Talk - Michael Parenti - Lies, War, and Empire - Part I

[mieszkomieszko]

Majority of Poles regretting the fall of communism.

I don't believe that.

[1upwd]

If you are an intelligent, socially conscious American who is tired of being ignored by a government that favors corporations above people, and who is interested in affecting REAL social change in this country- you must arm yourself with hard, undeniable facts, or you will be cast out as "fringe," along with the Alien Conspiracy people.

[changit6]

@1upwd what book would you recommend to read? (by Parenti &/or others)

[TheRacistsMustDie]

I've also read an article in Mother Jones likening to the story about the Soviet intellectuals, it's called "The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science".

[oscaringoliling0]

13 people work at the IMF.

[rgs11]

socialism is for good-hearted fools, idiots and the enablers of tyrants

[paygi110709]

Where you hear that? TV? XD

[123kikiliki123]

@rgs11 You watch TV too much...

[MichaelParentiOrg]

Thank you for Sharing & Supporting Michael! Much appreciated

Kind Regards, MP friends

"Here at home and throughout the world people are fighting back against the forces of wealth, privilege and militarism — some because they have no choice, others because they would choose no other course but the one that leads to peace and justice." — Michael Parenti

[vtwzy]

Brilliance!

[efarmer385]

Brillant video, brillant mind. Favorite quote "I know truth exists because I know liars exist."

[thesverkeristheshit]

Lies, War, and Empire - Part I : 47 648 Views

Lies, War, and Empire - Part II: 17 141 Views

30.507 people were too manipulated to keep watching.

[mauritiusbleu]

@thesverkeristheshit i've noticed this on a lot of videos. i think youtube is probably manipulating the counter

[ChiAmerican]

@thesverkeristheshit

Might it have to do with the slow hypnotizing pace?

[smokesceen124]

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein

[emotionalinvalid]

@smokesceen124 excellent. In other words: nuclear third world war will push back civilization, those few people that are left, to the time of the "caveman" or the stone age.

[RepublicConstitution]

The U.S. has committed lots of evil and I agree with much of what Parenti says, but his lauding of socialism is simply wrongheaded. Just because the U.S. was opposed to it, does not make it good for this is flawed thinking.

[kaleo183rd]

@RepublicConstitution You obviosly were not listening, He mentioned that there were fault,s but also triuphs, and these were triumphs, that were never replicated anywhere else and we need to learn from

[hackroute]

@RepublicConstitution socialism is not what you watch on tv - it`s system where businessman is worker like other people, where cost of bankers life = cost of other man life, but this system without forbit a business (what speeks by tv), but without disbalance between very poor and very rich, because it`s reality system for people, not for several barons who for maximization profits can killing, bombing, sponsoring terrorists, in a socialism system no-one have this permissions. And more else

[orbis2009]

The orevailing 'orthodoxy' today is nihilism. It of course includes realtivism, decadebce, It is absurd for an atheist to talk about justice ---even as he spends his days ignoring [for him] the problem of the ontological good and trying to project final meaninglessness and evil onto a universe he did not create. Justice springs from the certainty that the good and creation have Someone in common who expects something of us.

[efarmer385]

Simply beautiful. 

[MrDuffy81]

I can already relate to this man. He is someone who gets things done. They will have a new sound system in a month...

[mykmmc]

AS A SOUND GUY I LOVE THE FIRST PART. IT IS A SCIENCE

[tom6612]

The man does the most brilliant analysis. In my opinion he's better than Chomsky and thats not easy.

[dutytocareforothers]

@tom6612 I think he is better than Chomsky, too.

[Capulator8]

I've never come across this guy before but I'm already a big fan. I'll be recommending this video to lots of people. Thanks for sharing xx

[Ichtiostega]

It's good that Michael Parenti can be found on youtube. Someone has to create a counterweight to the omnipresent right wing elitist propaganda

[grimdimly]

I've heard Parenti discussing paradigms and social organization in another talk, and there he is much more ambiguous and skeptical of human nature. His point is that to give in to a defence of capitalism based on natural selection is too easy. It does not make that view less valid, nor is it a flawless rationale for organizing society either. Also, if national health care is impossible why have I lived with it and enjoyed it's benefits (along with my fellow Canadians) for all of my life?

[MegaHoleinthewall]

What Is the alternative? Another Dark Age to dumb us down wipe-out Memory, reset default?

Maybe the answer is written in stone some where..........

[lamdawave]

Ya I like the part about the British Empire was formed by "absent-mindedness". In fact the British also "accidentally found out they could sell opium grown in India to China and made tons of profit!

