WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.360 ♪♪ 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:03.860 ♪♪ 00:00:03.860 --> 00:00:05.460 ♪♪ 00:00:05.460 --> 00:00:08.030 ♪♪ 00:00:08.030 --> 00:00:19.050 ♪♪ 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:23.420 ( applause ) 00:00:23.420 --> 00:00:26.550 My students often ask me, 00:00:26.550 --> 00:00:31.380 "What is sociology?" and I tell them it's the study of the way 00:00:31.380 --> 00:00:35.620 in which human beings are shaped by things that they don't see. 00:00:35.620 --> 00:00:39.400 And they say "So, how can I be a sociologist?" 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:41.800 "How can I understand those invisible forces?" 00:00:41.800 --> 00:00:43.450 and I say, "Empathy." 00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:45.440 Start with empathy. 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:50.520 It all begins with empathy. Take yourself out of your shoes and put yourself 00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:52.700 into the shoes of another person. 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:55.370 Here, I'll give you an example. 00:00:55.370 --> 00:00:59.410 So I imagine my life if a hundred years ago, China had been 00:00:59.410 --> 00:01:01.490 the most powerful nation in the world, 00:01:01.490 --> 00:01:05.100 and they came to the United States in search of coal. 00:01:05.100 --> 00:01:08.050 And they found it, and in fact they found lots of it right here. 00:01:08.050 --> 00:01:13.730 And pretty soon they began shipping that coal ton by ton, 00:01:13.730 --> 00:01:18.090 rail car by rail car, boat load by boat load back to China 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:21.150 and elsewhere around the world. 00:01:21.150 --> 00:01:23.390 And they got fabulously weatlthy in doing so. 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:30.680 They built beautiful cities all powered on that coal. 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:38.680 And back here in the United States we saw economic despair, depravation. 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:42.910 This is what I saw. I saw people struggling to get by, 00:01:42.910 --> 00:01:46.280 not knowing what was what and what was next. 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:48.980 And I asked myself a question. 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:52.420 I say, "How is it possible that we can be so poor in the United States, 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:56.580 because the coal is such a wealthy resource. It's so much money?" 00:01:56.580 --> 00:02:01.120 And I realize because the Chinese ingratiated themselves 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.760 with a small ruling class here in the United States 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:08.200 who stole all of that money and all of that wealth for themselves. 00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:11.920 And the rest of us, the vast majority of us struggle to get by. 00:02:11.920 --> 00:02:15.800 And the Chinese gave this small ruling elite loads 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:20.230 of military weapons and sophisticated technology in order to insure 00:02:20.230 --> 00:02:25.340 that people like me would not speak out against this relationship. 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.220 Does this sound familiar? 00:02:28.220 --> 00:02:33.200 And they did things like train Americans to help protect the coal. 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:36.420 And everywhere were symbols of the Chinese. 00:02:36.420 --> 00:02:40.010 Everywhere a constant reminder. 00:02:40.010 --> 00:02:44.120 And back in China? What do they say in China? Nothing. 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.170 They don't talk about us. They don't talk about the coal. 00:02:47.170 --> 00:02:49.900 If you ask them they'll say, "Well, you know, the coal? 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:51.290 We need the coal. I mean, come on." 00:02:51.290 --> 00:02:56.550 "I'm not going to turn down my thermostat. You can't expect that." 00:02:56.550 --> 00:03:00.460 And so I get angry and I get pissed, 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:04.820 as do lots of average people, and we fight back. 00:03:04.820 --> 00:03:10.360 And it gets really ugly and the Chinese respond in a very ugly way. 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:12.690 And before we know it they've sent in the tanks 00:03:12.690 --> 00:03:17.410 and they've sent in the troops and lots of people are dying. 