and socialism then and now. >> get afternoon everyone. my name is kyle george stead. i have to say, it would not be a true visit back without al stereotypical brain, nice to see most of your made it dry. i'd like to remind you we have a book table outside in the atrium so i would encourage you to check that out at some point during the conference. we would also like to thank our sponsor, the united states just as charitable foundation, and for filming and we're broadcasting this lecture. this is titled, millennials for flirtation with socialism. we will focus on the american fixation with socialism, and in particular my generations fixation, which i'm as shocked as many of you are by. it is my pleasure introduce three professors who will speak to us today. is andrew mitchell associate professor of history who earned his bachelor degree -- his masters and doctorate from ohio state university. he contributed a chapter for a book about this -- limits of empire. europeans of empire, formation in early modern rock history. to dr. david hofstetter earned his ba, ma, and phd from ohio state university. his published articles on reader -- the transatlantic classicism of william godwin and charles martin brown, and philosophical perspectives on 19th century science and mary shelley, as well as text books on writing and basic christian apologetics. dr. eric a potter is a professor of english whose avid -- academic specialties include american literature, contemporary poetry, and religion in red -- literature. book is -- dr. potter received his bachelor's from wheaton college and his masters and doctorate from the university of virginia. after we hear from each of our speakers, we will have a short question and answer session. please think of any questions you may have a layer up your presenting. please join me in welcoming our speakers today. [applause] >> thank you very much, good afternoon. poison squads, polish workers sausage -- the talk is not entirely accurate. -- i was allicit with the it and converted. [laughter] youpe you haven't eaten, if have i apologize in advance. the 20th century started off with a bang for america. and immediate future promised big things. after decades of global political indifference, america chose to embark on empire, taking up the white man's burden and puerto rico and the philippines. in 19 032 brothers from a higher on teens -- did the unthinkable command aerial flight. americans won gold and 78 of the 94 olympic events at the third modern olympiad in st. louis. the gate which of the west was also hosting an international exposition and impressed foreign visitors with the brits and scale of american accomplishments, including the waffle cone. [laughter] of five, president theodore roosevelt further enhance the country's repetition international latecomer brokering a peace deal between russia, and japan that would earn him america's first-ever nobel prize. --ustrially, military militarily, diplomatically, we behaved like the great european powers. but when it came to the small matter of ensuring minimal quality food and drink for its citizens, the nationwide mind. ever since the revolutionary upheavals of 1848 european countries recognized it traditionally liberal approach to economics, laissez-faire handling of social developments was no longer sufficient to cope by -- large scale urbanization. england france and prussia led the way. by the end of the 19th century all that legislation constituted the food and drink. concern for consumer played a leading role. fractures series of pushed back the need to address broader social issues until after the civil war. and 19 and six, over 190 bills were introduced aimed at stopping the -- food and drugs. all of them were killed before reaching floor vote. senator aldrin, a republican from nebraska took things a step further when he introduced a peer for the law in 1890, the right to empower the department of agriculture specifically with greater oversight of foods that were across state borders. after two years and committee, it passed the senate but was quickly killed in the house. the bills kept coming. the progressive's desire to use the federal government as a principal tool to establish fair competition between large and small companies and to protect the consumer from profit hungry businessmen, shared by small and internally divided -- internally, protects eternally, socialist party in america. both groups actively supported the 19 of. food and drug act which on paper or establish the first federal regulatory agency, the future fda. some might create the bill as federal oversight, it was a vision of three individuals, none of whom possessed a clear socialist vision that were chiefly responsible for the passage of this bill. in the early 1900s the american public can about socialism to the extent that it provided sensational news items such as the assassination of the governor of idaho in 1905 are other like scandals. they are to care about the food industry can much of the same way. traditional american food waste were stingy -- changing rapidly after the civil war and confidence of the quality of what was consumed tended to fall. the spheres found expression in the news media, found an extremely -- strong correlation and articles pertaining to high public health and high circulation numbers. the first event take these concern to a national level came during the spanish-american war 1898-1899. there was little fighting done. the national press began looking for human interest stories. one concerned major general elson miles and puerto rico, who frequently campaigned about the quality of food issued to his men, deriving it as involved the. as soldiers returned home, the accounts of rancid meat seemed to cooperate tales of criminal negligence coming out of the commissary department. the public remains uneasy, watching something further -- nothing further to be done. broken -- outspoken person was harvey washington wiley. while he was born on an indiana boy,in 1844 and as man and was both strong, religious, and intellectual inclinations, both worked with a concern for. he. by 1883, he had many name for himself as one of the nations leading chemical experts on sugar. following this involved beef scannell -- scandal, widely considered the countryside failed in its duties to protect the american public. he bemoans the public's seemingly insurmountable stupidity. as europe's in a scientific journal at the turn-of-the-century, to be treated for them those old deceived had a fox demagogues have no ties, manicured and carrabba dies, or privileges dear to us all. government shall attempt to deprive us of these inalienable rights. for the next seven years, wiley would demand a greater role for federal regulation, particularly with labeling and marketing the food industry. this chemist for trade himself as an impartial champion of consumer rights. recent studies have noticed an intriguing correlation between them greased publications about food safety and purity and a