Current Events – Presentation

Third Saturday Seminar 2015-2016
Return of the Elders, Unleash your Wisdom

Session 9

“The Future of Political Power”

A discussion – Will life get better?

Saturday, 18 June 2016 9:30AM til 12:00 NOON

Room B-102, Lone Star College – Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive – Conroe, TX – 77384 – 936.273.7000

This is that last session of this 2015-16 Academic Year. We will start again in the September 2016.

Last Thursday on PBS NewsHour , I caught the following report by Paul Solmon:

How do humans gain power? By sharing it

7:49 Video duration: 06/09/16 Rating: NR

In the past, violence was the quickest route to establishing dominance. But today, people gain influence by advancing the welfare of others, according to Dacher Keltner. The more power people derive from helping others, however, the more likely they are to prioritize selfishness over altruism – leading to what Keltner calls a ‘power paradox.’ Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports.

Something also led me back to Bill Maher’s recent interview of Nick Hannauer, on “Real Time,” 3 Jun 2016.  Nick Hanauer is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist living in Shoreline, Washington.  If you remember TSS featured Nick Hannauer on 21 Feb 2015 in “Of Pitchforks and Black Swans” Governance-Politics-Wars (Continued),TSS-14-15,Session 4. Here is a quote from Hannauer’s “Memo” to his fellow plutocrats:

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

Here is Bill Maher’s Real time interview of Nick Hannauer. (7:25 min) Nick is still on topic!
Bill Maher Full Interview Nick Hanauer On Rising the Minimum Wage June 3, 2016 (HBO)

Then, I recalled an interesting Session we did on 20 April 2013, TSS 12-13, session 7: “Power? Power? Whose power is it anyway?” The presentation is linked here or go direct to it here

Even shortly after the Revolutionary War, naysayers, some well-meaning, were predicting that Democracy in America would be short-lived.  They just couldn’t see how a government of humans could hold this radical idea together and predicted a return to if not a monarchy, some dictatorial form of government.  I understand that Lafayette on his last visit to the United States to receive the thanks of a grateful country begged our leaders to do everything in their power to preserve our democracy, so it would become a model for other nations, and so it has.(Or did. GCG 2016))

However, our ability to exercise strong rational governance is no longer apparent.  We have become polemicized, stupid and gullible. Our forefathers put in writing a Constitution that masterfully created a balance of power and protected everyone against the excesses of the powerful, including the powerful institutions of the various levels of government as well as commercial and corporate interests.  In creating the Bill of Rights that provided this protection to the individual, along with the “balance of powers” it appears that we have created what political scientist Frank Fukuyama called ‘vetocracies,’ which I heard used last Thursday by  Moises Naim, the author of “The End of Power,” as he was being interviewed by Ray Suarez of the PBS Newshour.

And, finally, as I surfed the Internet (Some say, “Googled”) in the i-Tunes description of “The Future of Power”: Its Changing Nature and Use in the Twenty-first Century (Unabridged) an audiobook by Joseph Nye, I found this tight bit of text. 
It nicely completes the foundation of data for our Third Saturday discussion

 “The Future of Political Power”  (Will life get better?)

The Internet has literally put power at the fingertips of non-state agents, allowing them to launch cyber attacks on governments from their homes and creating a security threat that is felt worldwide. But the cyberage has also created a new power frontier among states, ripe with opportunity for developing countries. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, America had about a quarter of the world’s product but only 5 percent of its population. It was indisputably the most powerful nation in the world, unsurpassed in military strength and ownership of world resources. Today, China, Brazil, India, and others are increasing their share of world power resources, but remain unlikely to surpass America as the most powerful nation if the United States adopts new strategies designed for a global information …

Check out Jospeh Nye’s The Future of Power: Its Changing nature and Use in the Twenty-first Century audiobook on iTunes or in other formats on Amazon.

As usual, our world is still in “interesting times”.  We will start the session with Current Events (Distractions)

• The Orlando Shootings.  49 people murdered, 50+ injured.  Raises myriad issues and questions. I’m tempted to open a soap box rental. This doesn’t diminish the tragedy or the broken families who have lost, or the scope of the damage or the media coverage that is tempting the next lone wolf.
• Hillary has the numbers.  Bernie still has energy and 12 million friends.  Comey has yet to invite Hillary Clinton to an interview, what is he waiting for?
• The Donald continues to double down on his tirades.  Are there enough angry people to put him in office.  He certainly doesn’t have much respect for the feelings or the concerns of the Grand Old Party
• Mohammad Ali passes on and his life is celebrated by thousands.  And lets keep his message of love alive.
• Houston experienced floods we have seen for a long time.  We love to live near the water, until the water decides to move in with us.  Most of us have fared well, some obviously have not.  Some are ready to sue the city and/or the shopping Mall that expanded.

Third Saturday Seminars – Spring 2016
6 Sessions
To refer to an ancient Chinese saying, “our world is in interesting times” and individual citizens are assaulted with a blinding array of propaganda from every conceivable source. The Third Saturday Seminar is about demystification of what is going on around us. Time will also be spent on current events. Meets 1/16, 2/20, 3/12, 4/16 (2^nd Sat), 5/21 and 6/18. Meets on Montgomery Campus in B102.
15216        S     1/16-6/18 9:30 a.m.-Noon  B102         Gibby

LSC-Montgomery
3200 College Park Drive, Conroe, TX 77384
ALL- Montgomery Links:
Academy for Lifelong Learning: LSC-Montgomery
http://www.lonestar.edu/all-montgomery.htm
Steven Gorman
Program Manager, Academy for Lifelong Learning,
LSC-Montgomery 936.273.7259
steven.gorman@lonestar.edu

Registration
How do I register for a class? You can fill out a registration form and submit it to ALL:
·         In person: LSC-Montgomery (3200 College Park Dr., Conroe, TX 77384), Continuing Education/ALL Office Building E (Room 205)
·         Phone: 936.273.7446 ,Fax: 936.273.7262

Reminder for ALL members:
Please let ALL know if you change your address, phone number, or email. Call 936.273.7446 or email: MCALL@LoneStar.edu.

“Some part of our being knows this (the universe) is where we came from. We long to return. And we can. Because the cosmos is also within us; We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”  Carl Sagan

See you Saturday!
Curt Gibby, Director