Stephen Colbert and Philosophy - Aaron Allen Schiller [145]
177
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 160.
178
I would like to thank my editor who has seen me through many last-minute drafts. Thanks, Aaron!
179
Episode 4012, originally aired January 24th, 2008.
180
My favorite of these lines is: “People tell me that I’m white, and I believe them because I shop at Eddie Bauer” (Episode 2150, originally aired November 20th, 2006).
181
Episode 3020, originally aired February 8th, 2007.
182
To see what it would be like to be colorblind like Stephen, check out the Ishihara Race Test (pp. 259-262) in this volume.
183
President Johnson made these remarks in a speech inaugurating Executive Order No. 11246, called “Equal Employment Opportunity,” which requires that affirmative action be taken by government contractors in their hiring practices.
184
Episode 1006, originally aired October 25th, 2005.
185
In his autobiography, Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences (Random House, 1995), Pryor recalls saying to his wife during their trip to Kenya, “Jennifer. You know what? There are no niggers here… . The people here, they still have their self-respect, their pride.” And it was then that he “vowed never to say it again.”
186
Lincoln said this in his debate with Stephen A. Douglas in Charleston, Illinois, 1858.
187
From Spider-Man (2002). Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben says these somewhat prophetic words to him early in the picture. But they’ve taken on a much deeper meaning by the end when Spider-Man decides that he must leave Mary Jane Watson and become a vigilante.
188
Episode 2022, originally aired February 22nd, 2006.
189
Episode 3034, originally aired March 13th, 2007.
190
Many thanks to everyone who read earlier versions of this chapter, including the UC San Diego Undergraduate Philosophy Club, Nina Brewer-Davis, John Jacobson, Larry Schiller, Dan Rosenberg, and Denise Schiller.
191
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (Prometheus, 1991).
192
Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago University Press, 1982).
193
Brian Skyrms, Evolution of the Social Contract (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
194
Noam Chomsky, Profit Over People (Seven Stories, 1999), p. 69.
195
Douglas Priest and Edward P. St. John, eds., Privatization and Public Universities (Indiana University Press, 2006), p. 2.
196
See “PHEAA Temporarily Suspends Federal Student Loans,” Chronicle of Higher Education (February 26th, 2008), http://chronicle.com/news/article/4040/pheaa-temporarily-suspends-federal-student-loans
197
Dominic Basulto, “Why Do We Underpay Our Best CEOs?,” The American (December 5th, 2006), http://www.american.com/archive/2006/december/underpaid-ceos
198
Plato, The Republic (Hackett, 1992).
199
Plato. Phaedo, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press, 1982), pp. 339-341.
200
Bill Willers, “Darwin and Friedman in the Corporate World,” Dissident Voice (July 9th, 2007), http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/darwin-and-friedman-in-the-corporate-world
201
The Republic, Book I, lines 346a-347d.
202
The date is confirmed by Wikiliaty: The Truthiness Encyclopedia. http://www.wikiality.com/Freem.
203
Other definitions abound—Wikiliaty lists two others—but the blogosphere seems to settle for that one, as it was relayed by blogger “radvivi,” who claims to have been at the taping when Colbert answered a question from the audience about what freem meant.
204
See The Wealth of Nations: Books 1-3 (Penguin, 2000), pp. 438-442.
205
We put the word in scare quotes because the Bush administration recently agreed to supply Saudi Arabia with enriched uranium in return for increased military presence in the country to guard the oil supply and an agreement to step up oil production. At least the Saudis, unlike Saddam, had nothing to do with 9/11. Oh, wait …
206
Peter Singer, The President of Good and Evil (Dutton, 2004), pp. 16-17.
207
Peter Singer, How Are We to Live? (Prometheus, 1995), p. 42.