noticeable rise in competition for congressional appropriations between federal bureaucracies from 18--- 1890-1910 especially bureaus under the department of agriculture. by -- harvey wiley was serving the american public, also testifying to congress a reason for keeping his chemistry bureau intact or expanding its numbers and budget at the expense of others. wiley's first success in drawing attention and appropriations came with congressional approval to form he called poison squads. widely advertised nationally for 12 volunteers just -- well into summit to extreme eating conditions over the course of 12 months. at every male, men are given pure food cooked but sometimes by well he personally, others by a professional chef. following their mail there are particular given food -- such as a glass of acid. they would does it back after the meal and some of them got and wileyut that eventually put them in casserole form and they would just pop it back -- capsule form. specific scientific conclusions were lacking. at the in the five years they said they have -- can cause harm to any consumer. nevertheless, an emboldened harvey wiley took the cause of full food -- this to the cod -- to congress. labeling on food purchasing the country -- only the feud -- could guarantee that label. while he responded indignantly to those who objected, character and opponents as bugs, scampering from under a log when the light is shone upon it. these bugs have clout, and wiley's first be at -- get the drug at past with resounding defeat. following this failure, wiley turned to the muckraking press and attempted to flame his opponents. needless to say, businesses responded to this abuse and kind in a massive public relations battle flared up, and make great reading for the american public and had to be given a much-needed roos -- boost on a depressed author. often sinclair had come from southern -- phone number times. his father had moved to new york city to try to improve the family fortune but instead has succumbed to alcoholism. sinclair discovered his literary talents at a junior college and would use them to help provide for himself and his widowed mother. despite passion and talent, his work actually stagnated by the turn-of-the-century. it was at this point that sinclair could previously denounced socialism and cereals -- began to reconsider the ideology. by 1904, swayed by the intellectual cachet of a new circle of friends, he became a convert to read shortly after that transformation, sinclair gave up writing the great american novel, left his wife, and traveled to chicago. there he lived for the next few months, working in a meatpacking facility, talking to his fellow employees about the conditions. billion of his days, the months in chicago's featured prominently in sinclair's stories and anecdotes. a publisher was quickly had come at julius whelan's association -- socialist appeal to reason, and the jungle started in february of 1905. for the next eight months the significant readership became aware of the struggles facing lithuanian immigrants -- while men falling into vats to be turned into lard imprinted themselves vividly in our imaginations. for all that, the jungle is not a success. serialization stopped before the novel was completed. he tried to self publish the work. before he could do so, and a man named hybrid -- isaac marcus and satire, readrlier the manuscript and convinces bosses to publish it. theater roosevelt fresh from brokering the treaty of fort smith weighed in on the issue. in a state of the union address in december 19 of five, the president publicly endorsed the need for a cure -- law. his urging a congressional ill regulating this boost could not have come at a more auspicious time. of 5-19 and six christmas vacation was not pleasant for most senators. and it would published work entitled the treason of the senate had accused nearly every single member of the body of thing in the pay of -- the work thoroughly concerted the washington community and with increased public pressure persuaded congress to act. on the 10th of december 19 -- 10th of january, republican senator's buddy. -- the second debate held a week later determined it would pass, administered by the commerce treasury and agriculture department with wiley's bureau of chemistry. the floor vote on the 21st of february right around the time the jungle was sitting -- from double the cap dashcam at 63-4 in favor with 22 abstaining. the bill proceeded to the house where it languished. it was wild bill was under consideration in the house the teddy roosevelt invited upton sinclair to meet him at the white house. he arrived on the fourth of april where he learned result had been so taken with the jungle he received an advanced copy. he proposed to send a hand-picked team of investigators to chicago. when their report revealed that if anything the jungle had understated conditions in some factories, both sinclair and results patients gave out. in the wake of continued congressional abstinence, both men released detailed, certified notes of chicago make points that decisively turned the tide. amended. the 23rd of june, signed by president roosevelt on the 30th of june, together with the meat inspection eminent. the courts would have a final say on any disputes that might arise between packers and inspectors, instead of giving the agricultural department carte blanche -- to receive -- violations. precisely to us to take credit for the final passage became controversy since the law took effect. most oft initially -- the praise was on wiley, but on sinclair. denounced later on in the year as, hysterical and untruthful. a crackpot -- sinclair's has been controversial itself. one recent food historian has boldly stated that within weeks of the published -- publication of the jungle, meet sales fell by half across the country. other historians study of you sure less -- despite the phenomenal sales, even sinclair had a mixed feelings about its reception, lamenting, and that america's heart inhibits stomach by accident. [laughter] most of the food and drug act, testified to congress on its behalf, but should the publish to encourage its passionate to construct coalition committee was unnatural that harvey washington wiley was going to become the chief administrator of the law and would do so until resigning from washington in 1912. despite increasing disillusionment with washington and republican parties, wiley maintain the honor of promoting this act until the end of his days, resenting any rival who challenges's share of glory. whatever affect this bill might've had in starting a precedent for future regulation of businesses, the practical effects of the peer food and drug act were negligible. even with the passage of this pure food drug and has manic act in 1938, a vibrant kenton -- tension existed between federal and state oversight to ms. -- and third-party oversight organizations. all these regulators as american consumers themselves, wanted to ensure the quality of food