00:03:17.410 --> 00:03:22.250 And it's a very, very difficult situation. 00:03:22.250 --> 00:03:28.550 So, can you feel me? Can you imagine what you would feel 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:30.690 if you were in my shoes? 00:03:30.690 --> 00:03:34.020 Can you imagine walking out of this building and seeing a tank 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:38.680 sitting out there or a truck full of soldiers. 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:41.770 Just imagine what you would feel because you know why they're here 00:03:41.770 --> 00:03:44.300 and you know what they're doing here, and you just feel the anger 00:03:44.300 --> 00:03:48.760 and you feel the fear. Okay? If you can, that's empathy. 00:03:48.760 --> 00:03:54.010 That's empathy. You've left your shoes and stood in mine. 00:03:54.010 --> 00:03:58.760 And you gotta feel that. Okay, so that's the warmup. That's the warmup. 00:03:58.760 --> 00:04:02.760 Now we're going to have the real radical experiment. 00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:06.420 And so for the remainder of my talk what I want you to do 00:04:06.420 --> 00:04:11.010 is put yourselves in the shoes of an ordinary Arab Muslim 00:04:11.010 --> 00:04:16.060 living in the Middle East, in particular in Iraq. 00:04:16.060 --> 00:04:19.020 And so to help you-- 00:04:19.020 --> 00:04:23.340 perhaps you're a member of this middle class family in Baghdad. 00:04:23.340 --> 00:04:26.110 And what you want is the best for your kids. 00:04:26.110 --> 00:04:27.950 You want your kids to have a better life. 00:04:27.950 --> 00:04:30.990 And you watch the news. You pay attention. You read the newspaper. 00:04:30.990 --> 00:04:32.980 You go down to the coffee shop with your friends. 00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:34.780 And you read the newspapers from around the world, 00:04:34.780 --> 00:04:39.050 and sometimes you even watch satellite CNN from the United States 00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:41.350 so you have a sense of what the Americans are thinking. 00:04:41.350 --> 00:04:44.640 But really you just want a better life for yourself. 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:49.410 That's what you want. You're Arab Muslim living in Iraq. 00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:51.940 You want a better life for yourself. So here, let me help you. 00:04:51.940 --> 00:04:55.730 Let me help you with some things that you might be thinking. 00:04:55.730 --> 00:05:01.430 Number one, this incursion into your land these past twenty years and before? 00:05:01.430 --> 00:05:04.500 The reason anyone's interested in your land in particular the United States? 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:05.760 It's oil. 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:08.900 But it's all about oil. You know that. Everybody knows that. 00:05:08.900 --> 00:05:12.190 People here back in the United States know it's about oil. 00:05:12.190 --> 00:05:17.190 It's because somebody else has a design for your resource. 00:05:17.190 --> 00:05:21.370 It's your resource. It's not somebody else's, right? It's your land. 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:25.510 It's your resource. Somebody else has a design for it. 00:05:25.510 --> 00:05:28.960 And you know why they have a design? You know why they have their eyes set on it? 00:05:28.960 --> 00:05:33.410 Because they have an entire economic system that's dependent on that oil. 00:05:33.410 --> 00:05:37.630 Foreign oil. Oil from other parts of the world that they don't own. 00:05:37.630 --> 00:05:40.840 And what else do you think about these people? 00:05:40.840 --> 00:05:44.770 Well, the Americans, they're rich! Come on, they live in big houses, they have big cars, 00:05:44.770 --> 00:05:48.360 they have blonde hair, blue eyes. They're happy. You think that. 00:05:48.360 --> 00:05:52.790 It's not true, of course, but that's the media impression. That's like what you get? 00:05:52.790 --> 00:05:58.870 And they have big cities and the cities are all dependent on oil. 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:01.340 And back home what do you see? 00:06:01.340 --> 00:06:06.360 Poverty, despair, struggle. Look, you don't live in a wealthy country. 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:10.690 I mean this is Iraq. 00:06:10.690 --> 00:06:15.200 This is what you see -- you see people struggling to get by. 00:06:15.200 --> 00:06:18.500 I mean it's not easy. You see a lot of poverty and you feel something about this. 