Latest News and Comment from Education

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

t r u t h o u t | Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"

t r u t h o u t | Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"

Bill Moyers: "Welcome to the Plutocracy!"

by: Bill Moyers, t r u t h o u t | Speech

photo
Bill Moyers. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Bill Moyers speech at Boston University on October 29, 2010, as a part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series.

I was honored when you asked me to join in celebrating Howard Zinn’s life and legacy. I was also surprised. I am a journalist, not a historian. The difference between a journalist and an historian is that the historian knows the difference. George Bernard Shaw once complained that journalists are seemingly unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization. In fact, some epic history can start out as a minor incident. A young man named Paris ran off with a beautiful woman who was married to someone else, and the civilization of Troy began to unwind. A middle-aged black seamstress, riding in a Montgomery bus, had tired feet, and an ugly social order