily basis being active
in creating and we haven’t this other
one I think this is really important as
critique of power this expectation that
power is going to be critiqued always if
I say something that’s dumb you should
be like that’s dumb and I should be like
oh yeah that’s dumb
there’s no defensive miss here like
bring it on let’s talk about that that’s
what we mean by solidarity right what do
you mean by this dumb well I mean it’s
none okay good right that’s dumb that
was dumb I’ll give you that right now
long-term sustainability long-term
integrated sustainability I think is
achievable when the social justice says
pieces are present right you can’t just
go carbon negative and sequester carbon
and call it a day that’s not long term
so sustainability needs social justice
right where do we go from here
there’s and this is just me running
through it from the frame of thinking
that I do which is teaching right so
this is just from a way of thinking what
do we need to do what we have to think
of ourselves as fully conscious human
being or something that we can actually
achieve in terms of creating full
consciousness we should not be this hot
or not consciousness we really are full
bodies consciousness and there’s a lot
to be said here but we have to start
with what do we mean by being human and
fully conscious – we really do have to
understand what we mean by
sustainability it is not just the
environment folks right it is
environment social culture and economic
and they’re working simultaneously
together three convergent thinking is
not helping us that’s not where we
should be in schools we should be
supporting divergent thinking there’s
times when you have to converge on
something but you don’t end there
divergent thinking is going we have to
divergently thinking we’re gonna fix the
things that we’re breaking right
creating consciousness of sustainability
how we get there what it looks like and
you know there’s a map here it’s
confusing there’s a lot of stuff here
but the point is that there are ways to
move forward and so when somebody asks
you this question of what do you want to
study here’s the right answer think
bigger all right thank you [Applause]
Tyler something’s right in the world
today and everybody knows it’s wrong
what I’m going to talk about here is
there’s something that I started
thinking about at least in 2005 and I’ll
begin in lunch one day when I showed up
and was talking with my major advisor at
the time who asked me question what do
you want to study and my answer looked a
little like this and he sort of went
whoa okay I could see in the space
there’s a problem here right exit
timeout there are things up here
obviously that are more recent than 2005
but this was this is sort of what every
major advisor kind of goes through with
one of their students that says well
that’s too much right and I thought to
myself I’ve been thinking myself for all
these years which is I don’t think it’s
too much I think
what’s needed is to see them all
together and I’ve been asking this
question of is there a root cause for
all of these and I think if we ask that
question we actually may have the
benefit of understanding how to work
with them a little bit differently
there’s a different context when you see
them all together rather than separately
okay and the easy answer is greed right
the this is not some sort of
sociological genius standing before you
this is a person with great hair I just
want to make sure we’re all there but
everybody would seemingly get to this
answer and what’s fascinating to me is I
get that answer too but it seems to be
ignored right I hear words like or
phrases like political economy and I get
a little right it’s sort of a yeah what
are you what are you talking about here
right now that’s not true but it doesn’t
seem to get to it now let me let me show
you what happens when you apply greed to
the question a very common question of
we have a limited view I think I think
of what we mean by social justice we
have a view that sometimes stays in the
realm of fairness and equity and I think
of course that’s important that that’s
it’s important I agree with that
I would never disagree with that but I
think when we only stay there we miss
some real important points okay in our
society when somebody advances in the US
or in Europe when they advance you
actually become more of say this but you
become more of an oppressor and that’s
you would not get that view standing in
the US or standing in Europe you would
only get that view if you sort of back
down if you reframed your frame of
reference if you looked at it globally
you kind of go oh yeah I forgot about
that part so a fuller view of social
justice if we were really paying
attention to it would look a little more
something like this which is that when
you be when you go from having to be
having been a have-not to a have you do
that on the backs of others constantly
without maybe even seeing that and that
that’s not to say we’re bad people right
but the fact that we keep missing that
is really important because in our
society to advance right into now it’s a
sort of apply of the word greed to this
a bit more it becomes a little bit
unsteady there’s something else going on
here and we need to attend to that