being produced. didn't want tops have impossibly high standards for food and quality that american businesses might suffer as a result, particularly with overseas markets. perhaps the most notable success lay in creating a spirit of trust in the american public that their federal government was looking out for their best curbing american bigger businessmen and providing them not only with accurate information but a guarantee that all foods they could part -- purchase in a grocery store were pure or safe. no one looks -- at the history the law, challenges to its passage and challenges spoken by its implementation over a more thanter progressivism -- not necessarily socialism. harvey wiley clearly pushed the bounds of her piety and advocating for a law that would have added the power of his multi-bureau of chemistry, the department of agriculture. teddy roosevelt was interested in curbing practices he believed represented extremes. all the while, keeping federal intrusion businesses and minimum. was moren sinclair than the socialist tradition commencement and by the chance to live in an environment different from his own upbringing rendering electricity turned america's public stomach -- and who superlatively sacrificed socialist appeal fell on deaf ears and literary thatcs have argued -- being said, the debate surrounding federal government regulation, its usefulness in improving overall conditions within an interesting, or the ability to create or sustain a fair environment between large corporations and on a subject for numbers remains the vibrant one. localizingt tendencies, concerns with copyright and end of it -- intellectual pop -- property in the birth of google and amazon, issues seem just as important as ever. there's even hope that politicians might begin thinking or talking in terms of a common nationallocal state or level, endeavoring to create a level playing field in which all can compete. here competition between big and small, well-informed consumers -- socially engaged to the of such abuse, what austin socialism want? thank you. [applause] >> think you for coming out. it is we are shifting from the historically true and real to the imaginatively disturbing. [laughter] all right. so, the services of socialism .nd dystopian science-fiction by way of introduction the millennial flirtation with recent polls show that up to 50% of millennials favorable view of socialism and no other demographic in america holds such a high regard for this socioeconomic system. interestingly, when students learn that socialism actually involves government intrusion into personal lives and the private sector, their enthusiasm for socialism diminishes. my thesis then, i propose that students be encouraged to read and discuss dystopian science-fiction fury -- featuring socialist inclined ideology as a way to increase their understanding of socialism is it truly is, not as they have been told it is through progressivist education and socialist propaganda. novels like a brave new world -- and the clockwork orange reveals for socialism dehumanizes the individual, denies natural law and destabilize his human sexuality in the natural family, destroys free thinking through status indoctrination, and then denies god, replacing true religion with state worship. suggest using -- a shattered vestige of socialism -- that is encouraging students to lift the legions away from the personally, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally destructive forces of socialism. so socialism, what is in a name? escutcheon and critique of socialism sometimes stumble over defining terms so let's clarify what i mean by socialism. now a common definition we could see for michael newman, he demonstrates that socialism is committed to in a galaxy area in society that ends wealth and power polities brought on by private ownership of quality -- in means of production but systematic unfairness of a competitive free-market system. socialism assumes that humans innateperfected and an ability to cooperate with others for the best interest of the collective. socialism believes in the possibility of change, conscious of human agency. with such a glowing appraisal of socialism, who wouldn't want to be a socialist? main definition most young people are learning at schools and university. let's look at a different perspective. socialism is a system of a political economy that prefers centralized political economic decision-making to achieve its ends. this is not a new idea. people in this book wrote -- certain is the same thing. the question is whether for this whether it should confine himself in general to creating conditions under which the knowledge and initiative of individuals are given the best scope, so that they can plan successfully or whether -- resources require central direction and the organization of all of our activities according to some consciously constructed blueprint. in his most charming way, cs lewis also discusses problems with socialism in his essay comments progress possible. says, the increasing complexity and precariousness of our economic life have forced government to take over many wants leftactivity to choice or chance. our intellectuals have surrendered first to the slave philosophy of hegel, than to marx, finally to the linguistic analyst, as a result classical political theory with its stoics, christian and touristic -- the value of the individual throughf this is died the modern state exists not to protect our rights, but to do a scooter make is good. to do something to us or to make a something -- hence the name, leaders for those who want rulers. we are less their subject than at their wars, peoples or the mastic animals. there is nothing less than -- that which we can say to them, my durham business, our whole lives for their business. to an economics system in which governmental powers make such allies planning decisions, affecting major if not all aspects of private and public life. so what are some underlying principles and assumptions here? rosen, technology, and dehumanization. dystopian novels per trading horrors of dehumanization is the ultimate consequence of socialist reductionism. brave new world and a clockwork orange explore the heart-wrenching trend is -- tragedies of such material reduction was in the transference a human into a technological product or what burgess politically calls, a clockwork orange. in the reductive materialistic socialist perspective, humans are nothing more than physical robots dancing to human dna -- humans are reactive agents, not free beings, and the mind and his choices are mere illusions caused by reactions in the material brain. gives us a world quintet of a society that operates according to this assumption that the human is nothing but a product of chemistry, biology, and genetics. so the novel we see the narrative coming back, that's how they justify doing what they do to the humans. for example, central planning scientists view humans is near molecule motion and redesign society as humans -- and it's humans into classes of people genetically and mentally predisposed to jobs, cultural roles, and social functions. humans possess the freedom to change or improve their station in life. they are physically predetermined and cognitively conditioned to remain in a particular class as determined by the planners. the pdr education as propaganda in psychotropic drugs control individual thinking and feeling. burgessockwork orange reveals a society in which players can strip people of their free will to force them to .e good central planners use medical technology to make it physically impossible for arson to commit a crime, a different -- difficult to think about committing crime even. the state's use of medical technology to force individuals to be good to make it emotionally, psychologically, and physiologically impossible for the individual to choose evil is an unholy violence against the sanctity of being human. socialism leads to a loss of will for burgess and the destruction of soul. seriously though, socialism invoked more language to defendants its planning. the policies are ultimately for the good of the people and the community. the these novels demonstrate that an application, socialistic line policies are in more -- a moral and their effect and disrespectful humans by the gate in the dignity of autonomy of choice. the natural law, human sexuality, and the family. socialist and client perspectives radically -- radically alter human sexuality by changing natural law -- changing it to the sex is procreation to sexist recreation -- replacing the natural family with state childrearing. and engels incorporated this anti-family socialized sexuality perspective into their own socialist theories. marx argues that socialism with its abolition of private property, capitalism, and religion, would like wise replace traditional marriage with an reg out hearing system of free love for communal marriage. claimse, and his -- socialism ends private property and in the said city of cannot -- without monogamy many people would -- wouldn't have multiple sex partners -- in this socialist vision, sexual liberty frees both men and women from the tierney of exclusive sexual love. these classical perspectives, not only anticipates, but also structure ofthe traditional family and normalizations of love. the socialist ideal is achieved in a brave new world through materialistic science, operating from the fundamental denial of natural law. new world, marriage is outlawed, and people are forced to have multiple sexual partners. children are conditioned to view sex as divorce from procreation. -- child rearing occurs in state run conditioning warehouses, where children are prepared for predetermined roles in society to curb pavlovian cycles. characters and a novel naturally resist and they must be forced to comply with socialist incline propagandaonstant and psychotropic medication. although the truth may seem controversial today, the novel represents the folly of altering the natural design of the family and of human sexuality. socialist planning and a clockwork orange decimates the theitional family government in this novel requires all able-bodied adults to work. this lot fragments the national think -- natural family unit forcing alex is the main character and other children to seek self-destructivestructures. gangs. they seek them to revive necessary social framework through which to navigate the challenges of maturation, education and identity formation. gangs are doing this. the result is juvenile malignancy, immorality, and teenagers participating in violent rape, or jesus of blood, sex and violence. such is a logical and inevitable outworking of socialized sex and family. according to the novels, socialism denies natural law and subverts traditional family with horrific personal and social ramifications. idolatry isoned poison for the masses. marx famously said religion is the opiate of the masses, helping people except impoverish life with hopes of heavenly riches. dystopian science-fiction reveals socialism to be poisoned, replacing historic religion with idolatry of the state, leading to spiritual emptiness and moral bankruptcy. the world new world, recognizes human spiritual longings and creates a materialist communal religion. it is named after henry ford, secular god of mass production. state restarts the calendar for the year of our ford. [laughter] the sign of the t replaces sign of the cross. spirit filled worship services are replaced with pornographic films and 40 services in which drugs and alcohol creates artificially induced charismatic experiences. there is a secular allies the elegy -- secularized the elegy that the base of the yes and through these debates, huxley reveals secularism to be existentially untenable and spiritually vacuous. in a clockwork orange, burgess reveals the moral dangers of socialism's denial of god and its reliance on moral relativism. in the absence of an objective standard one person's pain and suffering are another persons pleasure enjoyed. alex clearly realizes this. he gains pleasure and joy from stealing, assaulting, raping and murdering innocent victims because he likes to. burgess exposes the moral oppressiveness of socialism. in the absence of god is the giver of objective moral law, socialism's attempt to free the person simply leads to a simply planned state built upon the exercise of arbitrary power. given that socialism elevates the state tonight on this level -- and idolatrous level, awful millennials, especially christians -- thoughtful millennials should think about embracing a godless ideology. a third wayn, between capitalism and socialism. millennials are disenchanted with capitalism and turning to socialism. students should being curis to study both systems to understand better how both have functioned in history. it is not enough to critique socialism and expect students to embrace capitalism. must we choose between these two economic systems only? is a possibly a false dichotomy? is a record option? -- is there a third option? students should be introduced to a third option. it is based on catholic teachings. it warns against the dangers of centralized power, the corporate governmental. the resident's v -- the rights of individuals should be protected against larger organizations. sm condorson i redistribution of wealth. it advocates for equitable restoration of the means to production. new civilization is the root of injustice. it advocates for extension of private property and private ownership of tools and resources for goods and services. encourages the growth of small businesses, discourages, mergers and monopolies encourages cooperatives, seeks privatization of industry and desires to ship power from large central government to small local government. critics discuss various tactical and logical problems with this and proponents attempt to refute the charges. the discussion is quite lively and intellectually rigorous. i am not convinced we must choose either socialism or commercial capitalism. right now marshall capitalism, for all the wondrously good things that has done, is not providing completely satisfactory answers such that a majority of these students are turning to socialism, progressivism and socialist and client centralized planning for answers. i think they are being sold and build a good too costly to bear. distributist ideals will provide answers to their hearts. maybe one of these bright young students will synthesize a fourth way. when that brings the light of god's truth and the joy of christ's love into the hearts and minds of millions. made of the our prayer and they got make it so, for his glory and our good and for the good of all people who are made in his glorious image to be creatively productive and have meaningful and orderly lives. