Minute 56:56
When we recognize these acts of courage, we then necessarily recognize our own responsibilities as citizens, and as part of the human family to get involved, and to get engaged, and to take a stand to vote, to pay attention.
I hope that current members of Congress recall that it actually doesn’t take a lot of courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential. But it does require some courage to champion the vulnerable, and the sick, and the infirm; those who often have no access to the corridors of power. I hope they understand that courage means not simply doing what is politically expedient, but doing what they believe deep in their hearts, is right. And this kind of courage is required from all of us. Those of us who consider ourselves progressives, those of us who are democrats, we’ve got some soul searching to do to see what kind of courage we show; we have our own dogmas. Those of us not in elected office, have to show some courage. We’re prone to bestow the mantle of courage too easily on the prominent and the powerful , and then too eager to wrap ourselves in cynicism when they let us down when they weren’t perfect. We lose sight sometimes of our own obligations – each of ours. All the quiet acts of courage that unfold around us every single day, ordinary Americans, who give something of themselves not for personal gain, but for the enduring benefit of another.
Barack Obama
The people who are changing the world are not the powerful, but very often the poor people. It’s the power of generosity and justice. Not the power of money. The power is pure heart, and pure heart is when you serve the poor, you educate your heart, and when you serve the poor and educate your heart, this is the power of faith. Don’t think that the people who are going to change this world are the more powerful. If you serve him (the poor man) you serve me (God), and you serve me – you can change the world. the rich people might push you to serve them. If you serve somebody who has nothing, it means that you might be close to God. Change the way you look, so that it’s coming from your heart. When you deal with the poor, you understand that the poor people, the people who are marginalized, are treated by power and authority which is not acceptable sometimes. Every single human being has the same dignity. You can’t accept any situation where there is a lack of dignity. Go and change the world.
Tariq Ramadan
Minute 32:02
Minute 4:23
Poverty is passed on. It’s taught in your families. And “middle class” is taught in families. And so the people right now who are struggling financially or worried about money, or unhappy with what they’re doing, it was probably taught to you. Your super-ego was taught: get a job, work hard, or you’ll never be rich, or “the rich are evil”, or whatever… Until you change your mindset, money won’t help you. And we see that with people that win the lottery. People that make more money, they still have the same problems, because they have that poor man’s soul… If you’re poor, you’ll always be poor. That’s really hard for people to understand. The money will disappear that fast… Just like most pro athletes. They make millions of dollars, and what, 65% are bankrupt five years later – it’s because they come from poorer families. Now you tell them that, they get very angry at you. “It’s the rich’s fault”, “you guys ripped me off”, and “the government ripped me off”.
Robert Kiyosaki
The overpopulation seems to grow out of the quest of the oligarch to find a way to define other people as sub-human or non-human. If you look around, say Italy, and you look at sculpture and things you can find out in public squares – you’ll see the oldest oligarchical trick in the book: humans and beasts. Humans and animals. Creatures part-human, part-animal. A very dangerous combination. The oligarch attempts to say that the common run of mankind is really an animal. But the oligarch, the people of wealth, family – these are inherently superior. So that the answer to the problem that this creates, tends to be the extermination of the poor, the useless eaters, the lower classes, the inferior, racial minorities of course are always a favorite (obvious) target. We can trace this back 3000 years. Three millennia, that the world is overpopulated, and that technology is not available. So the oligarch says: if there are not enough hats, the answer is not to produce more hats but to cut off heads. And that’s what you see.
The abolition of welfare was the worst thing Clinton did, and there were people who resigned from his administration based on this treacherous act that he carried out. The abolition of welfare has created a permanent class of paupers. And these paupers are in extreme poverty.
Webster Tarpley
Minute 00:01 – minute 2:25
A series of statistics published about the degree of poverty that you find in these strata. You’re talking about a family of four living under less than $12,000 a year. This is just unspeakable. It’s not clear how anybody can do this. The cost is going to be seen in cognitive impairment of children who have been denied sufficient protein in their diets when they’re very young. That is barbarism, and it cannot be allowed, and there is no economic argument that can justify that. […] They don’t have medical insurance.
When you go study homelessness, there are lots of causes of homelessness. Mental incapacity issues are a very hard to cure problem. Serious drug addiction – a very hard-to-cure problem. But there’s another bucket of homelessness which is transient homelessness, which is: a woman with kids, the father runs away, and he was the only person providing any income, and they have no support system – they have no family. That’s transient homelessness. You can really help that person. And you, by the way, only need to help them for 6 – 9 months, you get them trained, you get them a job. They’re perfectly productive members of society.