[RondoVenezianoHere]

Hitler understood that communism and capitalism are just flip sides of the same jewish-owned coin. Hitler recognized the need for industrial capitalism but aimed to rid the world of interest capitalism. The jewish money-masters who funded the British, Soviet and USA empires instigated WW2 to eliminate National Socialism which Hitler formulated to resurrect Germany and show the nations how to defeat jewish criminology thru political science. Hitler saw it all and tried to save the world.

[unincorporated1]

@RondoVenezianoHere Very eloquently put, my friend.

Cheers to you!

[Scientisticsoviet]

@RondoVenezianoHere Dammit, I wish I, and my Jewish part of the family could have befitted more from our global conspiracy. Where the hell are my Jewish brethren when I need an extra dollar for a bus ticket? What about my father's business that he spent 20+ years of his life on but had to sell because of a multinational's pressure? There aren't that many jews out there... Can't my family be the head of at least local bank interest rates?

[MrGrafted]

@Scientisticsoviet "our global conspiracy" You seem to get it.

[BSFBOPE]

great lecture parenti is a smart guy not as well known as chomsky but just as valid and scathing in his criticism, although he seems a bit angry here....

[SlavicMuse]

This man is brilliant! I stumbled upon him due to my love of Serbia and the Slavs in general. His works on the war against the Yugoslavia was refreshing after drowning in Western influenced media drones. Thank you, Parenti!

[ScienceArtSpirit]

This talk is my absolutely favorite.

He has those intellectual humor I like very much.

The epistemology at the start , great.

He is very smart.

Thank you talkingsticktv for posting.

Greetings from Germany

[valtih1978]

There is a large number of talanted man around. Parenti is brilliant and every his word worth gold because he is one of the few (if not the only one of such level) who uses his degree to make the good: he defends mankind, our common sense and nature from the deceptions created by legions of other smart man who serve the evel -- the private capital.

[hatchls1]

@valtih1978 It is easy to listen to endearing talks of humanitarianism. However through all of his points he fails to acknowledge some key points that complicate his ideas. He speaks of human capital. This idea is relative and serves no mind the same. He points to nationalized health care as a form of this human capital. He quickly casts it in a positive light and ignores all that makes it impossible. A very smart man but for all his talk of paradigm and fall backs, he is just a result of one.

[emotionalinvalid]

@ScienceArtSpirit even better is his video on the break up of Yugoslavia. And the audience clapped, cheered and laughed here and there. This audience makes me sick, they are so fatuous. And P is as witty and humorous as woody allen at times. He is a great political scientist, an activist, an insightful critic of the "liberal complaint" and "conservative celebration" vs. the radical analysis(i.e. the truth, the facts)

[Selbstorganisation]

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

George Orwell

[Ephesians61024]

I still very much appreciate his ideas thoughts and perspectives. Just know that the world is more complicated then left and right. God Bless

look up Walter Veith and Eric Jon Phelps

[robinbreeds]

parenti and Antony Sutton ,Eustace Mullins ,jim marrs to mane a few showed me to do my home work jordan maxwell LOL

[karlkarlkarl1234]

Yeah Eustace Mullins is an absolute legend. Just for everyone who hasn't heard him, one of his interviews is on YouTube, basically describes how 70% of Western history is a complete lie due to Zionist and elite cover-ups (like Bush is hiring professional writers to cover up how much of a shit person he was for future readers), and how war is always well planned & orchestrated by the bankers, leaving conventional reasons behind.

[ipwnorcs]

@karlkarlkarl1234 Don't put it all on Jews and bankers, this is the fault of the capitalist class as a whole.

[iamdk007]

@ipwnorcs get rid of debt based money you could help alot. and let the people print money. or make abbundance and efficiency then we are good. we have the tech to creat abundance and efficiency but money always gets in the way, they say its to expensive...JUST PRINT SOME MONEY! YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME BUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS! if you have abbundance there is no point in steeling. cant sell it. no need to have to much if its always there. and with efficiency, no waste. a resource based economy

[dave777blaster]

Parenti

thank you

TalkingstickTV

[Lifesucksdie123]

thank you for posting this!

[kroovyandcal]

fuck yourself corporate-riddled utube

[FaaarLeft]

I can't decide whether if he is a better writer or lecturer.

[rockyoumentally]

Michael is very good at getting the point across .

[DaHonestAbe]

Parenti vs Hitchens would be a great debate.

[jeremiahsineiii]

Usury is a crime against humanity.

[jeremiahsineiii]

I worked with 2 Ex-Russian soldiers. I asked them one night if life was better back home or here. They said life was better in Russia.