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. i will be talking about the cries of the heart of the young people. "hip-hoptoday is hoping: spoken word and dreams for a better world." i will not be talking about "hamilton." [laughter] sadly. the organizers give us two observations. one that has been touched on. young americans are more favorably disposed toward socialism and older americans, and that socialism is the most looked upward on webster.com in 2015. that observation led me to two questions, or led them to two questions. why are you people in favor of an ideology about which they apparently know so little? will the culture socialism eventually collapse? the first question is difficult to answer. the second is impossible without a crystal ball. since i could not do either of those things, i thought i would get the issue. what are the young people thinking about? i wanted to get those questions by doing three things. i wanted to look at spoken word poetry, which is very popular among young americans. wayto use it as a possible of a window on how we look at the world, particularly their sense of problems facing society. then i wanted to compare them to the group of poets in the 1930's who are frustrated with their society and its problems and became disillusioned with capitalism and turned to communism, only to be quickly disillusioned by that. having me back comparison i want to draw whatever conclusions seem reasonable. in this talk i will focus on spoken word poetry and then some conclusions. what is spoken word poetry? some of you are maybe uncertain. you are thinking all poems have words. this is not so much red or recited as it is performed. like all the poetry, it is interested in what is said and it uses techniques we would expect homes to use. -- poems to use. you need to see the person performing it live or perhaps by video. tone of voice, gestures, facial expression. these are important. widely popular among young people, poetry slams, videos of spoken word performances uploaded to the internet, school and community based programs and organizations that are giving writing clubs, open mic events. these are always young americans are involved in spoken word poetry. what is its appeal? what is it about these programs and events that appeal to young people? most of them like them because they find they provide a safe haven. a place in which they can express their views, their questions, their identities with an assurance of being of second -- accepted. they find an open mic event a place where they can be taken seriously. something that often they don't find in their communities, traditional school settings, or sometimes even in the home. the participants know they will be listened to carefully at these events. the listeners will respond to them, sometimes affirmatively and sometimes by challenging them, but always with respect. another feature of these gatherings of young people who are sharing their poetry and their experiences provide opportunities for them to explore what is. they can talk about what my experience is like, in my community my understanding of things, and also a place for they can dream about what might be possible. dream a possible, better world. ok, ifllenge for me is it's a widespread genre but not written down, not anthologized, how do you get a sense of what they are writing about? what i thought i would do was to focus on the college union poetry slam invitational. it is a national organization of college-age participants, highly skilled or they would not be at the national competition. --sumably representov representative. last year there were 37 finalists. a few were humorous but most were quite serious. acceptance, call for change, combination of society -- condemnation of society. many feel ignored or misunderstood business -- as individuals. perhaps the spirit seek hostility and violence. i looked at the performances and try to categorize them in terms of recurring themes or issues. nearly half had to do with issues of race and ethnic identity. some addressing experiences of discrimination and violence. some struggles with identity, particularly the struggle to be accepted by the larger culture. another category having to do with sexuality and gender. somewhere about sexual encounters, but more were gender roles and gender identity issues. also a faires were number of poems, whether they were struggles of body image, or being objective five, whether they recounted experiences of rape or sexual violence. if you put the sexuality and gender category and women issues category together, it would be about as large as the race and ethnic identity category. mental health issues were also received with significant attention. describing the experience of mental illness or addressing familial and cultural stigma associated with mental illness. finally family relationships not surprisingly were the subject of many of the poems. a lot having to do with parents, parents abuse, substances. some dealt with terminally all family members, loss of parents, or the fear of inheriting abusive tendencies. as this overview reveals, a lot of the poems are concerned with freedom. therefore the individual or group the individual feels he or she represents, they want freedom from discrimination, oppression, from danger, and they long for acceptance. there is nothing overtly political in terms of them advocating a particular policy or party or political ideology. to give us a sense of these poems, for a better sense, i want to focus on two spoken word poems. i will give you grief clips but i want to talk about what they do. the first one is a poem that seems initially solely personal. in this: gabrielle smith addresses her friend, a black teen gunned down in philadelphia in 2010. by the end of the poem she broadens the scope of her concern. flashback. 