Danny Goldberg returns to Mindrolling to chat about the current landscape in politics and how we can deal with the polarization caused by our fear-driven social structures.
Rock & Roles podcast host Danny Goldberg is a music executive who has worked with artists from Led Zeppelin to Krishna Das. His most recent book, Serving the Servant, is about his relationship with Kurt Cobain. He is also contributing a series of articles for The Nation about the intersection of art and politics.
In My Opinion…
Raghu welcomes Danny to the show for a political check-up. Danny offers the disclaimer that all political statements should be preceded by the phrase, “In my opinion…” They discuss a Ram Dass dharma talk from the early years of the Clinton administration, and the idea that we need to develop a new story.
“This is not about Republican or Democrat, this is about we’re in a situation where a lot of fear has been created. That’s what we want to investigate.” – Raghu Markus
Politics and Polarization (17:00)
Raghu explores how we live in a fear-driven social structure that promotes political polarization. He and Danny talk about the experiment of a love-driven social structure from the 1960s, and the ‘hipper than thou’ attitude that emerged in some people. Danny takes a long view of history to help calm himself down.
“This is a country with an enormous history of injustice and mistakes and suffering, and so is every other county. It’s the human race. What do you guys call it, the Kali Yuga?” – Danny Goldberg
Young Voters and Community (37:47)
Danny covers the Democratic nominees and their perceived electability issues. He shares his romantic view of young voters, saying their votes should count for twice as much because it’s their future. Raghu talks about how the young people he knows are all about social responsibility and community.
“You talk to people in their 20s, it’s a very different conversation, for the most part, than what you see on the TV news. It’s a very different conversation.” – Danny Goldberg
Ram Dass talks about the importance of inner social action on Here and Now Ep. 137
