Requiem for the American Dream Page #2

of the rich.

Well, same dilemma,

they had opposite solutions.

Aristotle proposed what we would

nowadays call a welfare state.

He said,

"try to reduce inequality."

So, same problem,

opposite solutions.

One is reduce inequality,

you won't have this problem.

The other is reduce democracy.

If you look at the history

of the United States...

It's a constant struggle

between these two tendencies.

A democratizing tendency

that's mostly coming from

the population, pressure from below,

and you get this constant battle

going on, periods of regression,

periods of progress.

The 1960s for example,

were a period of significant

democratization.

Sectors of the population

that were usually passive

and apathetic became organized,

active, started pressing their

demands.

And they became more and more

involved in decision-making,

activism and so on.

It just changed consciousness

in a lot of ways.

Minority rights,

If democracy means freedom,

why aren't our people free?

If democracy means justice,

why don't we have justice?

If democracy means equality,

why don't we have equality?

Women's rights,

This inhuman system

of exploitation will change,

but only if we force it to

change, and force it together.

Concern for the environment,

A unique day

in American history is ending,

a day set aside for a nationwide

outpouring of mankind seeking

its own survival.

Opposition to aggression,

I say

to those who criticize us

for the militancy of our dissent

that if they are serious

about law and order,

they should first provide it

for the Vietnamese people,

for our own black people

and for our own poor people.

Concern for other people,

One day we must ask

the question,

"why are there 40 million

poor people in America?"

When you begin

to ask that question,

you're raising a question

about the economic system,

about a broader

distribution of wealth,

the question of restructuring

the whole of American society.

These are all

civilizing effects...

And that caused great fear.

I hadn't anticipated

the power...

I should've, but I didn't

anticipate the power

of the reaction

to these civilizing effects of the '60s.

I did not anticipate the strength of

the reaction to it.

The backlash.

There has been an enormous

concentrated, coordinated...

Business offensive

beginning in the '70s

to try to beat back

the egalitarian efforts

that went right

through the Nixon years.

You see it in many respects,over on the right,

you see it in things like the famous Powell

Memorandum... (Associate Justice of the SC)

Sent to the chamber of commerce,

the major business lobby,

by later Supreme Court

justice Powell...

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