[DaHonestAbe]

I dont know man. I mean tell that to the guy who created the AK-47 and earned no money because of it. Im not saying Russia is bad, but come on. Better than here?

[benmcfee]

I don't agree with you, but thank you for asking an actual question instead of spouting emotional rhetoric.

[diver05]

I didnt think he said USSR/RUSSIA was better than the US..... He did make a point of the USSR offered free education and social services etc. Just the pro's and con's.

[Research0digo]

re: 30:00 GREG PALAST!!!!!

[riversideharp]

Awesome, thank you. I read his book "Democracy for the Few". One of the greatest books I have ever read.

[trycoun]

i could get up everyday with him quoting Upton Sinclair:

"...it's very difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on NOT understanding it."

**********

"...no, i'd just like a good soundsystem if i could..."

love it

[GWOZ0Z0]

Great video and thanks for posting. And I suggest you change the title;people will dismiss it automatically as anti-U.S when it's really not.

thanks

[gyrocam]

funny i was consider sending it to a friend but i'm sure they couldn't get past the title.

[LuckyLukarse1981]

If Micheal could have had an hour or so to talk with George Carlin and year or two ago that would have been interesting...

[antarkip]

He fails to address the nature of belief as the underlying force for human progress (from industrial to spritual). In his paradigm, nothing is absolute for many and subsequently nothing is eventually worth sacrifice. A mentality that most intellectuals developed, most often leading to their own despondency towards life in general and ensuing drug and alcohol addiction. Ideology( in whatever form) is a large component of human sprit. Ideology is Reason.

[jeremiahsineiii]

"The sleep of Reason breeds Monsters"....Goya.

(sometimes Monsters is translated as Nightmares.

[RazorWireHeart]

nice quote, how is it relevant to you in context of this discussion?

[pkFPM1]

an ideology consists of a certain worldview and the attached political program

(almost all were historically failures and/or laughed at - try a better like: Jack Herer + NORML...)

[Irtidad]

Not bad, I like Parenti, especially when he bursts into his fiery rants, but there are a few problems I have with this.

I'm rather skeptical when he says that the Soviet intelligentsia had a virtual love affair with American capitalism.

Also, he talks about a lot of excuses for empire, that it's "accidental" or "unintentional," but he himself uses this same excuse for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, saying "they didn't really want to go in" and so on.

[MopacMurtaza]

How is it an excuse, when uts the truth?

The afghan government called in the soviets to help them against the rebels!

[4449911]

The Soviets were the only anti-imperial Empire in history. The Cold War was the result of American/Western aggression.

[miloskaurin]

@Irtidad He quoted an individual, not the entire soviet Intelligentsia

[BadmouseBoy]

This is good. Parenti keeping it real by subverting the dominant paradigm. Gotta love it. :)

[0311ohrah]

Good job! last thing american have is freedom of speech....still.

[SFwizardoakland]

Excellent. People are so dummed down in america (yet under the false belief that they are "educated" instead of "indrocinated") They cannot talk about fact or reality. Only Labels and defense Reactions. Because, simply, Most americans ARE infantile, indrocinated, defense/reactive FEAR FILLED yes men. Hesitate to even use the word man. Maybe sheep, but I think that is too much of a compliment. Now look at me, The anti capitalist liberal for daring to think for myself. Stop using labels.

[123daydream321]

i live in america but agree

[guscaldas]

Brilliant man. Because of his distasteful sarcasm about the sound system, I give him 4 stars.

[fusionguitar]

"If you're not angry, you're not paying attention."

[blearyeyed09]

@fusionguitar I am paying attention...and this man is a jewel...and also more accessible to the general public than anyone else I know doing similar things......

[morelshaman]

Excellent Video - as are many others by Michael Parenti. talkingsticktv has a great selection of other videos, too. Also view Naomi Wolf's speech video regarding the growing fascism in America. The video about John Perkins' book about Economic Hitmen is scary and presents a case of large scale global economic conspiracies originating from the United States.

[awwaless]

yhe, i read the book for my first yr in university, that was pretty scary, now i view alot of things with scepticism

[August1977]

I wish Parenti would do a google video search on the "Communist Revolution" or acknowledge the fact that socialism caused more victims then our capitalist/democracy ever has or ever will.

[4ourthofjuly]

body counts are rough. you could make an arguement that WW1 was caused by our economic system - buckminster fuller did. And he wore glasses, so he mustve been smart!

[mauro06]

The founding fathers did not intend to have a democracy in the US. Read the constitution and the bill of rights and you will not find the word "Democracy" anywhere!