19. flashback. basketball until the basketball bounces with more blood in your body. flashhing was gone in a and you cannot take it back. . >> just a taste. to get more intense as she goes. notice the performance element, the use of repetition, the use of "flash." a unifying technique for the poem. she repeats flashback over and over and give details of the murder and she shifts to flash, and emphasizes the suddenness and violence of the loss. the speed of her friend's death. language is important. uses basketball imagery throughout. she uses it to detect the dangers -- depict the dangers of death on the streets. he also personifies death of one point, calling him a ball hog, and got deciding to take it back to his court. this is very personal and that's part of the intensity of the situation as she remembers this friend and says, some days this world be jealous of your time, you shine brighter than a steel gun." there was also a vision element to it. she connects her friend deaths to the lives and out of other black girls. she affirms their values. by the end of the poem she sees them as thing like victims. -- saint-like victims. she says the soul has a memory of its own. she continues, "so let us not forget what is a black girl if not black magic. if not the first and last miracle." seeing a black girl is magic, she affirms the inherent value of each girl is a human being, as black, as female, and the loss of the violation of such a magical mirror the next these deaths so grievous. by her presenting these deaths with religiously charged language. every bullet is a false prophet making us no one's daughter, how cowards swinging heavy metal rob us from our mothers. ain't that what happened to jesus? ain't every black girl gone a saint? robbery, crucifixion-like slaughter of the innocent. such things ought not to be. the pollen contains an implicit anticism of society and implicit cry for a better world in which the magic of a black girl is priced and preserved -- prized and preserved. in the next the critique of society is march was it. criticizes society for imposing traditional gender identities on individuals that turns them and public rather than people. -- puppets rather than people. mywrists hang with in the air. >> khaki pants. >> purple church issues with tiny heels. >> [indiscernible] notice how important the performance element is in this piece, something you cannot get on the page. they are playing roles, complete with costumes and with gestures because the theme is the acting out of roles. the society, according to the poem, forces individuals to play. the individuals deal they are not true to themselves. playing a role is very important. to use gestures to act like puppets who strings are pulled by society. that is the biological female performer is dressed in traditional voice clothing, and the biological male isn't traditional girls clothing. the boy, based on the clothing, delivers information about the traditional girl identity. "to be a girl is to obey." the girl speaks more lines. "to be a boy is to get my way." on multiple levels of poland: request -- poem calls in the playboy traditional identities are in dress and behavior. the puppet theme is important. it reflects their sense that societally enforcement entities make them feel as if they are being controlled by another. they don't speak for themselves, as they make clear later. they want to resist but they find compliance is safer and less painful. the process of being informed to society leads them to a sense of alienation. they want to be free, but they seek conformity as a means of survival. their alienation is strong enough they say "my body is still far from any kind of home." what is their vision of what is possible? they expressed a hope for change. their sense of home. home is the body when you get to be you, no strings attached. the envision a possibly more free future, saying "gender is a stage and we are all fastened to it. don't be surprised when we break free." well, some tentative conclusions. what can we draw from this glance into the minds of at least some young people who are writing spoken word columns and performing them -- poems and performing them? they are aware of problems in their society. tracy society is having many problems that endanger individuals in the freedom. clearly they desire change. they can describe the problem, protest the problem, and they can dream of a better world. how might they go about bringing about that change? it may be only have exploring in this session to some degree, that some may be turning to socialism, even if they don't fully understand it. maybe they are turning to socialism because it seems the only option available when the current situation has failed to solve the kind of problems they see. what else is there? groups what led the auden to turn to communism. they felt western liberal democracies and capitalism had failed. maybe let the fascism. they turned to communism taking perhaps this was the alternative. they were quickly disillusioned. with young people become disillusioned if they turn to socialism? perhaps. aboutre skeptical politics in general. according to a poll conducted last spring by harvard's institute of politics, nearly half of america's 18 to 29-year-olds "believe today's politicians are unable to meet the country's challenges and a majority reject socialism and capitalism." what then is their vision? may beecause americans uncertain about how to change society, for what they envision judging from the poetry is a society something like a spoken word open mic night, a place for people of all kinds are welcomed, listen to, and respected. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much for those insights. we are going to turn to q&a. we will have to microphones going around the room. you have a question, go ahead and raise your hand. please make sure to keep it short as you can. under 30 seconds, so we can get to as many as possible. make sure you wait until the microphone reaches you so we can be sure the speakers and all the other audience members are able to hear your question. are there any questions? >> i happen to come by chance today. i did not think that would make this conference. is a very relevant topic. since i grew up in albania under socialism. i will throw out several questions and points. please feel free, dr. mitchell to just take one of them or whatever you think is most relevant, and the other is food for thought for everybody else. dr. mitchell, in the organization i recently met in albania we had vacated against more state control -- advocated against morsi control, but they were problems we truly faced albania. part of it is that state medicine has become a product of organized crime. isn't there some room for regulation? to put that in context, i remind everybody, since we are talking about chicago, that al capone was not caught because of the real activities of crime. the regulation might happen beyond the primary role. , here in the pittsburgh area, there was a news story investigation not repackaged meet in supermarkets usingt in supermarkets nitrogen to keep the color. some people got sick. i know the usual answer is the market will honest the perpetrator, but what about our sense of justice? if somebody risked dying, should never be some punishment? is in the room for the regulation? -- isn't there room for the