“So here you are: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old. Where are you going to be in 50 years? What will you be doing? Do you talk about that on your cell phone?” On April 12, Ralph Nader gave his lecture, “While You Were Watching Big Brother, Big Brother Was Watching You” to hundreds of UVA students and community members.
Standing before “The School of Athens” in Old Cabell Hall, Nader contrasted “growing up civic” to “growing up corporate.” He quoted Cicero’s definition of freedom as “participation in power.”
 Ralph Nader put on a straight-talkin’ style evocative of Woody Guthrie while he badgered UVA undergrads at an April 12 speech to expand their “level of informed indignation.” |
“Politicians talk about personal freedom,” said Nader. “You can buy anything and travel anywhere you want. But that’s not liberty.”
The Thomas Jefferson Visiting Lecture Series hosted the talk. In previous years the student-run organization has brought Bob Woodward and Jimmy Carter to campus.
“I was very happy with the turnout.” said sophomore student Kelly Tempest, program coordinator for the event. “I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Nader before his talk. He seemed really impressed that so much at UVA is student run.” Tempest’s hype for the event was appropriately grassroots and undergrad: In addition to putting out flyers, e-mails and class announcements, she started a Facebook group.
In a straight-talkin’ style charmingly evocative of Woody Guthrie, Nader rallied his audience. He asked for a show of hands on half a dozen questions. He derided binge drinking: “What are you trying to prove by ruining your health?” And during the hour-long Q&A, the former presidential candidate invited students to make announcements for their civic groups. “Why don’t you expand your level of informed indignation?” he pleaded. “What gets you angry? That’s the question that you’ve always got to ask.”
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