“Your airbag” by Ralph Nader. “Your seatbelt” by Ralph Nader. “Your cleaner air” by Ralph Nader. “Your safer food” by Ralph Nader. “Your lead protection when you get dental x-rays", “Your warning labels on cigarettes”, “Your right to know if you’re exposed to dangerous chemicals at your job”. By Ralph Nader, by Ralph Nader, by Ralph Nader.
We slap names on everything! Bylines. Authorship! We see names on everything in our ego-oriented society with commercialization and profit maximization near its core. But Ralph’s name isn’t on any of these things. Could be! Maybe should be! But when you’ve spent nearly seven decades — seven decades! — as a tireless consumer advocate, fighting to achieve protections for a healthier and safer society for all, well, maybe you don't focus on credit. You just focus on change.
“Dissent is the mother of ascent,” Ralph reminds us in Chapter 130 of 3 Books, one of many calls-to-arms issued by the four-time Presidential candidate and author of the new book The Rebellious CEO to our fiery global community of book lovers, writers, makers, sellers ... and librarians.
And while Ralph’s not running for President in 2024 — “We have a two-party duopoly not a competitive democracy" — he’s still working, day after day, calling for change. Sure, he’s turning 90 in February, joining his two active nonagenarian sisters, but he doesn’t feel old. Why not? Because, according to Ralph, “The only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals."
I was very excited to sit down with Ralph and learn from his plentiful experience, wisdom, and ideas. On lots of things! Including de-computerizing elementary schools, shifting from a warmaking to peacemaking society, adding safety to social media, his ingredients for cognitive longevity, his current views of the famed Bush-Gore 2000 presidential election where he was called a "spoiler", and, of course, his 3 most formative books.
In an era of blaring, dopamine-spiking news and social media overwhelm this longform conversation with a true master awoke and inflamed my spirit on so many things. I think it'll do the same for you.
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 130 now...
Chapter 130: Ralph Nader on corporate crime creating classist chaos
CONNECT WITH Ralph
Ralph’s 3 Books
First book (9:40)
Second book (29:20)
Third book (1:11:10)
Quotes
We can be great peacemakers. The great warmakers can turn into peacemakers. But that’s got to start with peace movements all over the country. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Readers think and thinkers read. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
You don’t see kids on sidewalks playing anymore. They’re all inside looking at screens. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
The only true aging is the erosion of one’s ideals. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Dissent is the mother of ascent. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Abolish the Electoral College. It is totally atavistic. It was a big mistake by the founders. Nobody has ever voted for a presidential candidate in the United States. Because you vote for the electors, you don’t vote for the candidate. You vote for the electors who represent the candidate. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Who is going to save a society that aspires to be democratic instead of autocratic or fascistic? The answer is the people. And it doesn’t take that many of them. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
The two parties thrive on divide and rule. That’s the way they raise money. And the press falls prey to it again and again. They don’t understand what their own polls show. These piteous ideologies don’t have as much meaning. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Get off the screens and hold real books in your hands. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
There have been a lot of articles on bad CEOs, big companies, the cruel and avaricious wardens of the internet gulag. Facebook, Instagram, and Google, they’ve been sued in the European community for criminal anti-trust violations; there are lawsuits pending here. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
There are over 42 million Americans still paying student debt into their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, even 70s. What other country would launch their young generations into a lifetime of debt? There’s no other Western country that does this. It’s because people in our country are not organized, they’ve turned inward, and they spend a lot of time fighting each other ideologically. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
All empires devour themselves. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
People, regardless of their political persuasions, when they are confronted by injustice, they all bleed the same color. | Ralph Nader #3bookspodcast
Download Transcript
Show Notes
A Dozen Dissidents Criticize the President and the Government in ‘the People's State of the Union’ - NYT Article
