Will Smith - This Goes Deeper Than You Thought

will smith has resigned from the academy some people think the whole thing was fake but what does this latest example of the culture war tell us about power and why do they want us talking about this right now hello there you 5.4 million awakening wonders here we are on the precipice of greatness of forming new systems individually and culturally reforming reality and yet we are still mired in conversation about the actions of powerful people in positions of privilege we did a great video i think it was great did you think it was great tell me in the comments below sorry about that i'm a narcissist about the will smith jada pinkett chris rock debacle and a lot of you liked it the reason i want to continue talking about it well because you're obviously still interested in it loads of the comments below because i tell you i read the comments people are saying it's fake the whole thing was fake i've got an opinion on that loads of you say like oh who cares it's nonsense i've got an opinion on that and also is an interesting example of the culture wars and how they play out now if you want to see me speak in an unexpected way come see me live there's a few tickets left for a few dates there's a link in the description i'm in places like blackpool for example where i'm going to do an extravaganza even if you've already seen me the show's got a lot better and please sign up to my mailing list it's just one click away so i can stay in continual contact with you particularly if i need to now this oscar will smith chris rock scenario has been interesting because remember at the very beginning some people were like well it's good that will smith did that i obviously felt a bit jarred by it because i'm a stand-up comedian because i've hosted award shows because i felt a bit confused really by the whole thing how it would play out in the culture what particular inflections it would bear and i knew it had to be handled sensitively our perspective if you remember from the last video was that it in a sense is a apocalyptic act in the literal sense it's revealing for me it revealed the senselessness of the facade charade and spectacle of the oscars now since then people have continued commenting on it will smith has resigned let's have a little look at the news to see where we are in this story now but importantly when we're talking about this stuff what are we not talking about and who is it that benefits from a population that are at each other's throats with no thought in their mind other than how to continue to condemn and criticize one another this morning the shocking resignation will smith stepping away from the academy nearly one week after assaulting chris rock at the oscars oh wow and lashing out of the comedian for an unscripted joke directed at his wife those of you that think it's fake like loads of you in the comments below i've seen it say oh no he pulls it there's no camera angle where you see it i've seen people say pfizer sponsored the academy i even saw some people say oh there's an alopecia medicine that pfizer are releasing now my personal view on that even though i'm open to elaborate theories and ideas if there's evidence my personal opinion on that one would be will smith is the most powerful person in that situation one of the most powerful people in hollywood i don't think he would be willing to subordinate his vast power and cultural cachet for the promotion of an alopecia medicine personally that's what i think but i'm open to ongoing discourse i've been wrong many times before remember keep this conversation going the comments below is what feeds us what fuels us what educates us and often amuses us wow will smith just smacked out of me i loved rogan's take rogan's take was that will smith is in movies so much and lives in such a rarefied position moving from limo to studio to living the behind gates lifestyle which i'm not condemning certainly it's a lifestyle that i've been part of albeit briefly and has lost touch with the fact that that's sort of not what people do you should have a look at rogan's take on it was a very interesting one but what interests me is how nothing that happens in our culture now is exempted from this set of oppositionalist critiques where you can automatically understand which perspective a person will take based on their previous alliances how did we get in this position how did we arrive at a point where people would support something based on a kind of tribal allegiance rather than an objective sense of right and wrong this is from gary gerstel's book the rise and fall of the neo-liberal order the neo-liberal order that triumphed in america in the 1990s prized free trade and the free movement of capital information and people it celebrated deregulation as an economic good that resulted when governments could no longer interfere with the operation of markets it hailed globalization as a win-win position that would enrich the west while also bringing an unprecedented level of prosperity to the rest of the world a remarkable consensus on these creedal principles came to dominate american politics during the heyday of the neo-liberal order binding together republicans and democrats and marginalizing dissenting voices to the point where they barely mattered now this initially might not seem connected to this very particular somewhat salacious and gossipy matter but stick with us because it shows how the cultural conditions that we currently occupy were created and it's fascinating somewhat paradoxically this broad agreement on matters of political economy nurtured two strikingly different moral perspectives each of them consonant with the commitment to market principles that underlay the neo-liberal order the first perspective was neo-victorian celebrating self-reliance strong families and disciplined attitudes towards work sexuality and consumption we'll recognize that we recognize the media spaces that come from that perspective i've not seen it described as neo-victorian before a set of morals an idea of puritanism connected to traditionalism rather than the kind of puritanism that's connected to progressivism since neoliberalism frowned upon government regulation of private behaviour some other institution had to provide it neo-victorianism found that institution in the traditional family