025: Summer Book Club: 1984, Part 2

Solutions for Higher Education with Southern Utah University President Scott L Wyatt

As part of the podcast series Solutions for Higher Education, SUU President Scott L Wyatt will lead a “Summer Reading Club” focusing on a new book each month. The July 2018 book is 1984 by George Orwell. In this episode we are joined by English faculty member Joy Sterrantino and Political Science faculty member Doug Bennett.

Quotes:

"this is a great group to talk about this book with because we’ve got a literature expert, a government expert"

"This book is a warning."

"I think the book reflects a reality that I slowly came to grips with in D.C."

"People will say to me, “There’s so much money in politics, it’s obscene.” And I’ll say, “The federal budget is three trillion dollars, and Americans spend ten times as much on pornography as they do on political campaigns. So, you tell me what’s important and where we should spend our money.”"

"it kills me with the voting thing, specifically because it’s so easy for us to vote. And it is important. And yet, people don’t do it "

"the local newspapers and local radio stations for the most part, they really tried hard to do their very best as a community sort of a thing and they’re dependent on this same community supporting them. "

"One of the things with my students is I tell them not to use news sources as their primary sources if they can find it somewhere else."

"I have to laugh because every single year, the university sends out an April Fool’s joke... and it’s surprising how many people will read the heading and then send me an angry email. [All laugh] Without having read the story. It cracks me up. I even had a reporter do that this last year."

"it was intended that the federal district be insulated from the vicissitudes of state politics. It’s a federal enclave, intended to house the government. It was never intended to be a state."

"You say, “We should all have a right to healthcare.” I certainly agree with that. That’s very different from saying, “The government will determine what kind of healthcare you get and give it to you.”"

"how much of our power we are ceding through the increasing intrusion of technology into our lives."

"one of the things I do for the very beginning of class is, for those classes, I will scour the internet for information, public information, about the students. So instead of them introducing themselves, I’ll introduce them and they just look horrified like how do I know these things?"

"that’s how Hitler became in power. People were fed up and there were just so many problems in the country, so Hitler just sounded good."

"the moral outrage wasn’t there before Trump."

"it’s not an issue of women’s rights for The Post and The Times, it’s a way to go after Trump. They don’t care about women any more than they did 10 years ago. It’s a tool to go after Trump."

Full Transcript