there’s no there’s a way that we can say
that social justice is attained whenever
there’s a system of human or
environmental exploitation connected to
it it’s not something that we can say is
oh it is social justice somebody can
advance in our society yes somebody can
have more opportunities yes true but it
always comes at a cost because our
society is hugely exploitive to the rest
of the world we’re on that train so we
have to pay attention to the train
itself and this is sort of a I guess
it’s a frame of reference movement going
so what this is what have it in science
when you go from new into Einstein you
go from the earth to the universe and I
think we need to have that frame of
reference when we’re talking about these
things it’s not just equity for me
equity for you its equity for all of us
when we keep missing that all of us part
so therefore and I’m gonna say this in
you can see that I don’t think that it’s
okay for us to say that we have social
justice in our society I think we
actually have to say it’s not attainable
in our society because of the impact
that it then ends up having and I think
we have to kind of sit and be with that
right that’s that’s an important
paradigmatic shift there’s something out
of that that will really occur I think
if we take that seriously if you haven’t
figured this one out yet you can save
the world of flowcharts yes you can okay
Oh as I was thinking about this and
thinking about how if you put greed at
the very beginning of this conversation
you actually start to see how things are
connected and if nothing else happens
from this craziness and I do mean you
know craziness um you start to see how
things are connected so here’s just how
I’ve sort of situated things together
and others might see it differently
which is absolutely 100 percent fair all
the way on the left there’s one major
branch is patriarchy so why patriarchy
greed has been situated in sort of a
global fashion with white straight sis
men they’ve been funneling the money in
their direction for hundreds of years if
not longer okay
not to say that other people haven’t
tried they just haven’t done it as well
all right
that’s an important thing to understand
where do patriarchy and come from it
comes from this impetus from this
motivation to funnel the money towards
white straight sis men it’s just not
trans right if you’re not familiar with
that term that’s key Nach women out
knock out people who are trans knock out
people who are gay and lesbian and so
forth right that is the idea knock them
out so the money comes towards me on the
left side there and also to be careful
with this one we know through history
religion has supported this there’s been
moral codes that have supported slavery
that’s not okay you have to be on the
lookout for that constantly the middle
branch colonization colonization is
really about taking resources and taking
the people away from resources and shift
their mindset so you can take their
resources it’s still a greed thing and
one of the one of the ways this is not
the entirety but I think it’s important
to understand that when we talk about
racism racism is grounded in greed even
today it was grounded in greed then and
still ground and greed today it’s about
knocking people out so the money keeps
coming in my direction that doesn’t mean
it’s the totality of racism but it’s
certainly a major part of it I again I
think it shifts how we think about
things when we really bring it to that
level in today’s world we have shifted
from plantation style slavery to
globalization slavery it’s still going
on folks right 12 cents an hour is no
different than zero cents an hour I mean
let’s be real okay you can’t justify
that and in today’s world you’re gonna
see in a second but all of this
industrialization which has been
attached to greed as well Karl Marx must
be really happy right now
it’s resulted in lots of pollution going
into the atmosphere as we all well know
so as a symptom of greed global warming
exists and we don’t see that connection
and that’s crucial at this point in time
we need to see that connection right and
I want to add this too because this is
of course is what’s we’re experiencing
at the moment which is this this
tricking of poor and working-class white
men that they see themselves somehow as
different than everybody else who’s
suffering and that they’re gonna speak
out and they’re gonna aim their anger
and energies in this sort of white
nationalist fashion as if somehow the
billionaires are closer to them than
they are to the people they’re standing
side by side with suffering in the same
exact way or close to the same exact way
that’s crucial
that’s hugely missed the other part here
is this thing called hegemony and I know
that’s a very academic word at this
point but what does it really mean it
means that people who are being
oppressed stand
that oppression they participate in the
oppression that’s hurting themselves and
that’s really key for us to understand
because that is us and we have to see
that what narratives are we buying into
that’s keeping this whole entire
structure going what narratives and in
practices do we engage in that keeps the
money still funneled towards the people
who already have the money that’s what
