Encountering the Other, Part Three

Home of the Brave

Scott Carrier

Society And Culture

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My operating hypothesis is that our cultural divide is a function of our oligarchic government. If a relatively few super-rich people control our wealth and power then it would be in their interest to keep the masses angry and blaming each other, fighting amongst themselves. In this way Donald Trump is a tool of the oligarchy, dividing us by twitters—so efficient and profitable and addicting—he incites fear of the other.

So, if this is true, the most effective method of fighting oligarchic control might be to give up our fear of the other. I’ve been trying to practice this method by driving around Trump Country and talking to people, listening to people, because I find that listening dissolves fear.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Home of the Brave, I'm Scott Carrier.
0:10.0	In the last episode I became upset when a woman wearing a gun told me Donald Trump had been born again as a baby Christian.
0:19.0	And I considered giving up my pursuit of the other,
0:22.8	as there seemed to be no hope of crossing the divide
0:26.2	and finding common ground.
0:28.5	I felt like Donald Trump had grabbed me by the pussy.
0:39.0	But then I got over it and I went back out to Trump country, this time to the west, to Nevada,
0:42.0	the basin and range, probably the least populated area in the lower 48 because it's
0:48.7	a desert.
0:50.2	We call it the basin and range because the topography is a pattern of desert basins separated by mountain ranges, more than a hundred of them, covering all of Nevada and parts of Utah and Oregon. My first stop was in Wells, Nevada, a small
1:07.8	economically depressed town with two truck stops and two brothels. I was driving in the town off the freeway and saw a man sitting
1:17.0	out in front of an old gas station and it looked like he was living there and he had it up for
1:22.1	sale.
1:23.6	He waved as I went by so I stopped to talk and the first thing he said after hello
1:29.4	was that the sheriff arrested him for assault with a deadly weapon.
1:34.0	So can you tell me your name?
1:36.0	It's James Lewis
1:38.0	Schwab like the tire company.
1:41.0	And I was driving by and you waved at me, which was very nice.
1:45.0	Well, I'm a friendly person.
1:47.0	Is this your house?
1:49.0	Well, it's kind of like a condominium.
	...

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