[IsidoroBr]

well, ur wrong, some people,(real anti-communists) say socialism is responsible for 100 milion deaths. well, comparing that to the deaths by starvation, poverty, 16 hour working day, 2 world wars, colonial wars, food shortage in the third world, all that for centuries since the industrial revolution, that makes socialism as much of a killer as a lil sleeping baby , compared to capitalism...

[irkone]

great rebuttal, really, i have used it before and it blows the minds of the capitalist into total denial.

[ngonea]

Funny you did not mention the role of Capitalism and it's interferrence in those failed socialist countries and the impact capitiasm had, such as financing wars, Cia involvement, over throughing leaders of those same socialsts countries. it's amazing how we seem to filter the truth. Nkrumah in Ghana, Lumumba, Neyrere in Kenya, Phillipines, on and on and on.

[jumpnjza2]

i think it's completely stupid when people do a body count for either ideology as a way to credit or discredit them...treat each situation individually.

[blackberryjuice1]

when are you going to upload part 2?

[gorazde]

Great speech!!! God Bless him!

[kinglauda]

I just question the reason for existence of normal nonevil human beings among the crooked ones? What do we have to learn here? How it feels to live among this particular kind of demented behaviour?

[xcomradestalinx]

Parenti IS the best mind of our time, and he DOES speak well, with humor, insight, and knowledge. I think, even if he does live in Berkely(he was raised in a working class neighborhood), he still speaks and writes to the working class, so that even the most apolitical individual could pick up Against Empire or Dirty Truths or Democracy for the Few and still understand his points. He writes to the very people that would definitely appeal to the idea of social revolution.

[roarkpickles]

Chomsky is well aware of the murders of leading Black Panthers and other Civil Rights leaders. Even if you could prove beyond a doubt that Bush was responsible for 9/11, the media wouldn't accept it, and it wouldn't change the fact that a massive popular movement is going to have to take place to change America's power structure. America is a terrorist state, the evidence is there without JFK and 9/11 conspiracies. The US has supported every right wing dictatorship around the world since WW2.

[gobzine]

Parenti is always fascinating, lucid and informative in his talks (i've heard so far) and this is a particularly enjoyable one!

[johnlepo]

It's great to see Parenti talk about the Warren Commission critics. Parenti is on the advisory board for the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) and has spoken at their conferences.

[rspawn]

Chomsky tries to tell us that big political assassinations do NOT take place in the US (though he tells us those do take place every where else) - in particular the JFK assassination.

Parenti doesn't.

[raptorkiller2k5]

No..he said that assassinations is not important vs. faulty. In contrast, he said that the 9/11 conspiracy is bunk simply because they have no evidence.

[panterastang]

except there is a ton of evidence.....

[hwbanger]

One of the most convincing speakers the Left has. No wonder the alleged "liberal" media never has him on.

[3swoosh2]

check out parenti's jfk talk on tucradio. chomsky works for da security state, parenti's for the ppl at the bottom. the thing he doesn't realise thou (and I dunno know why) is that communism is a banker scheme to prevent redistribution of wealth too. just like the fascist state. well, communism in its banker form like in china or soviet union. or todays EU where I live. hell, bankers roam everywhere.

[VIERO666]

He doesn't approve of all communist forms, just believes that they had some good ideas. Maybe I'm missing your point...

[Whaddafuq]

Noam is good; Michael is GREAT

[starrider7777]

They are both great. Check out Chalmers Johnson too.

[WESTCOASTLATIN]

noam chomsky is old and kinda boring it makes me go to sleep but i love his ideology

[Congest]

Parenti is a very good public speaker. I would much rather listen to him talk than, say, Noam Chomsky, who seems to get all the attention.

[logansafi]

While I like Michael Parenti, too, I remember how positive he was about the state of America 8 years ago! At one of his talks back then, I spoke out and said that his positive assessment of the state of American affairs was way off, and that the Left was totally isolated, repressed, and disabled. I got roundly chewed out for this opinion, by both Parenti and his audience fans, an aging Leftie-liberal, white collar sort. Still, this video showed Parenti at his very best.

[29XXX]

logansafi, perhaps you helped wake him up from his day dream.

[482c]

I agree and then some--he should move out of Berkeley into a working class neighborhood for a start.

[westphalianprinz]

Parenti is excellent. His writing so good and so clear. Sometimes I think that if Karl Marx were alive today and of a New York Italian-American background, he would sound a lot like Michael Parenti.

[Larrym4384]

Take Dr. Parenti to heart! He is the best thinker of our time. Great tone. Nice humor. Great rhetorical technique. Always opens my eyes. Leaders in the peace movement should model him. His oration is a powerful punch of critical thinking in action.

[WhyNotTruth]

You are so right!!!