regulation? dr. hofstadter, a couple of comments. great new world" is a dramatization of the 1950's and 1960's. it is free on the internet. i recommend it to everybody. science-fiction is really useful and exploring some of these recommendt i truly the 2015 movie "equals." it does something very similar. there was a question that in practice socialism and communism actually came out to defend the family in eastern europe. they did not try to dissolve the family like you see in the logical conclusion presented by "brave new world." any comments on the disconnect between theory and practice? i grew up with very strong family connections and encouraged to really keep the family as primary. one additional comment. if some of you have the patience to read "the sword of truth" series, book six will give you the best nature i have found -- picture i have found in fiction or nonfiction on what it is delivered to communism or socialism where the futility of created by the push to spy on family members and everything -- if you want to touch it, i recommend the time it takes to read the book. that is just a comment. a couple more things that i think it took enough time. -- but i think i took enough time. is this on? thank you for your comments. there is much that needed to be trimmed in the paper to get down to the time limit i went over. in terms of patent medicine first, while mr. wiley is advocating for the pure food and drug act, one of the biggest opponents lobbying against his legislation is the patent medicine lobby. while he is attending to the sense that even in the 19th century there were people putting labels on products that are inaccurate or even deleterious tier health. -- to your health. i was trying to convey the historical sense of what was going on. i think what he would agree there's room for regulation. i would support that as well. there is a call for that without calling it socialism. reserving -- and preserving the appearance of meat, one of the things that kept killing up these bills was the sense of who ultimately is in charge. will it be a subset of the usda, the bureau of chemistry, accommodation of the executive branches? should we just leave it up to the courts? in 1906 that is what they decide. it is wrong but we will handle it by punishing after-the-fact rather than trying to get regulations in to prevent it. is a valid question, one that exists today. not just in government but in all aspects of society. to what extent is punishing all you can do? to what extent is prevention possible? if prevention is possible, who were what is going to be the authority that does that? a very valid point. that, oneow up on reason why i'm becoming more interested is because of the one you make. markets can correct for things, but wherein lies the justice? the attention to people who are in fact harmed by that? one interesting thing about distributism is it focuses on the community so we shared goodness of life and how people contribute to each other's benefit, the individual is not erased as it is in common is a. there is -- as it is in communism. there is attention to the communal. and sometimes can be lost in some of the perspectives or markets correcting for things. in terms of the other question, is a fair point. there is a difference between the theories that are espoused and how they are locally expressed. we do see we go back into research -- if you're interested, "takedown" deals with this whole issue. tracing it back to the 18th and 19th centuries where he explores how the very foundations of socialist and progressive thought was about the eradication of the traditional family. that did not always get played out. in your experience we see that. my approach is how can we take fiction as a safe, neutral, imaginative space? guns, if you just go blazing at someone's ideas, there is an immediate there is one thing i find so wonderful about science fiction. people will say that that is not realistic enough you are dealing with the imaginative and you need to deal with the real. it is more real than the realism out there. that it allows for people to have a sense of distancing so that they can explore these things first as ideas. they are not necessarily connected to them just yet. you can get the conversation going that way. then you can start to go into the application, how did this play out in history, where do we see this play out. world and brave new we see it happening and the school system and we see a happening on and on. in terms of the family issue, you are right. mao was about the family, he was not about eradicating that. he selectively chose aspects of stalinism and communism, your point is well taken, in the context of the novel, that issue was very important, we can trace it to the very intellectual foundations of classical socialism. if i may, in reality the creation of the new man achieved that this direction but it seemed to be incidental to how socialism and communism were being implemented. it sort of happened because the father, thether and divine was in their grid there was not much room left for family, this does not seem to be the target read distribute his own, did someone wants to explore the economic singularity it is very good. i disagree with much of the conclusions, up until then it is really good. in your presentation you portray the millennials as having a desire to defeat themselves and to be treated with respect and pretty much no matter who they are or who they see themselves as being. in traditional christian worldviews who we are is inherently flawed as fallen men. as people are being released to see who they really are, it seems almost inevitably be evil. with socialism and the revolutionaries and how they were fighting against the czar, theyof the created a oppression even worse than the czar did. >> i think we would approach it one is that that is that the question i was getting at. methodologically i was thinking if young people are interested in socialism today or something along those lines, why is that? ande are they coming from what are their concerns? rather than be evaluative of their ideology i was more interested in being descriptive. going on and explore its seeing how they see the world. moving them towards socialism, that is what i was after. i agree with their identity of understanding and sexuality? that is the purview of what i was interested in doing. that is a conversation that can be had. that is a conversation that i youk can be had only when are willing to listen to people. , to love about that our neighbors we have to listen to them and understand them. not maybe we say that is what you are right about, the one thingg i think you may not agree with is there are these individual freedoms that are defined. seems that with vision and values it is partially interested in how we preserve freedoms. there is a context to our framework for that understanding of those freedoms. i really think what is interesting with young people is not like the would socialism is that they are