If you don't know who Saul Williams is, the time has come for you to experience this man's brilliance. Saul can say more in six minutes than some of us will say in a lifetime.
"What have you bought into, what will it take to buy you out?"
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Zeitgeist
15 comments:
I saw him a couple of times while at NYU. Love his words.
I kept pretty tame and didn't really party all that much but I did go to poetry jams, something they have a lot of in NY and something definitely lacking here.
I hadn't heard of Saul Williams, but I definitely enjoyed the clip and will have to look into him. Some radical friends of mine always referred to what we have here in America as "the bribe". We trade in our awareness and critical thinking in return for those material comforts. Sell our soul for security ... the great Faustian bargain. But like Faust, we'll wake up on our death bed and recognize what we've done was lose our humanity. Too many folks operating under the vain conceit that this pact is guaranteed for life. If the economy tanks, they'll figure out how temporary it really is.
Haven't heard of Saul Williams either. He seems a lot like the radicals from back in the sixties and seventies who have failed miserably. They all sold out in the end (or died from drugs, assassinations, etc.) I think the question this raises is who is going to lead the new revolution of ideas... ideas are the new power in this new meme of infotainment and social online collaboration and communities
Great clip. This definitely needs to be put out there, because the hip hop has turned into a corporate-run minstrel show. So much of it is self-hate music made palatable through dreams of easy money and attractive women to be treated like objects.
And even though this in the realm of hip hop, there's a broader message about wealth, too. When I talk to anybody, my relatives or my white or black friends, about making money, they all start getting revved up. It's a wild-goose chase. But the reality is 99.9% of us will never touch the kind of economic security they have convinced society to chase after.
Coop,
Woah! There are very few things in this life that cause me to feel envious of another, but, wow, that is awesome, I wish I could have experienced that. I would love to be able to see Saul and other poets in the flesh...
That's lacking here in Southern Michigan too.
Fran,
You're just going to have to start posting over here, because half the time your comments express the idea better than the original post. ^^
Not much to add to your assertions aside from: word up!
Skeptic,
That's one of the things I dig about Saul Williams, even now, after he's achieved success, he stays true to the calling. THIS GUY is the type of personality we need as a leader.
"ideas are the new power in this new meme of infotainment and social online collaboration and communities"
A scary prospect, isn't it? When I was a young kid, I had it pounded into me (as a mechanism of morality based thought control) that to simply contemplate doing something, was equal to actually having done it. Fast forward to the contemporary, and filter that through blogging, a medium through which many of us share deeply personal ideas. Only, they are hung out there for the world to see.
What happens when our "progressive" ideas are misunderstood by the far-right, morality obsessed, thought police?
If you're comfortable sitting at home, that's where the missile will hit first.
Nelson,
It's crazy, isn't it!? Forget about anything tangible, never you mind substantial priorities, just chase that cash. You hit on one of the strongest ideas in this interview: "you can't make billions of dollars without oppressing people, without hurting people." I'd ask why people don't realize this, but what would be the point? I believe we DO understand this, and the wealthier we are, the more we choose to ignore the reality of the source of that wealth.
In the meantime, as you point out, 99% of us will never see that kind of money. Which makes our money grubbing behavior all the more tragic: it's not even a situation where the end justifies the means. Some of the poorest among us, want so badly to be perceived as wealthy, that they emulate all the negative traits of the elite, with none of the benefits of being "rich."
So messed up.
James,
You said it brother. Who cares about anyone else, I'm feelin' good right here, right now. So long as my life stays that way, ignorance remains bliss.
Wow! I never heard of this guy either but he sure tells it like it is. Thanks Dave for letting me know about this guy. I am off to find out more about him.
I see you are over here holding it down as usual.
I got my running shoes on, but I decided to run by your spot.