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:23.070 These people have designs for your resource, and this is what you see? 00:06:23.070 --> 00:06:29.120 It doesn't feel good. But here, a couple other things? 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:31.340 Something else you see that you talk about. 00:06:31.340 --> 00:06:32.730 Americans don't talk about this, but you do. 00:06:32.730 --> 00:06:37.870 There's this thing this militarization of the world, and it's centered right in the United States. 00:06:37.870 --> 00:06:45.800 And the United States is responsible for almost one half of the world's military spending. 00:06:45.800 --> 00:06:50.230 Four per cent of the world's population and you feel it, you see it every day. 00:06:50.230 --> 00:06:54.160 It's part of your life and you talk about it with your friends. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:59.850 You read about it. And back when Sadaam Hussein was in power? 00:06:59.850 --> 00:07:02.670 The Americans didn't care about his crimes. 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:06.530 When he was gassing the Kurds and gassing Iran they didn't care about it. 00:07:06.530 --> 00:07:13.910 When oil was at stake, somehow suddenly things mattered. 00:07:13.910 --> 00:07:16.270 And what you see? Something else? 00:07:16.270 --> 00:07:19.980 The United States, the hub of democracy around the world? 00:07:19.980 --> 00:07:25.740 They don't seem to really be supporting democratic countries all around the world. 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:29.430 There are a lot of countries, oil-producing countries, that aren't very democratic 00:07:29.430 --> 00:07:32.480 but supported by the United States. 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:33.280 That's odd. 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:37.380 Oh, these incursions. Here, let me help you. 00:07:37.380 --> 00:07:41.880 These incursions? These two years wars? The ten years of sanctions? 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:45.550 The eight years of occupation? 00:07:45.550 --> 00:07:49.170 The insurgency that's been unleashed on your people? 00:07:49.170 --> 00:07:57.410 The tens of thousand, the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths 00:07:57.410 --> 00:08:00.080 all because of oil. 00:08:00.080 --> 00:08:04.150 You can't help but think that. You talk about it. 00:08:04.150 --> 00:08:07.150 It's in the forefront of your mind always. 00:08:07.150 --> 00:08:13.380 You say, "How is that possible? Come on." 00:08:13.380 --> 00:08:14.550 And this man? 00:08:14.550 --> 00:08:19.500 He's every man. Your grandfather, your uncle your father, 00:08:19.500 --> 00:08:23.270 your son, your neighbor, your professor, your student -- 00:08:23.270 --> 00:08:30.630 wants a life of happiness and joy and suddenly pain and sorrow. 00:08:30.630 --> 00:08:36.900 Everyone in your country has been touched by the violence, 00:08:36.900 --> 00:08:39.850 the bloodshed, the pain, the horror. Everybody. 00:08:39.850 --> 00:08:45.600 Not a single person in your country has not been touched. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:47.210 So here, but there's something else. 00:08:47.210 --> 00:08:51.260 There's something else about these people, these Americans who are there. 00:08:51.260 --> 00:08:54.190 There's something else about them that you see. They don't see themselves. 00:08:54.190 --> 00:08:58.090 And what do you see? They're Christians. 00:08:58.090 --> 00:09:00.560 They're Christians. They worship the Christian God. 00:09:00.560 --> 00:09:02.580 They have crosses, they carry bibles. 00:09:02.580 --> 00:09:08.840 Their Bibles have a little insignia that says U.S. Army on them. 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:14.230 And their leaders, their leaders, before they send their sons and 00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:17.860 daughters off to war in your country, and you know the reason, 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:20.660 before they send them off, they go to a Christian church 00:09:20.660 --> 00:09:22.200 and they pray to their Christian God 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:25.320 and they ask for protection and guidance from that god. 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:26.400 Why? 00:09:26.400 --> 00:09:32.970 Well, obviously so that when people die in the war they are Muslims. 00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:33.840 They are Iraqis. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:35.500 They're not Americans. 