WEBVTT

00:00:11.075 --> 00:00:15.462
"I start from the supposition 
that the world is topsy-turvy--"

00:00:15.462 --> 00:00:17.673
"that things are all wrong,"

00:00:17.673 --> 00:00:20.262
"that the wrong people are in jail--"

00:00:20.262 --> 00:00:23.218
"and the wrong people are out of jail,"

00:00:23.218 --> 00:00:25.796
"that the wrong people are in power--"

00:00:25.796 --> 00:00:28.295
"and the wrong people are out of power,"

00:00:28.295 --> 00:00:31.716
"that the wealth is distributed in this country 
and the world in such a way--"

00:00:31.716 --> 00:00:35.187
"as not simply to require small reform--"

00:00:35.187 --> 00:00:39.328
"but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth."

00:00:39.328 --> 00:00:42.804
"I start from the supposition that we don't have to 
say too much about this because--"

00:00:42.804 --> 00:00:47.393
"all we have to do is think 
about the state of the world today--"

00:00:47.393 --> 00:00:50.939
"and realize that things are all upside down."

00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:52.393
"Now if you don't think,"

00:00:52.393 --> 00:00:57.195
"if you just listen to TV and read scholarly things,"

00:00:57.195 --> 00:01:00.650
"you actually begin to think that 
things are not so bad,"

00:01:00.650 --> 00:01:04.325
"or that just little things are wrong."

00:01:04.325 --> 00:01:07.072
"But you have to get a little detached,"

00:01:07.072 --> 00:01:11.233
"and then come back and look at the world,"

00:01:11.233 --> 00:01:14.066
"and you are horrified."

00:01:14.066 --> 00:01:16.214
"So we have to start from that supposition--"

00:01:16.214 --> 00:01:19.093
"that things are really topsy-turvy."

00:01:19.093 --> 00:01:22.459
"And our topic is topsy-turvy: 
civil disobedience."

00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:23.751
"Now, as soon as you say--"

00:01:23.751 --> 00:01:26.523
"the topic is 'civil disobedience',"

00:01:26.523 --> 00:01:30.956
"you are saying our problem is 'civil disobedience'."

00:01:30.956 --> 00:01:34.256
"That is not our problem...."

00:01:34.256 --> 00:01:38.425
"Our problem is civil obedience."

00:01:41.676 --> 00:01:44.035
"Our problem is the numbers of people 
all over the world--"

00:01:44.035 --> 00:01:47.159
"who have obeyed the dictates 
of the leaders of their government--"

00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.140
"and have gone to war,"

00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:53.191
"and millions have been killed 
because of this obedience."

00:01:53.191 --> 00:01:55.975
"We recognize this for Nazi Germany."

00:01:55.975 --> 00:01:59.108
"We know that the problem there was obedience,"

00:01:59.108 --> 00:02:01.604
"that the people obeyed Hitler."

00:02:01.604 --> 00:02:04.561
"People obeyed; that was wrong."

00:02:04.561 --> 00:02:08.179
"They should have challenged,
and they should have resisted;"

00:02:08.179 --> 00:02:12.673
"and if we were only there,
we would have showed them."

00:02:12.673 --> 00:02:15.986
"Even in Stalin's Russia we can understand that;"

00:02:15.986 --> 00:02:21.162
"people are obedient,
all these herdlike people."

00:02:21.162 --> 00:02:25.070
"Remember those bad old days when 
people were exploited by feudalism?"

00:02:25.070 --> 00:02:30.288
"Everything was terrible in the Middle Ages--"

00:02:30.288 --> 00:02:36.257
"but now we have Western civilization, 
the rule of law."

00:02:37.548 --> 00:02:39.316
"The rule of law--"

00:02:39.316 --> 00:02:44.656
"has regularized and maximized the injustice 
that existed before the rule of law,"

00:02:44.656 --> 00:02:48.212
"that is what the rule of law has done."

00:02:48.731 --> 00:02:50.981
"When in all the nations of the world--"

00:02:50.981 --> 00:02:55.394
"the rule of law is the darling of the leaders
and the plague of the people,"

00:02:55.410 --> 00:02:58.902
"we ought to begin to recognize this."

00:02:58.902 --> 00:03:03.215
"We have to transcend these 
'national boundaries' in our thinking."

00:03:03.215 --> 00:03:08.777
"Nixon and Brezhnev have much more in common with one another 
than we have with Nixon."

00:03:08.777 --> 00:03:14.837
"J. Edgar Hoover has far more in common with the 
head of the Soviet secret police than he has with us."

00:03:14.837 --> 00:03:20.501
"It's the international dedication to law and order
that binds the leaders of all countries in a comradely bond."

00:03:20.501 --> 00:03:23.306
"That's why we are always surprised
when they get together--"

00:03:23.306 --> 00:03:27.188
"they smile, they shake hands,
they smoke cigars,"

00:03:27.188 --> 00:03:32.155
"they really like one another
no matter what they say."

00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:38.064
"What we are trying to do, I assume,"

00:03:38.064 --> 00:03:40.909
"is really to get back to the principles and aims--"

00:03:40.909 --> 00:03:46.292
"and spirit of the Declaration of Independence."

00:03:46.292 --> 00:03:49.112
"This spirit is resistance to illegitimate authority--"

00:03:49.112 --> 00:03:55.126
"and to forces that deprive people of their life and liberty
and right to pursue happiness,"

00:03:55.126 --> 00:03:56.760
"and therefore under these conditions,"

00:03:56.760 --> 00:04:00.683
"it urges the right to alter or abolish
their current form of government--"

00:04:00.683 --> 00:04:04.214
"and the stress had been on 'abolish'."

00:04:04.361 --> 00:04:07.342
"But to establish the principles of 
the Declaration of Independence,"

00:04:07.342 --> 00:04:09.807
"wefre gonna need to go outside the law,"

00:04:09.807 --> 00:04:12.636
"to stop obeying the laws that demand killing--"

00:04:12.651 --> 00:04:15.324
"or that allocate wealth the way it's been done,"

00:04:15.324 --> 00:04:19.956
"or that put people in jail
for petty technical offenses--"

00:04:19.990 --> 00:04:25.265
"and keep other people out of jail
for enormous crimes."

00:04:30.450 --> 00:04:32.192
"My hope--"

00:04:32.192 --> 00:04:36.126
"is that this kind of spirit will take place
not just in this country--"

00:04:36.126 --> 00:04:39.382
" but in other countries
because they all need it."

00:04:39.382 --> 00:04:45.166
"People in all countries need the spirit
of disobedience to the state,"

00:04:45.166 --> 00:04:48.515
"which is not a metaphysical thing--"

00:04:48.515 --> 00:04:51.550
"but a thing of force and wealth."

00:04:51.550 --> 00:04:54.744
"And we need a kind of 
'declaration of interdependence'--"

00:04:54.744 --> 00:04:57.538
"among people in all countries of the world--"

00:04:57.538 --> 00:05:01.132
"who are striving for the same thing."