By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, November 21st, 2006, 5:00 pm
Filed under: Videos: Debate, Videos: Political, Society/Culture, Videos, US Politics

20 Responses to “Real Time: Richard Dreyfuss’ Civics Lesson Part 1”

1. […] Part 1 […]

   The Largest Minority » Real Time: Richard Dreyfuss’ Civics Lesson Part 2
   11/22/06 at 2:40 pm
   

2. Democracy is an impossibility as long as capitalism exists. A democracy is the rule of, by, and for the people and when you have a small rich oligarchy owning all of the mass media, all of the means of livelihood, the average person has no say as to what happens in that society. Democracy and capitalism are incompatible.

   Spinoza
   11/22/06 at 5:53 pm
   

3. Democracy and capitalism are not incompatible. Capitalism is merely an engine of wealth generation whereas democracy, a represenative democracy is a method proscribing the means of interaction and therefore protection of the few from the many and the many from the few as envisioned by the founders of the United States. Checks and balances, rights and responsibilities, duties and deserts …

   JEM
   11/23/06 at 9:17 am
   

4. you’d think if this was so important to him he would take some of his own billions and start his own media empire. and do dryfus on civics he could just stand up there all day and night and lecture lecture lecture

   WHAT ABOUT BOB

   oscar madison
   11/23/06 at 9:48 am
   

5. “the founding fathers didnt trust the people”
   —–? bill maher is really on board for the New World Order.

   good for dreyfuss!
   america needs to be lectured like that more often, the MSM has the people chasing their own tails. they have polarized america, and we can no longer focus on the bigger picture. Bill maher is merely a pawn of their system.

   Fight the NWO!

   down with the MSM!
   11/23/06 at 12:40 pm
   

6. Well, actually, Osc, Dreyfuss has been very active politically, calling for impeachment at the National Press Club and mounting a campaign against “shaped news.”
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dreyfuss
   http://blogs.reuters.com/2006/04/27/oscar-winner-dreyfuss-campaigns-against-shaped-news/

   He is also currently studying civics and democracy as a senior associate member at St Antony’s College at the University of Oxford, an institution specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history.

   felix unger
   11/23/06 at 2:08 pm
   

7. […]  I urge you to watch the video linked below. Civics sounds boring - but it is not: The Largest Minority » Real Time: Richard Dreyfuss’ Civics Lesson Part 1 Referring to the fact that politics and news have been hijacked as mere sources of entertainment, he says “we confuse the melodrama of incivility with how public issues are discussed”. […]

   Richard Dreyfuss - A Sensible Voice «
   11/23/06 at 10:07 pm
   

8. When did Civics disappear as a required course for H.S. graduation? I (mid-fifties) was required to take a semester of US Government, a semester of Civics, a semester of US History and a semester of World history to get my H.S diploma. My wife (mid-forties) was required to take none of the above. I can recite the Preamble to the Constitution and most of the Declaration of Independence. I KNOW what the three branches of the US government are and can name their primary responsibilities (and limitations). She knows little of the aforementioned.

   You want to make a difference? Attend your local school board meetings and demand the return of Civics, History, Speech, Debate, etal to the class curriculum. Uneducated kids = sheeple.

   jra
   11/24/06 at 7:01 am
   

9. It seems the problem is less what Mr Dreyfuss had to say than the manner and forum in which he chose to say it. No serious observer could but embrace his message, but his condescending tone seemed inappropriate to the medium, and in the end, doomed to inefficacy. Maher’s audience doesn’t need to be sold on these concepts, nor does it need to lectured ad nauseaum by an apparently self-absorbed pompous prig. The show’s format is that of a panel discussion; it is not the Speaker’s Corner.

   Of course, as Dennis Miller used to say (before he drank the Kool-Aid), that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

   KW Mitchell
   11/27/06 at 7:51 am
   

10. As long as information is treated as any other item on the market,
    they won’t be any real information. Information is one way to educate
    people and give them the ability to vote and decide.
    With history hijacked by religion and information treated as a product
    there won’t be anymore civic education, and thus those in power will
    have no more opposition.
    That is how the war in Iraq was sold. It was so popular back in 2003…

    bert
    11/29/06 at 8:15 am
    

11. My opinion concurs on several points with Mr. Drefuss’ in that; 1) We are supposed to be living in a Representative Democracy which form of government is called Republican; 2) The constitution was set up to ensure that States entering into this compact also embrace a Republican form of government; 3) under this form of government private property is sacrosanct; and 4) Very few people actually make the effort to think.

