Class Time
Michael Parenti engages students in a college classroom setting. He opens with a presentation and then takes questions. He implores the students to be aware of how power operates and its “rational use of irrational symbols like the flag.” He says, the corporate media “pursues trivia. PBS has cooking shows and how to crochet but nothing on the condition of working people and how unions are busted.” Are there independent sources of information he is asked. Parenti replies, “TV cable access is one such venue as well as community radio. He says, “In fact the leading creator of Alternative Radio is sitting right here: David Barsamian.” He reminds us: “Victories are won by ordinary people fighting against all odds. All the gains that have ever been made in history have been made by people we don’t know.” He concludes with: “Don’t mourn. Organize.”
Recorded at Metro State College.
Speaker
Michael Parenti
Michael Parenti was a leading independent political analyst, scholar, and author. Cornel West called him “a towering prophetic voice.” He taught at major colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of numerous books, including Democracy for the Few, Power and the Powerless, and Against Empire. He passed away on January 24, 2026, at the age of 92.
Questioning the Unquestionable
“It is not demanded of readers that they embrace my views, but that they reflect upon their own. How seldom we bother to explore in some critical fashion the fundamental preconceptions that shape our understanding of social and political life. How frequently, as if by reflex rather than reflection, we respond to certain cues and incantations, resisting any incongruous notion. Our opinions shelter and support us; it is an excruciating effort to submit them to reappraisal. Yet if we are to maintain some pretense at being rational creatures, we must risk the discomfiture that comes with questioning the unquestionable, and try to transcend our tendencies toward mental confinement.” – Michael Parenti
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