interested in individual freedom. i see where you are coming from, you are asking me to talk about things i was beyond what i was doing. >> your comment made me think of a question and that is in does respect equal perspective? what does that look like? >> admitting my inability to channel their thoughts, i would say that my guess>> is from the perspective of many young people a form of would be respect, that is true of the culture at large. so i think they reflect that whether you or i would agree that is what constitutes respect, that is a different issue. a sense of how they would define that. respect means acceptance. that because we see brokenness then we are disrespecting. that is very likely. >> it seems like you are suggesting that young people are whatrable to believe in qualified are least to espouse what they are espousing. the example i had was from that exclusive sexual love is boring and tyrannical. other examples we think of is young people be leaving hollywood actors on political and economic topics. biblical truth that have never even read the bible, things like that. do you find that that is true, that young people are more vulnerable these days with believing people not qualified to comment on the topics that they are commenting on and i comment.i could comment since the audience is a mix of ,tudents and people like myself maybe we can influence the other people by being here and being interested in learning. i have heard a number of thoughts today area on this topic of exclusive sexual love, believing somebody like engles, maybe we could have a affirmation from somebody in that itm who can affirm does not have to be anything like them not ms., boring, or tyrannical. [applause] >> was there a question and there? i think everybody is prone to believe in who we are not careful. this is not a symptom of being young, it is a symptom of being human. no who we are, and where we are going, there is lost in a seaing of ideas. i have to be careful. i love the play of ideas. can beblem with that play on to what? if you are playing with ideas for the sake of playing with ideas that can be very dangerous. i think that is something i try to teach my students with critical thinking skills. yes, we have to turn ideas over. end, thereot to be a has to be a reason why you are doing this. away from abe swept brilliant sounding worsen, careful rhetoric. not able to get underneath what is being espouse and not willing to do research or read around, anyone is susceptible to these ideas. thoseever read or heard particular ideas coming from -- marx or es engles. they have perfectly well researched ideas from people, this well reasoned idea they are selecting certain aspects of spreads into teaching. that does not make them unqualified, that makes them narrow or selective. having their own agenda. are allsay that we susceptible to this. >> i think there are three components here. are more voices to listen to them there were acting the day. -- back in the day. if you did not have the industrial revolution, you are rowing up in this same small town that your parents did. your job was to get one of the three other jobs in town. once you start having the beginnings of a more serious global society that is going to impact the economic way you live and the way experts are taught. i can go over and learn about chinese ways of doing think, asian ways of doing things, indian ways doing things. the question is how do i know? that is in the second category that the leaders of society, the elders of society have to abdicate. they do not care. that is essentially a democracy, if everybody is he will, will i do say what is right? figure it out for yourself. you have examination of exposure to multiple ideas than the social elders who are political elders, military elders, they cannot be bothered because they may have learned the right answer but they do not know why it is the right answer. they have impaired it back the information, they will not give you reasons why. i think into the 20th century you do not have leadership, i think that also explains what he that is a about, faithful democrats and republicans, there is not a reason why except for peers self interest. you are lucky if you get to power. ishink that third recent because of modeling, i do not want you to answer that, does the phrase fall and chain mean anything to you? , do not answer. i think this is that to a question i was going to get back to you, show me any community day with people are asked to give up on things. there is a fourth component to the, there is an experience, it has not become an arbitrary truth. i don't know if we had modeled in a society at the family level or political level or collegiate level where individuals are as to think about something more important than themselves. , like when the rubber hits the road and you say it is like it hurts, that is life. with fromy to run out it, the consequences may be more dangerous and more deadly. challenge, make the community that you are in on us. this is a pain in the neck, it crimps my freedom. thats interviewed interfered of my pursuit of happiness, why do i do it? there are ways in which i can model that come of ways in which my neighbors can model that, thate you talk about easy is, look about interfering with your pursuit of happiness. >> on that positive note -- [applause] they view all for attending, we hope to see you at the rest of the lectures. thank you. >> this weekend on american 10:00 p.m.tonight at eastern a 50-year-old broadcast with robert kennedy and ronald reagan taking questions via satellite from london. >> there is a great movement against racial discrimination, what is your view to comment on experience?erica's >> we have a country of 150 years, we have the minority groups as well as some other and we are beginning to recognize that and deal with it. p.m. on the military strategy and political goals of emancipation during the civil war. the event ofent in a war over slavery had a rebellion of the southern states the authority to emancipate state predates the civil war. it was not a new idea. sunday at 6:45 p.m. eastern a history professor talks about the first congress debate about slavery and the race. decisions withof his heated debate, at the slavery advocates and that pennsylvania abolitionists society put forth a new nation that reimagined the basic rights of enslaved africans were respected. a history p.m. professor talks about letters exchanged between president lincoln and a friend. >> they talked about the everlasting love for each other. towas normal and encouraged be expressive about intimacy and connection and love. i did that is the wages of his relationship. as long as the boundary was strictly maintained. >> breakaway schedule go to c-span.org. ♪ >> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a cable service by america companies. it is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. american history tv visited the old barracks museum in new jersey, coming we will take you