Seize the Time!
People have power but can exercise it most effectively when it is organized and collective. It’s relatively easy for the state and big business to pick off and neutralize freelancers and lone operatives. It’s when a movement forms that the state and the corporations can be challenged. Citizens in privileged societies like the U.S. often complain that they feel helpless and can’t do anything to shake the power structure. It’s an odd complaint given the advantages most Americans have and poses a sharp contrast with other countries. With few resources, citizens in impoverished East Timor, Nicaragua, Haiti and India have risen and resisted oppression and overthrown tyrannies. But in the land of the free? “Well, I’m kind of busy. Any beer in the fridge? What’s on TV tonight?” Arundhati Roy’s tonic for apathy? Get involved. Get active. Seize the time!
Recorded at Town Hall. Interview by David Barsamian.
Speaker

Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is a world-renowned writer and global justice activist. The New York Times calls her, “India’s most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence.” She is the author of the novels The God of Small Things, for which she received the Booker Prize, and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Her book of interviews with David Barsamian is The Checkbook & the Cruise Missile. Her essay books My Seditious Heart and Azadi are both published by Haymarket.
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