heterosexual governed by male patriarchs with women subordinate being charged of home making and child rearing seems like an interesting theory so far and again it's sort of recognizable you can see where this discourse plays out these traditional types and these rather traditional arguments which just by the way so you know for me i don't have a strong view about whether or not that's the right way to live certainly if that's the way that you're happy to live i'm happy for you i'm happy for people that live in happy families such families guided by faith in god would inculcate moral virtue in its members and prepare the next generation for the rigors of free market life i suppose that's an area where i have questions when the function of education and the familial child rearing system becomes about preparation for a pre-existing ideology that's where i start to have questions because i query the morality and the efficacy of the pre-existing market systems not that i am a communist in any traditional sense of the word because i don't agree with state power or centralized power in any form the other moral perspective encouraged by the neoliberal order was cosmopolitan a world apart from neo-victorianism it saw in market freedom an opportunity to fashion a self or identity that was free of tradition inheritance and prescribed social roles in the united states this moral perspective drew energy from liberation movements originating in the new left black power feminism multiculturalism and gay pride among them my personal perspective is i respect the rights of anybody to form communities and societies based on their own values let me know in the comments how you feel i think if you want to have a traditional family you should be left alone and allowed to do it and if you want to progressively design a new culture with multiple parents and non-traditional new ideas you should be left alone to do that as well cosmopolitanism was egalitarian and pluralistic it rejected the notion that the patriarchal heterosexual family should be celebrated as the norm it embraced globalization and the free movement of people and the transnational links that the neo-liberal order had made possible it valorised the good that would come from diverse peoples meeting each other sharing their cultures and developing new and often hybridized ways of living i'm very proud that my live shows we have people from all over the world all over the country all over the social spectrum people that identify in very different ways traditional people progressive people and my opinion my strong feeling is everyone is welcome that most people just want to be left alone to be who they are to live their own lives in their own family however they define family in their own social groups however they define them in their own communities this is i think the key to finding a solution to the problem being outlined here the existence of two such different moral perspectives was both a strength and weakness for the neo-liberal order the strength lay in the order's ability to accommodate within a common program of political economy very different constituencies with radically divergent perspectives on moral life the weakness lay in the fact that the cultural battles between these two constituencies might threaten to erode the hegemony of neo-liberal economic principles the cosmopolitans attacked neo-victorians for discriminating against gay people feminists and immigrants and for stigmatizing the black poor for their so-called culture of poverty the neo-victorians attacked the cosmopolitans for tolerating virtually any lifestyle for excusing what they deemed to be deplorable behavior as an exercise in the toleration of difference and for showing a higher regard for foreign cultures than for america's own the decade of the neo-liberal orders triumph the 1990s was also one in which cosmopolitans and neo-victorians fought each other in a series of battles that became known as the culture wars it's long been my opinion that these culture wars have within them important information that tolerance and the ability to organize your life and your identity is important and people ought to be allowed to do it but the tradition and traditional values are also important and people should be allowed to live that way if they want to and setting up a phony conflict between groups of people that in point of fact needn't threaten one another's lifestyles if they didn't want to do it through the pulpit of social media through the amplification of the kind of debates that are always emphasized could live harmoniously i believe therefore that we should live in autonomous independent self-governing communities where people are allowed to live however they want to as long as they don't hurt one another and they allow other communities to live how they want to live also what's so difficult about that let me know in the comments below just beneath this cultural polarization however lay a fundamental agreement on principles of political economy this intriguing coexistence of cultural division and economic accord manifested itself in the complex relationship between bill clinton and newt gingrich in the media they were depicted and they depicted themselves as opposites sworn to each other's destruction clinton offered himself as the tribune of the new america one welcoming of racial minorities feminists and gays he was thought to embody the spirit of the 1960s and something of the insurgent free-spirited character of the new left gingrich presented himself as the guardian of an older and truer america one grounded in faith patriotism respect for law and order and family values gingrich publicly pledged himself and his party to obstructing clinton at every turn clinton meanwhile regarded gingrich as the unscrupulous leader of a vast right-wing conspiracy to undermine his presidency while presumably in point of fact the kind of alliances the kind of funding the kind of economic reality that most people live within would not meaningfully order under either of these apparently polarized public figures the problem i have of course with the culture wars is that while we're embedded in this conflagration we are not focusing on what is important we are lost in issues that are important and need to some degree to be addressed but i believe can primarily be addressed