Distinguished Lecturer Series Board Site
Nominated Speakers:
"Other" Category
Vivek Ramaswamy
Vivek Ramaswamy has done a deep dive on how “Woke” culture is impacting broad swaths of our economy and what he describes as the “Woke Industrial Complex” which he views as a potentially existential threat to democracy. His second book, Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence highlights this thought, calling for a renewal of America through the creation of a shared vision that brings America together and fills the void created by wokeness.
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Ramaswamy is the son of first-generation immigrants from India who grew up in a middle-class home in Ohio. He graduated from Harvard, Yale Law School and worked until recently as the CEO of a biotech start-up company. In addition to woke culture, his frequent appearances on television including discussions of proxy battles, politics, free speech, and the hypocrisy of the practices of ESG investing implemented by some investment firms. It is easy to see him entering political life in the near future. He is young, dynamic and on the rise.
Ramaswamy is a gifted speaker, described in an Atlantic article this way: “…Ramaswamy’s frictionless oratorical style—a brisk patter, peppered with references to Hobbes and Hayek, that wends toward well-modulated moments of outrage. In Dublin, his words had gray and blond heads bobbing in agreement.”
The video below is a great example of Ramaswamy’s powerful speaking style. Give it a look and I think that you'll agree that Vivek would be a strong addition to our DLS lineup.
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You can watch the entire YouTube video by clicking here.
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-- John Moore
Jonathan Haidt
This is my "first contest" in nominating a speaker candidate. In doing so, I scanned the list of priors, very impressive. But I concentrated on the underlying societal issues which could cause lasting damage going forward, and which is why I chose Jonathan Haidt as my nominee.
Jonathan Haidt, my nominee, is a social psychologist at. New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is widely read and widely quoted re the subject matter covered in the WSJ article which caught my eye (linked below), dealing with what he sees as the root cause of the societal problem of our time “The National Crisis of Gen Z”. He has a few quotes in the first paragraph to kick off the problem as he sees it :”today’s generation gap has widened into a chasm…we have a whole generation that’s doing terribly… a national crisis’’.
If you search him on YouTube, you’ll see a wide selection of articles from which I pick the following for context, including film clips:
--"The Case Against Social Media”: here.
--“Has Social Media Destroyed This Generation”: here.
--“Other topics include: (i) Why Are We So Stupidly Divided and How Can We Heal?; (ii) The “stunning fragility” and vindictive political correctness of today’s students and (iii) Universities must choose between TRUTH or social justice, not both.”