00:09:35.500 --> 00:09:38.450 You don't want Americans to die. Protect our troops. 00:09:38.450 --> 00:09:42.140 And you feel something about that. Of course you do? 00:09:42.140 --> 00:09:45.730 And they do wonderful things, beautiful humanitarian things, 00:09:45.730 --> 00:09:48.870 but these humanitarians, I mean because these people, they're there 00:09:48.870 --> 00:09:52.600 you read about it, you hear about it, they're there to build schools 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:54.120 and help people and that's what they want to do. 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:57.330 They do wonderful things, but they also do the bad things 00:09:57.330 --> 00:09:58.960 and you can't tell the difference. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:00.020 And so you don't. 00:10:00.020 --> 00:10:03.310 And this guy, you got a guy like Lieutenant General William Boykin. 00:10:03.310 --> 00:10:06.530 I mean, here's a guy that says that your god is a false god. 00:10:06.530 --> 00:10:10.570 Your god is an idol. His god is the true god. The solution to the problem in the Middle East 00:10:10.570 --> 00:10:13.710 according to him is to convert you all to Christianity. 00:10:13.710 --> 00:10:15.830 Just get rid of your religion. 00:10:15.830 --> 00:10:16.640 And you know that. 00:10:16.640 --> 00:10:18.520 Americans don't read about this guy. 00:10:18.520 --> 00:10:20.470 They don't know anything about him, but you do. 00:10:20.470 --> 00:10:22.900 You pass it around, you pass his words around. 00:10:22.900 --> 00:10:25.340 I mean this is serious. You're afraid. 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:28.910 He was one of the leading commanders in the second invasion of Iraq, 00:10:28.910 --> 00:10:31.360 and you're thinking "My god, if this guy is saying that, 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:34.130 then all the soldiers must be saying that." 00:10:34.130 --> 00:10:34.630 Right? 00:10:34.630 --> 00:10:37.470 This word here. George Bush called this war a "crusade." 00:10:37.470 --> 00:10:41.440 Man, the Americans they're just like, "Crusade, whatever, I don't know what that means." 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.080 But you know what it means. It's a Holy War against Muslims. 00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:51.680 Look, invade, subdue them, take their resources. If they won't submit, kill them. 00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:53.020 That's what this is about. 00:10:53.020 --> 00:10:56.580 And you're thinking "My god, these Christians are coming to kill us." 00:10:56.580 --> 00:10:58.830 This is frightening. You feel frightened. 00:10:58.830 --> 00:11:02.090 Of course you feel frightened? 00:11:02.090 --> 00:11:07.480 Of course you feel frightened. 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:09.880 Why wouldn't you feel frightened. 00:11:09.880 --> 00:11:15.160 And this man, Terry Jones, I mean here's a guy wants to burn Korans, right? 00:11:15.160 --> 00:11:19.210 And the Americans, "Oh what, he's a knucklehead, he's a former hotel manager, 00:11:19.210 --> 00:11:20.870 he's got three dozen members of his church", 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:23.590 they laugh him off. You don't laugh him off. 00:11:23.590 --> 00:11:26.660 Because in the context of everything else, all the pieces fit. 00:11:26.660 --> 00:11:28.730 I mean of course this is how the Americans think, 00:11:28.730 --> 00:11:32.300 and so people all over the Middle East, not just in your country are protesting. 00:11:32.300 --> 00:11:35.160 He wants to burn Korans, our holy book. 00:11:35.160 --> 00:11:39.050 These Christians, Who are these Christians? They're so evil, they're so mean. 00:11:39.050 --> 00:11:40.880 I mean this is what they're about? 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:44.860 This is what you're thinking as an Arab Muslim, as an Iraqi. 00:11:44.860 --> 00:11:48.730 Of course you're going to think this. How can you not think this? 00:11:48.730 --> 00:11:52.810 And then your cousin says "Hey, cuz, check out this website. 00:11:52.810 --> 00:11:55.360 You gotta see this Christian, this Bible Boot Camp. 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:59.810 These Christians are nuts. They're training their little kids to be soldiers for Jesus." 00:11:59.810 --> 00:12:01.990 And they take these little kids, and they run them through these things 00:12:01.990 --> 00:12:05.450 and they teach them how to say "Sir, yes, sir!", and play games like grenade toss, 00:12:05.450 --> 00:12:07.590 and weapons care and maintenance. 