    Other people making comments seem to have a lot to say about Mr. Dreyfuss. One does not need to listen to sound advice when one can bleat their ad hominem attacks ‘ad nauseaum’.

    Bosco Hearn
    12/4/06 at 4:11 pm
    

12. I would dispute the amount of the News that Rupert owns.

    Those of us who do not live in the US, get to watch RTE, CBC, BBC, and other national government funded (but not controled) news.

    Part of America’s problem is that PBS is underfunded, and not protected from Washington. In Canada, when they tried to cut the CBC, even the right wing saw the writing on the wall (public support) and supported funding the CBC

    John Rowland
    12/4/06 at 8:52 pm
    

13. Well said!

    John Bland
    12/6/06 at 10:40 pm
    

14. Not too long ago I started a lecture before a group of lawyers about the changes in the Bankruptcy Code by reading from the Declaration of Independence. Before I could disclose from where I was reading, one lawyer stood up to call my recitation unAmerican and unPatriotic. I asked if he thought that those whose penned it were too unAmerican? I got a round of applause. I also said that as lawyers we are bound by our pledge to uphold the Constitution, which I believe is intended to include the dictates of the Declaration of Independence. I agree with Dreyfus that the teaching of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address and other important documents have been cast aside in the name of just getting through it! History is a living breathing element of our genes, and as has long been said, those who do not study it are doomed to repeat it. Not since the Civil War has our country been divided by designating states by colors; then blue and grey, and today, blue and red. The effect is the same. The intent is to divide and allow the despots to conquer our constitutional democracy through the twin columns of intolerance and ignorance; just as every other great democracy has fallen.

    Read and understand the Declaration of Independence where it is stated in pertinent part:

    Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

    Skymntn
    12/8/06 at 10:56 pm
    

15. Maybe I have missed something But I have great political discussions on a place called the internet. I don’t own a TV and I am more informed because of the internet. I read more becuase of the internet. Oh wait society not going to hell. everyone that used to watch TV for the good disscussion shows got fed up with not being able to voice their opinion and are now on the internet. get over it dick TV sucks as a medium. If the Medium is the Message. Then I choose the message of the internet

    Internet
    12/17/06 at 11:08 pm
    

16. If you’re interested in the American as Sovereign philosophy you might want to look at http://www.freedomradio.us/aboutas.htm
    RD and I used to be at opposite ends of the political spectrum but it appears we have ended up at the same place.

    Mark-Alan..Mastrogiovanni
    04/25/07 at 11:35 am
    
17. 

    I remember this episode. I was totally behind what he was saying, but he sort of took over the show and went very very very long.

    deadissue
    06/27/07 at 7:25 pm
    

18. RICHARD, I AM TRYING TO FIND PENNY GOODSELL. I KNEW HER IN 1973, WITH BILL DUTRO. MY NAME IS VICKI DUTRO. I CANNOT FIND HER. CAN YOU HELP ME ??? SHE WILL KNOW ME,,,, IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR…. AND THEN SOME..OH,,,,SO MUCH MORE ….. FRANK SINATRA SONG
    ” IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR”
    VICKI D.
    TELL HER 520 S. 6TH ST. APT “J”. XOXOXOXOXOXO ;-)
    V.D.

    VICKI DUTRO
    07/25/07 at 10:23 pm
    

19. I TRIED. IT WAS A JOKE. NOT TO ME, BUT TO MR MOVIE STAR. i WAITED AND WAITED AND WAITED. YOU ARE SO SELF IMPORTANT. I WAS TOLD THIS WAS A FRUITLESS EFFORT. IT WAS. SO MUCH FOR STARDUST, AND MOONBEAMS…..AND MANKIND. MOSTLY THE KIND PART. TELL PENNY BILL DIED. AND I REMEMBER THOSE DAYS, THOSE TIMES.
    PENNY HAD A FURRY TOILET SEAT, AND DONNY HAD A CORK BOARD ROOM, AND WE LISTENED TO LED ZEPLEN ….STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER LAUGHTER ????????????????????? I DO, AND IT HAUNTS ME. THERE HAS BEEN NOTHING LIKE IT.
    ;-) VICKI DUTRO

    VICKI DUTRO
    11/9/07 at 10:09 pm
    

20. YOUN MEAN “FILLING” C’MON !

    VICKI DUTRO
    11/9/07 at 10:12 pm
    

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