that’s about right there you know going
back to the the oligarchs if the
peasantry didn’t stand in in sort of a
docile controlled manner there would be
no royalty there would be no kings or
queens but they believed because they
were told to believe and they told each
other to believe that the kings and
queens were divine that’s hegemony right
what narratives do we have today and of
course there’s a long discussion about
that but that’s key there’s this
political collusion piece and there’s a
[Music]
power piece right that is key as well
governance is designed with that
funneling in mind and it’s okay so
before it’s had this impact it’s had
this this filling up of the atmosphere
with this toxin that we know has
troubles this big greed there’s little
greed and we have to see our part in it
there is no path to sustainability if we
don’t work with this greed piece and
just to take a note from Martin Luther
King those who love peace must learn to
organize as effectively as those who
love war that’s what we’re talking about
today you can take the words peace and
and war and put in different right but
that’s what we’re doing right now so we
have to see what is it that we can
actually do what’s the path forward look
like well I’m starting with the word
solidarity here and by solidarity what I
mean is equal membership whether I give
it to you or not
I’m acting with that in mind I don’t
have to give it to you if I do give it
to you I have the power there is no
buddy in power when there’s true
solidarity going on so starting with
that in mind because when people when I
show people the first flow chart they
say oh okay what’s the positive stuff
right oh yeah what’s the positive stuff
come on
so solidarity so it’s broken down into
three ways is just as well the left look
you know nothing’s ever perfect on a
planet but feminism has been on point
since the 1700s give it the program
people not it’s not been perfect and
there’s a lot of arguing internally so
I’m I’m just saying so this has been
about affirming and having full
inclusion of people the middle column
here decolonization well that just makes
sense that was an easy one I was a gimme
but what we’re really working towards is
localization and globalization and the
globalization with sort of a
responsibility behind it what does it
look like to be globally responsible but
localization provides more prosperity by
the way right when you concentrate
business as has been done on our planet
you create more poverty the opposite of
hegemony empowerment right and so
there’s a lot of things here that we can
start to work with and in schools one of
the biggest ones is greatest
contribution what can our kids and we’ve
been talking about this tonight but what
is it that exists in our kids that they
can contribute in a very valuable way
instead of teaching towards making them
docile workers for somebody else how
about making them the people who they
want to become we have this issue here
of a strong democracy people being
involved in a daily basis being active
in creating and we haven’t this other
one I think this is really important as
critique of power this expectation that
power is going to be critiqued always if
I say something that’s dumb you should
be like that’s dumb and I should be like
oh yeah that’s dumb
there’s no defensive miss here like
bring it on let’s talk about that that’s
what we mean by solidarity right what do
you mean by this dumb well I mean it’s
none okay good right that’s dumb that
was dumb I’ll give you that right now
long-term sustainability long-term
integrated sustainability I think is
achievable when the social justice says
pieces are present right you can’t just
go carbon negative and sequester carbon
and call it a day that’s not long term
so sustainability needs social justice
right where do we go from here
there’s and this is just me running
through it from the frame of thinking
that I do which is teaching right so
this is just from a way of thinking what
do we need to do what we have to think
of ourselves as fully conscious human
being or something that we can actually
achieve in terms of creating full
consciousness we should not be this hot
or not consciousness we really are full
bodies consciousness and there’s a lot
to be said here but we have to start
with what do we mean by being human and
fully conscious – we really do have to
understand what we mean by
sustainability it is not just the
environment folks right it is
environment social culture and economic
and they’re working simultaneously
together three convergent thinking is
not helping us that’s not where we
should be in schools we should be
supporting divergent thinking there’s
times when you have to converge on
something but you don’t end there
divergent thinking is going we have to
divergently thinking we’re gonna fix the
things that we’re breaking right
creating consciousness of sustainability
how we get there what it looks like and
you know there’s a map here it’s
confusing there’s a lot of stuff here
but the point is that there are ways to
move forward and so when somebody asks
you this question of what do you want to
study here’s the right answer think
bigger all right thank you [Applause]
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