Saturday, April 24, 2010

Spread the Wealth Penn and Teller Style



(HT Ari Armstrong on Oactivist list.)

On a discussion list, Stephen Bourque made the following astute observation:
The video is very good-I like Penn and Teller a lot--but the analogy would have been better if it had made crystal clear that it was Teller's pie that was being "spread around." (They should have had Teller wear an apron or oven mitt or something, to indicate that he had made the pie.) One of our challenges as activists is to make explicit what is often left implicit or ambiguous. The video correctly criticizes wealth redistribution, but it misses an opportunity to show that free people do not simply HAVE wealth but must PRODUCE it.



Stephen blogs at One Reality
.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beth,

I attended the annual APEE conference in Las Vegas a few weeks ago where Penn & Teller were honored with APEE's Thomas Jefferson award on the first night. I took the opportunity the next evening to catch their show at the Rio and found it very enjoyable - some great magic with many of the routines built around patriotic freedom-oriented themes. I loved their TSA Security Card routine and bought two of them at the gift shop afterwards: the Bill of Rights is printed on a piece of metal the size of a playing card. The fourth amendment against unlawful search and seizure is highlighted.

- Chris

HaynesBE said...

Chris,
That sounds fun. How was the rest of the conference?