through mutual tolerance meanwhile systemic corruption institutionalized inequality the inability of any of us no matter how we identify whether we're traditional or progressive or whatever to democratically impact our culture is becoming worse and worse we're on the march towards a technocratic centralized global system of dominance where no one's opinions will matter the culture what i think is a great trick and it's being played on both sides yet despite their differences and their hatred for each other these two washington power brokers work together on neo-liberal legislation that would shape america's political economy for a generation it's basically coke v pepsi everybody wins including the dentist the only loser is you they both supported the world trade organization which debuted in 1995 to turbo charge a global regime of free trade their age jointly engineered the telecommunications act of 1996 which did more than any other piece of legislation in the 1980s and 90s to free the most dynamic sector of the us economy from government regulation so while there was this apparent polarization underneath the surface what was going on was collusion and the instantiation of policies and ideals that would be forever beyond the reach of democracy for example look hundreds of millions of dollars were exchanged on the stock market by elected officials in 2021 alone do you remember 2021 was it a good year for you good year in congress in just equities congress born sold nearly 290 million dollars throughout the year in 2021 only three hedge funds beat the market being congress 35 politicians get this from both sides did even better do you think that politicians have more in common with one another than they have in common with you do you think it's possible that if we were willing to overlook our apparent cultural differences we might find new unions new possibilities for meaningful democracy meaningful community meaningful change meaningful power in our own lives let me know in the comments below major pieces of legislation deregulate in wall street followed closely in the telecom bill's wake clinton and gingrich also worked together to pair back the welfare state sharing a conviction that the tough disciplining effects of job markets would benefit the poor more than state subsidised handouts so they collaborated on that clinton's collaboration with gingrich had facilitated the neo-liberal orders triumph that order is now on the wane ah because people are waking up to the fact that politics is meaningless that no matter who you vote for you're going to get the same kind of concoction of corruption that you're always offered so they have to stoke the fear they have to stoke the division they have to distract us from the maneuvers of power and in the last couple of years i don't know if you noticed power finding new ways to entrench itself have you noticed new regulation being introduced these are just questions comments below the orders once unassailable principles of free trade free markets and the free movement of people are now disputed on a daily basis what is also revealed here is that globalization hasn't worked for the vast majority of people globalization is a benefit to elite institutions and individuals the experiment of globalization should be over because it has not benefited ordinary americans ordinary french people ordinary people from anywhere in the world it's a benefit a set of elites that operate beyond national boundaries and economic elite meanwhile public attention focuses on yet another chapter in the culture wars with the american people divided irredeemably it seems over vaccination critical race theory and whether donald trump should be lauded as an american hero or jailed for acts of treason yet beneath the churn one can detect hints of new common ground on economic matters emerging bipartisanship is driving movements in congress to commit public funds to the nation's physical infrastructure and to industrial policies deemed vital to economic well-being and national security just recently joe biden pledged a record budget to the pentagon with supports for both sides because we're all arguing about stuff that frankly they don't really care about these developments underscore once again the importance of looking beyond and beneath the culture wars for clues as to where american politics and society might be heading for me that's a great invitation for all of us think about your own alliances your own beliefs then think about how can i reach towards the apparent other side in this conflict how can we form alliances between one another how can we respect one another how can we create mutually supportive communities where we allow one another to live how we want to in order that we might create a better society for everybody some people are traditional and conservative some people are liberal and progressive nobody benefits under the current system so we have to awaken to the illusion of our conflict we have to awaken to the truth that unless we find new forms of alliance new allegiances we're doing exactly what they want us to do quarreling among ourselves while meanwhile on the true layers of power that dominate our lives nothing will change unless it advantages all of them and none of us but that's just what i think let me know what you think in the comments below if you're not a subscriber subscribe now only half of you subscribe give it a little subscribe a bell will ring you'll feel great about yourself like the video if you enjoyed this one watch this one or this one sign up to my mailing list i'll tell you about all sorts of cool live stuff i'm doing streaming things secret things plus i can stay in contact with you in the event of madness if you want to see me live there's a link in the description for that too more important than any of that though please stay free

Channel: Russell Brand

Views: 2,028,777

Keywords: Russell Brand, Brand Russell, BrandThe, Russell Brand video, Russell Brand news, Russell Brand politics, News, Brand, politics, Russell, USA, UK, Russel, Russel Brand, Will Smith, Chris Rock, actor, jada pinkett smith, oscars, film, movies, slap, joke, comedian, host, hit, punch, chris rock stand up, violent, culture war, Neoliberal, liberal

Id: l8gauWZpIsQ

Length: 17min 30sec (1050 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 08 2022