Assignment #2 Jacqueline Burroughs

1. What was the quote (either spoken or written on screen) that impacted you the most from the
first half of the film? Why?

The quote that impacted me most was “Long before we can shape the world, the world has
firmly shaped us, but what we are shaped to is no accident.” This quote is a fascinating
concept to me and something I do not think about during my everyday life. We are born into
an environment that we have no control over, and yet we are expected to believe we have the
power to change our circumstances.

2. What was the quote (either spoken or written on screen) that impacted you the most from the
second half of the film? Why?

The quote that impacted me most in the second half was “We won’t ask a question if we
think we already know the answer. Beliefs become a part of yourself and can close the mind
from other perspectives or answers.

3. What does the narrator mean when he says, “In an important sense, we are not born free. In
fact, to take our freedom for granted is to extinguish the possibility of attaining it”?

The narrator means that the society we are born into and the position we hold in life restrains
us from truly being free. Therefore, if we take our freedom for granted, it will prevent us
from understanding past what society sets up for us to believe.

4. What did they say is often missing from the Columbus story we are taught in school? Why
does this matter, according to the film?

Schools often leave out that Columbus was a predator and his main goal was to seize the
riches of the new territories. He subjected the Indians he met in the Bahamas to terrible
cruelty. This is important because if we’re told in its truth then it might make young people
question what the country was founded on.

5. What percentage of U.S. wealth is inherited, according to the film?

It is an estimate d 35 to 45% of wealth that is inherited.

6. The film asserts that nobody is really unbiased, that nobody is neutral. Why is this true,
according to the film?

Nobody is neutral according to this film because we live in a world that is already moving in
certain directions, a world where there is no blank slate. Doing nothing is collaborating, not
being neutral. There is no such thing of neutrality in a world that is subjected to so many
other forces.
7. What did you think of Michael Albert’s analogy comparing people’s views about the current
economic order to aging? How does it accurately capture what it is describing?

Michael Albert proposes the idea that people would just laugh at him if he started a
movement against aging, which kills more people than poverty and war combined. Aging
kills more people than anyone else. People think that it is just a fact of life and you have to
put up with it. This can be compared to societal roles and ways of life people are used to.
People will begin to think the systems set up are unchanging.