It's true, but repeating such an argument is still desirable. I just wish he was better at doing it.

I actually loved the very end in the context of this being a TED Talk. There's so many of these where the speaker offers a "big idea to fix things" in a hushed tone which isn't really a big idea at all. Graeber just sort of playfully offers the abolishment of national borders to get across his point that the real problem is a lack of will and ability to think outside of our conditioning.

wackyakmed, I am very drunk and I have two things to say to you:

1) you're absolutely right. We DO need new ideas. The neoclassical school of economists are finally being shown for the autistic crypto-fascists they really are, and honestly staid, dreary Marxist categories from the 19th century can't even begin to show us how to navigate the 21st century. Marx's best ideas were ones his own followers don't even seem to understand, let alone talk about, so why do we keep regurgitating them? That's to say nothing of the ludicrous cruft activists of today have inherited from the 60's (and when I say the 60's, I mean idiot Maoist sectarians) and early 90's. We should think outside our conditioning, but not just the false consciousness of capitalism -- we should also thing outside obsolete leftist categories.

2) You post the best videos on this site. Shit is hot! But how do you do it? Are you like so old-school that you have front page privileges. or am I just not seeing this shit in the hopper?

Thanks! I don't have any special privileges, but I'm assuming that someone who does is a David Graeber fan. I've noticed a few videos I've submitted with him get front-paged almost immediately.

Either that or I've stumbled upon Chet's long-dormant "Graeber Protocol" designed to save PoeTV in times of crisis.

If you've only submitted 12 videos and you have front page privileges then you are a very special machine indeed.