General Discussion

Rosco T.

(6,496 posts) Wed Jul 11, 2012, 08:57 PM Jul 2012

HBO's The Newsroom... punch in the gut truth...

I've had this stacked on the DVR for 3 weeks. I just finished watching ep1, I had to stop and take a deep breath after it.

Holy.
Shit.

This is the first monologue by Jeff Daniels. The setting is a debate/panel discussion at Northwestern University. Liberal, Conservative and Will McAvoy, (Daniels) news anchor that is known not to (publicly) lean either direction.

The question at hand is from a student in the audience... "What makes America the greatest county in the world?"

after the Liberal ("Diversity, opportunity&quot and Conservative ("Freedom.. and Freedom&quot have their say... the moderator (polsci prof appears) McAvoy tries to dance around the question, but the moderator finally corners him to get an answer...

"It’s not the greatest country in the world, professor. That’s my answer.

[Addressing liberal] Cheryn, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paycheck, but he gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn’t cost money. It costs votes. It costs air time and column inches. You know why people don’t like liberals? Cuz they lose. If liberals are so smart why do they lose so goddamn always? [Addressing conservative] And with a straight face, you’re going to tell students that America is so star-spangled awesome that we’re the only ones in the world who have freedom? Canada has freedom. Japan has freedom. The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia! Belgium! has freedom. So, 207 sovereign states in the world and 180 of them have freedom.

And yeah, you, sorority girl. Just in case you ever wander into a voting booth one day, there’s some things you should know and one of them is: there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we are the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 179th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, 4th in exports. We lead the world in only 3 categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, a defense spending - where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.

Now, none of this is the fault of a 20 year old college student, but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst - period - generation - period - ever - period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Yosemite?

It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We struck laws - we passed down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors. We put our money were our mouths were and we never beat our chests. We built great big things and made ungodly technological advances and explored the universe, cured disease. And we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy.

We reached for the stars. Acted like men. We aspired to intelligence - we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and, we didn’t scare so easy.

We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed by great men - men who were revered.

First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Enough?"

Watch. This. Show.

you can see it here -