WEBVTT

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And so I'm going to--

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I'm at the halfway
mark, 20 minutes.

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I'm going to read from
my own work for the rest.

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And I'll read a few pieces
from Lake Michigan, which

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is a book that
came out this year

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and which is thinking a
lot about police violence

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in Chicago, among other things.

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And then I'll read some
newer pieces to conclusion.

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So Lake Michigan is divided
into scenes and acts,

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and I'll read the first few
pieces of the second act, which

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comes with two epigraphs.

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The first from the
Chicago economist

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Milton Friedman, who says,
quote the great virtue

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of a free market system
is that it does not

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care what color people are.

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And only cares whether
they can produce something

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you want to buy.

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It is the most effective
system we have discovered

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to enable people who hate
one another to deal with one

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another and help one another.

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The second is from
Pablo Neruda's poem

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about the Spanish Civil War.

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Y por las calles la sangre de
los niños corría simplemente,

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como sangre de niños.

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And through the streets
the blood of children

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ran simply like
blood of children.

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Lake Michigan, scene 10.

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The police shooting boys are
like police shooting boys,

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and the Nazis burning Jews
are like Nazis burning Jews.

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And the police
protecting Nazis are

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like police protecting Nazis.

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And the prisoners
who were tortured

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are like prisoners
who are tortured.

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And the psychologists
overseeing torture

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are like psychologists
overseeing torture.

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And the mayor
privatizing prisons

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is like the mayor
privatizing prisons.

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And the rule of
law being suspended

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is like the rule of
law being suspended.

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And the broken
prisoners on the beach

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are like broken
prisoners on the beach.

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I dream I am pregnant and my
baby is a revolutionary plan

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to destroy the global economy.

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And my baby is like a baby
with a bullet in its mouth.

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It's like a baby with
a bullet in its mouth.

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It is like baby with
a bullet in its mouth.

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And the disappearing
public employees

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are like disappearing
public employees.

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And the puddle of vomit
from a tortured prisoner

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is like a puddle of vomit
from a tortured prisoner.

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And the hunger of
an actual child

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is the hunger of
an actual child.

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And the basic function
of the economy

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is the basic function
of the economy.

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And the politically impossible
is the politically inevitable.

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And the bourgeois savages
are like bourgeois savages.

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And the bourgeois savages
who do not see themselves

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as savages are like
bourgeois savages who do not

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see themselves as savages.

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And the bodies that
are expropriated

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for private purposes are
like bodies expropriated

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for private purposes.

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When they disappear into
the pinhole of capital,

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they disappear into
the abyss of capital.

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When they disappear into
the abyss of capital,

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there is that silence
when everyone refuses

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to act because they
are too concerned

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with their own material health
to care about the broken body

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of another.

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And the wasted food
on the beach is

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like wasted food on the beach.

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And the starving
children who are not

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allowed to eat the
wasted food on the beach

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are like starving
children who are not

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allowed to eat the
wasted food on the beach.

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And the bourgeois savages do
not notice the broken bodies

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until they are beaten in
their bourgeois backyards.

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And they say, how dare
you use my backyard

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to beat this broken body?

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I will look away if only you
don't beat them in my backyard.

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And they say, one broken
body in my backyard

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doesn't count for anything.

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And they're like people who
think one broken body doesn't

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count for anything.

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And a massacre at
a Black church is

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a massacre at a Black church.

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And a massacre at
an elementary school

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is a massacre at an
elementary school.

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And the Nazis with torches
are like Nazis with torches.

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And the police who kill
are like police who kill.

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And the dying sand
is like dying sand.

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And the refugee arrested for
speaking the wrong language

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is a prisoner who never learns
to speak the right language.

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And the bomb is like a
bomb and the anesthetic

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is like anesthetic.

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And the blankness of the city is
like the blankness of the city.

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And the language of the riot
is the language of the riot.

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And the blood of the silenced is
like the blood of the silenced.

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And the blindness of
the bourgeois savage

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is like a mouth that
can't stop biting,

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body that refuses to die.

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