full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Eric Liu: Why ordinary people need to understand power
Unscramble the Blue Letters
This is not some Game of Thrones empire-level set of questions. These are questions that play out in every single place on the planet. I'll just tell you quickly about two stories drawn from recent headlines. In Boulder, Colorado, voters not too long ago approved a process to replace the private power company, literally the power company, the electric cnomapy Xcel, with a publicly owned ulttiiy that would forego profits and attend far more to climate change. Well, Xcel fought back, and Xcel has now put in play a ballot measure that would undermine or undo this municipalization. And so the citizen activists in bleduor who have been pushing this now literally have to fight the power in order to fight for power. In Tuscaloosa, at the University of aamblaa, there's an organization on campus called, kind of menacingly, the Machine, and it draws from largely white sororities and friaeetrntis on campus, and for ddeecas, the mcahnie has dtaimneod sndeutt government elections. Well now, recently, the Machine has started to get involved in actual city piciltos, and they've engineered the eolicten of a former Machine member, a young, pro-business recent graduate to the Tuscaloosa city school board. Now, as I say, these are just two examples drawn almost at random from the hlnadiees. Every day, there are thousands more like them. And you may like or dislike the efforts I'm deicnbrisg here in Boulder or in Tuscaloosa, but you cannot help but admire the power literacy of the players involved, their skill. You cannot help but reckon with and recognize the command they have of the eentmalel qusenoits of civic power — what objective, what srtetgay, what tactics, what is the terrain, who are your emeiens, who are your allies?
Open Cloze
This is not some Game of Thrones empire-level set of questions. These are questions that play out in every single place on the planet. I'll just tell you quickly about two stories drawn from recent headlines. In Boulder, Colorado, voters not too long ago approved a process to replace the private power company, literally the power company, the electric _______ Xcel, with a publicly owned _______ that would forego profits and attend far more to climate change. Well, Xcel fought back, and Xcel has now put in play a ballot measure that would undermine or undo this municipalization. And so the citizen activists in _______ who have been pushing this now literally have to fight the power in order to fight for power. In Tuscaloosa, at the University of _______, there's an organization on campus called, kind of menacingly, the Machine, and it draws from largely white sororities and ____________ on campus, and for _______, the _______ has _________ _______ government elections. Well now, recently, the Machine has started to get involved in actual city ________, and they've engineered the ________ of a former Machine member, a young, pro-business recent graduate to the Tuscaloosa city school board. Now, as I say, these are just two examples drawn almost at random from the _________. Every day, there are thousands more like them. And you may like or dislike the efforts I'm __________ here in Boulder or in Tuscaloosa, but you cannot help but admire the power literacy of the players involved, their skill. You cannot help but reckon with and recognize the command they have of the _________ _________ of civic power — what objective, what ________, what tactics, what is the terrain, who are your _______, who are your allies?
Solution
- describing
- student
- decades
- politics
- utility
- enemies
- dominated
- company
- headlines
- questions
- election
- elemental
- machine
- alabama
- strategy
- fraternities
- boulder
Original Text
This is not some Game of Thrones empire-level set of questions. These are questions that play out in every single place on the planet. I'll just tell you quickly about two stories drawn from recent headlines. In Boulder, Colorado, voters not too long ago approved a process to replace the private power company, literally the power company, the electric company Xcel, with a publicly owned utility that would forego profits and attend far more to climate change. Well, Xcel fought back, and Xcel has now put in play a ballot measure that would undermine or undo this municipalization. And so the citizen activists in Boulder who have been pushing this now literally have to fight the power in order to fight for power. In Tuscaloosa, at the University of Alabama, there's an organization on campus called, kind of menacingly, the Machine, and it draws from largely white sororities and fraternities on campus, and for decades, the Machine has dominated student government elections. Well now, recently, the Machine has started to get involved in actual city politics, and they've engineered the election of a former Machine member, a young, pro-business recent graduate to the Tuscaloosa city school board. Now, as I say, these are just two examples drawn almost at random from the headlines. Every day, there are thousands more like them. And you may like or dislike the efforts I'm describing here in Boulder or in Tuscaloosa, but you cannot help but admire the power literacy of the players involved, their skill. You cannot help but reckon with and recognize the command they have of the elemental questions of civic power — what objective, what strategy, what tactics, what is the terrain, who are your enemies, who are your allies?
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
civics sexy |
3 |
power resides |
3 |
elemental questions |
2 |
civic power |
2 |
national government |
2 |
Important Words
- activists
- actual
- admire
- alabama
- allies
- approved
- attend
- ballot
- board
- boulder
- called
- campus
- change
- citizen
- city
- civic
- climate
- colorado
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- decades
- describing
- dislike
- dominated
- drawn
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- election
- elections
- electric
- elemental
- enemies
- engineered
- examples
- fight
- forego
- fought
- fraternities
- game
- government
- graduate
- headlines
- involved
- kind
- largely
- literacy
- literally
- long
- machine
- measure
- member
- menacingly
- municipalization
- objective
- order
- organization
- owned
- place
- planet
- play
- players
- politics
- power
- private
- process
- profits
- publicly
- pushing
- put
- questions
- quickly
- random
- reckon
- recognize
- replace
- school
- set
- single
- skill
- sororities
- started
- stories
- strategy
- student
- tactics
- terrain
- thousands
- thrones
- tuscaloosa
- undermine
- undo
- university
- utility
- voters
- white
- xcel
- young