00:12:07.590 --> 00:12:10.800 And go to the website. It says U.S. Army right on it. 00:12:10.800 --> 00:12:12.700 I mean these Christians they're nuts! 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:14.200 How would they do this to their little kids? 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:16.250 And you're reading this website and of course Christians 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:18.690 back in the United States or anybody says 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:21.300 "Aw, this is a little tiny church in the middle of nowhere." 00:12:21.300 --> 00:12:23.100 You don't know that. 00:12:23.100 --> 00:12:25.570 For you, this is all Christians. 00:12:25.570 --> 00:12:28.030 It's all over the web -- Bible Boot Camp. 00:12:28.030 --> 00:12:31.190 And look at this. They even teach their kids. 00:12:31.190 --> 00:12:34.530 They train them in the same way the U.S. Marines train. 00:12:34.530 --> 00:12:36.020 Isn't that interesting? 00:12:36.020 --> 00:12:38.100 And it scares you and it frightens you. 00:12:38.100 --> 00:12:40.350 So these guys? You see them? 00:12:40.350 --> 00:12:43.470 You see I, Sam Richards, I know who these guys are. 00:12:43.470 --> 00:12:45.990 They're my students, my friends. I mean I know what they're thinking. 00:12:45.990 --> 00:12:47.970 You don't know. 00:12:47.970 --> 00:12:53.310 When you see them they're something else. They're something else. 00:12:53.310 --> 00:12:56.140 That's what they are to you. (Christian Invaders) 00:12:56.140 --> 00:12:58.300 We don't see it that way in the United States. 00:12:58.300 --> 00:13:03.910 But you see it that way? 00:13:03.910 --> 00:13:07.720 So here. Of course, you got it wrong. 00:13:07.720 --> 00:13:10.500 You're generalizing, it's wrong. 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:14.190 You don't understand the Americans. It's not a Christian invasion. 00:13:14.190 --> 00:13:16.390 We're not just there for oil. We're there for lots of reasons. 00:13:16.390 --> 00:13:19.360 I mean, you have it wrong. You've missed it. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:22.000 And of course most of you don't support the insurgency, 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.790 you don't support killing Americans, you don't support the terrorists. 00:13:25.790 --> 00:13:31.200 Of course you don't. Very few people do. But some of you do? 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.020 And this is a perspective. 00:13:33.020 --> 00:13:35.730 Okay, so now, so here's what we're going to do. 00:13:35.730 --> 00:13:39.670 Step outside of your shoes that you're in right now 00:13:39.670 --> 00:13:44.450 and step back into your normal shoes, so everyone's back in the room, okay? 00:13:44.450 --> 00:13:45.900 Now here comes the radical experiment. 00:13:45.900 --> 00:13:50.330 So we're all back home. 00:13:50.330 --> 00:13:52.490 This photo. This woman? 00:13:52.490 --> 00:13:55.930 Man, I feel her. I feel her. 00:13:55.930 --> 00:14:01.680 She's my sister, my wife, my cousin, my neighbor, she's anybody. 00:14:01.680 --> 00:14:04.350 These guys standing there, everybody in the photo? 00:14:04.350 --> 00:14:07.960 I feel this photo, man. 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:09.620 So here's what I want you to do. 00:14:09.620 --> 00:14:13.710 Let's go back to my first example of the Chinese, okay? 00:14:13.710 --> 00:14:16.570 So I want you to go there, so it's all about coal 00:14:16.570 --> 00:14:18.410 and the Chinese are here in the United States. 00:14:18.410 --> 00:14:23.300 And I want you to picture her as a Chinese woman receiving a Chinese flag 00:14:23.300 --> 00:14:28.770 because her loved one has died in America in the coal uprising. 00:14:28.770 --> 00:14:31.990 And the soldiers are Chinese and everybody else is Chinese. 00:14:31.990 --> 00:14:38.200 Okay? As an American, how do you feel about this picture? 00:14:38.200 --> 00:14:42.740 What do you think about that scene? 00:14:42.740 --> 00:14:44.240 Okay, try this. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.600 Bring it back. This is the scene, here. It's an American, 00:14:47.600 --> 00:14:51.710 American soldiers, American woman who lost her loved one in the Middle East, 00:14:51.710 --> 00:14:53.850 in Iraq or Afghanistan? 00:14:53.850 --> 00:14:55.990 Now put yourself in the shoes 00:14:55.990 --> 00:15:02.210 of an Arab Muslim living in Iraq. 00:15:02.210 --> 00:15:06.970 What are you feeling and thinking about this photo, 00:15:06.970 --> 00:15:10.170 about this woman? 