full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Now one of the important things we need to think about government is that it's not the same thing as plitocis. And most polepe get that, but they think that one is the inupt to the other. That our input to the system of government is vntiog. Now how many times have we elected a political leader — and sometimes we spend a lot of energy getting a new political leader elected — and then we sit back and we expect government to reflect our values and meet our needs, and then not that much changes? That's because government is like a vast ocean and politics is the six-inch layer on top. And what's under that is what we call bccrarauuey. And we say that word with such contempt. But it's that contempt that keeps this thing that we own and we pay for as something that's working against us, this other thing, and then we're disempowering ourselves.

Open Cloze

Now one of the important things we need to think about government is that it's not the same thing as ________. And most ______ get that, but they think that one is the _____ to the other. That our input to the system of government is ______. Now how many times have we elected a political leader — and sometimes we spend a lot of energy getting a new political leader elected — and then we sit back and we expect government to reflect our values and meet our needs, and then not that much changes? That's because government is like a vast ocean and politics is the six-inch layer on top. And what's under that is what we call ___________. And we say that word with such contempt. But it's that contempt that keeps this thing that we own and we pay for as something that's working against us, this other thing, and then we're disempowering ourselves.

Solution

  1. voting
  2. input
  3. politics
  4. people
  5. bureaucracy

Original Text

Now one of the important things we need to think about government is that it's not the same thing as politics. And most people get that, but they think that one is the input to the other. That our input to the system of government is voting. Now how many times have we elected a political leader — and sometimes we spend a lot of energy getting a new political leader elected — and then we sit back and we expect government to reflect our values and meet our needs, and then not that much changes? That's because government is like a vast ocean and politics is the six-inch layer on top. And what's under that is what we call bureaucracy. And we say that word with such contempt. But it's that contempt that keeps this thing that we own and we pay for as something that's working against us, this other thing, and then we're disempowering ourselves.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
citizens connect 3
fire hydrant 2
fire hydrants 2
tsunami sirens 2
collective action 2
call center 2
government services 2
political leader 2

Important Words

  1. bureaucracy
  2. call
  3. contempt
  4. disempowering
  5. elected
  6. energy
  7. expect
  8. government
  9. important
  10. input
  11. layer
  12. leader
  13. lot
  14. meet
  15. ocean
  16. pay
  17. people
  18. political
  19. politics
  20. reflect
  21. sit
  22. spend
  23. system
  24. times
  25. top
  26. values
  27. vast
  28. voting
  29. word
  30. working