Thursday, August 20, 2009

Rick Steves - 'Travel as a Political Act' Lecture.

Big fan of Rick Steves... his podcasts, travel philosophy, I even have several of his pieces of luggage and travel gear. This is the beginning of an excellent lecture he recently put online.

"It's occurred to me since about 9/12 that the role of a travel writer needs to be like a court jester during the Middle Ages...

When you travel, if you're halfway awake it's a broadening experience...

When I see a 'God Bless America' sticker I think 'As opposed to what?'"

"I got no trouble with hedonism. I'm a Lutheran. But travel should bring us together..."

"I was raised thinking cheese was orange and in the shape of bread..."

"I have learned... that if more people had a history degree and thought about it, we'd be a lot better off...

Anytime you're surrounded by teary eyed Germans, something exceptional is going on...

Across the board in our society people want us to be dumbed down. They just made the President of Reader's Digest the President of Public Broadcasting. Geez, that should blow a whistle... why do they find Public Broadcasting to be so threatening? Because it wants us to be smartened up instead of dumbed down. It's inconvenient if we really want to get into stuff..."

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