00:15:10.170 --> 00:15:17.090 00:15:17.090 --> 00:15:20.860 Okay, now follow me on this. 00:15:20.860 --> 00:15:22.910 Because I'm taking a big risk here. 00:15:22.910 --> 00:15:28.910 And so I'm going to invite you to take a risk with me, okay? 00:15:28.910 --> 00:15:32.520 Okay so these gentlemen here, they're insurgents. 00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:36.510 They were caught by the American soldiers trying to kill Americans. 00:15:36.510 --> 00:15:40.830 And maybe they succeeded. Maybe they succeeded? 00:15:40.830 --> 00:15:46.530 Put yourself in the shoes of the Americans who caught them. 00:15:46.530 --> 00:15:48.600 Can you feel the rage? 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:52.410 Can you feel that you just want to take these guys and wring their necks? 00:15:52.410 --> 00:15:56.720 I mean, can you go there? It shouldn't be that difficult. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:16:00.810 You know you just feel, "Aw, man!" 00:16:00.810 --> 00:16:10.870 Okay, now, put yourself in their shoes. 00:16:10.870 --> 00:16:12.890 Are they brutal killers 00:16:12.890 --> 00:16:16.760 or patriotic defenders? 00:16:16.760 --> 00:16:18.550 Which one? 00:16:18.550 --> 00:16:25.930 Can you feel their anger, their fear, their rage 00:16:25.930 --> 00:16:27.990 at what has happened in their country? 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:32.540 Can you imagine that maybe one of them in the morning 00:16:32.540 --> 00:16:36.100 bent down to their child and hugged their child and said, 00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:43.100 "Dear, I'll be back later. I'm going out to defend your freedom, your lives." 00:16:43.100 --> 00:16:49.190 "I'm going out to look out for us, the future of our country." 00:16:49.190 --> 00:16:53.250 Can you imagine that? Can you imagine saying that? 00:16:53.250 --> 00:16:57.850 Can you go there? 00:16:57.850 --> 00:17:00.650 What do you think they're feeling? 00:17:00.650 --> 00:17:07.960 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:09.400 You see that's empathy. 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:12.740 It's also understanding. 00:17:12.740 --> 00:17:18.170 Now, you might ask, "Okay, Sam, so why do you do this sort of thing?" 00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:20.620 "Why would you use this example of all examples?" 00:17:20.620 --> 00:17:27.070 And I say because you're allowed to hate these people. 00:17:27.070 --> 00:17:32.080 You're allowed to just hate them with every fiber of your being. 00:17:32.080 --> 00:17:35.840 aAd if I can get you to step into their shoes 00:17:35.840 --> 00:17:40.120 and walk in inch, one tiny inch, 00:17:40.120 --> 00:17:44.150 then imagine the kind of sociological analysis that you can do 00:17:44.150 --> 00:17:47.580 in all other aspects of your life. 00:17:47.580 --> 00:17:51.170 You can walk a mile when it comes to understanding 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:55.640 why that person is driving 40 miles per hour in the passing lane, 00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:59.600 or your teenage son, or your neighbor 00:17:59.600 --> 00:18:02.360 who annoys you by cutting his lawn on Sunday mornings. 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:07.930 Whatever it is, you can go so far -- and this is what I tell my students. 00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:11.440 Step outside of your tiny little world. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:16.210 Step inside of the tiny little world of somebody else. 00:18:16.210 --> 00:18:19.410 And then do it again, and do it again, and do it again 00:18:19.410 --> 00:18:21.380 and suddenly all of these tiny little worlds 00:18:21.380 --> 00:18:23.700 they come together in this complex web 00:18:23.700 --> 00:18:26.650 and they build a big complex world. 00:18:26.650 --> 00:18:31.550 And suddenly without realizing it you're seeing the world differently. 00:18:31.550 --> 00:18:33.300 Everything has changed. 00:18:33.300 --> 00:18:36.100 Everything in your life has changed. 00:18:36.100 --> 00:18:39.220 And that's of course what this is about. 00:18:39.220 --> 00:18:43.700 Attend to other lives, other visions. 00:18:43.700 --> 00:18:48.150 Listen to other people. Enlighten ourselves. 00:18:48.150 --> 00:18:57.420 And so what I will say here is, I'm not saying that I support the terrorists in Iraq. 00:18:57.420 --> 00:19:05.380 But as a sociologist, what I am saying is I understand. 00:19:05.380 --> 00:19:09.590 And now perhaps, perhaps, you do too. 00:19:09.590 --> 00:19:10.610 Thank you. 00:19:10.610 --> 99:59:59.999 ( applause )