Cornel West and Tavis Smiley Rightfully Scare Us
Posted: 04/30/2012 11:27 am
More
often than not, lionized public figures like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West bring
out the cynic in me. But both men were intellectual and spiritual giants as
they captured the hearts and minds of the packed house at The Paramount theater
in Oakland on Saturday evening. Oakland was their last stop in a national tour
discussing their new book, The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. We have
the amazing KALW (91.7 on your dial) to thank for their
incredibly hard work to make this important community conversation happen.
I cannot
pretend to be objective in my opinion here. My own experiences growing up poor
make this a very personal issue for me. I was deeply moved by their thoughtful
commentary on the way the expansion of poverty is eroding this county from the
inside out. Tavis Smiley told the crowd that a whopping 50% of Americans are in
poverty now, or verging on poverty. This is clearly a devastating number. But
what moved me even more was the powerful exploration by both men, of American
values and the way in which our most cherished values are being terribly
violated as they are expressed through our economic and political institutions.
The heart of Smiley and West's message is simple and profound: the United
States is far more economically divided than most people want to
acknowledge,and this chasm will destroy our nation. They make their case in
their book by using vast amounts of very robust data from credible sources,
like the Pew Research Center. (Indeed, this is the same data that drives the
work we do atEARN to help low income workers save and invest to foster
prosperity.)
There are
some of you who will quickly dismiss Smiley, West, and their message. You may
dismiss them because you don't like their politics, or don't like them as
people. You make this dismissal at your own peril, and the peril of our nation.
Irrespective of how you view Tavis Smiley or Cornel West, their passionate call
to the American public to face the hard facts, is rooted in data that
transcends politics or ideology.
In fact,
the Smiley-West cautionary message is backed by groundbreaking research from
economists Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, in their new book Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. Acemoglu
and Robinson conducted expansive research to understand why some nations fail
while others prosper. While much of the conventional wisdom among economists on
the issue involves natural resources or cultural traits, Acemoglu and Robinson
found that it is open political institutions that allow for shared power, and
collective decision making about economic opportunity that drive prosperity.
This
thesis cuts straight to the heart of what Smiley and West warn us is coming.
Tens of millions of Americans toil endlessly, but never find their efforts
rewarded with economic security. Increasingly, these hard working people will
be disenfranchised and disengaged from the political process, and have less say
in how economic opportunity is fostered and distributed. This is precisely the
dynamic that Acemoglu and Robinson found at the heart of poverty, corruption,
and human beings at their worst. We're moving down a dangerous path as a
nation. Listening carefully to what West and Smiley have to say, however, is a
good step back in the right direction.
Follow Ben Mangan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/benmangan
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