Shadowing Practice: Cornel West: How Intellectuals Betrayed the Poor | Big Think - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Yeah, I think one was, there was a idolizing of unfettered markets.
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And much, if not most, of the intelligentsia were duped.
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I recall traveling with my dear brother Michael Harrington talking with Brother Stanley Aronowitz years ago,
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and, you know, here we're engaging critiques of unfettered markets, and it looked as if we were medieval thinkers.
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Everybody was saying we're followers of Milton Friedman.
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Everybody was saying Frederick Hayek got it right.
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Everybody was saying marketize, commercialize, commodify.
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And we were still reading Lukács, and Lukács was saying commodification is not simply an asymmetric relation of power,
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of bosses vis -a -vis workers.
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So workers are being more and more marginalized.
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Profits are being produced, wealth is being produced, hemorrhaged at the top.
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No fair distribution of that wealth or profit for workers.
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Poor are being demonized because they are viewed as those persons who are irresponsible, who will not work, who are always looking for welfare,
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i .e., failures in the society of success.
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And we reached the brink and the chickens came home to roost.
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And a few years ago the unfettered markets led us off and over the brink.
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And all of a sudden very few intellectuals want to be honest and acknowledge the degree to which they were duped.
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Don't want to talk about the inequality that went along with it.
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Don't want to talk about the demonization of the poor that went along with it.
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Don't want to talk about the politics of fear
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that produced a republican party that was more
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and more lily white using not just race but also demonizing gay brothers
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and lesbian sisters you see don't want to talk about the indifference toward the poor
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and greed being good and desirable and so forth now it's a very different moment
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and it's not you know just about a pointing fingers but saying somebody's got to take responsibility for this.
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This was a nearly 40 -year run.
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Who paid the cost?
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That's usually the case.
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Poor working people paid the cost, disproportionately black and brown and red.
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So in the age of Obama, we say, okay, can we have a different kind of discussion?
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And that's what we're trying to do.
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But of course, you've got two wars going on.
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You've got still Wall Street in the driver's seat in the Obama administration when it comes to the economic team, you see?
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And you've got very, you know, I think in some ways unimaginative thinking when it comes to foreign policy,
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be it the Middle East or be it European Union or be it Latin America, you know, calling Chavez a dictator, the man's been elected.
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If he's calling in the question of rights and liberties, criticize him as a Democratic president.
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We did the same thing for Bush.
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Bush was calling him the question rights and liberty.
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We didn't call him a dictator.
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We said he's a democratic elected president who's doing the wrong thing.
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Chavez ought to be criticized.
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He's not a dictator.
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The man's been elected.
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But it's that kind of demonizing that obscures and obfuscates the kinds of issues that are necessary because
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Chavez is also talking about poor people.
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Of course, I want libertarian and democratic sides.
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I want rights and liberties and empowerment of poor people.
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But talking about poor people is not a joke it's crucial it's part
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and parcel of the future of any serious democratic project the
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fundamental question of any democracy is what is the relation between public
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and interests and the most vulnerable that's the question
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that is the question the test of your rule of law
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is going to be how are the most vulnerable being treated
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it's not whether the torturers are getting off we know the
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tortures don't have a rule of law applied to them the The wiretappers, they're getting off scot -free.
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What about Jamal with the crack bag?
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Taken to jail for seven years.
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Oh, so you got a different rule of law when it comes to Jamal on the corner versus your
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torturers and your wiretappers?
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Torture is a crime against humanity, it's not just illegal, wiretapping is illegal.
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Now it's not a crime against humanity, because I mean, I'm sure I've had my phone tapped for years.
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I don't think they commit the crime against humanity, they just ought to quit doing it, I think to keep you in mind,
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the demos is always heterogeneous, diverse, got a lot of xenophobic elements among the demos,
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a lot of ignorance, a lot of parochialism, you also have a lot of cosmopolitanism, a lot of globalism, a lot of courage, moral courage.
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So the demos is not one thing.
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But when it comes to the ability of the demos to organize, mobilize, and bring power and pressure to bear.
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we certainly are in a crisis our system is broken we've got 71 of people who want universal health care
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and you can barely get through a reform bill with a
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weak public option it's clear lobbyists from the top pharmaceutical companies
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drug companies have tremendous influence much more than the demos from below you see
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so that that those those preferences don't get translated easily
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because our politicians are beholden to that big money and that big influence
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but i mean the demos are still around thank god you got your own institution
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dialogue dialogue is the lifeblood of a democracy we gotta allow
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ideas to flow you have to expose people to different visions alternative arguments
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and so on to try to keep the torch of the progressive demos alive
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but it's very difficult to to organize it complacency is deep
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apathy is deep uh people are wondering how can you confront you know big finance big
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government tied to big finance when all you got is these little people
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who are willing to talk and so forth
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but have tremendous power bringing uh serious pressure to bear we
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can march you know we marched against the war by the
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millions we were ignored by the bush administration some of us
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went to jail we were ignored we couldn't translate the foreign policy That happened sometimes.
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It was different in Vietnam.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 85 sentences and 1039 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:23. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| demo noun | /ˈdɛm.oʊ/ | A demonstration or visual explanation. |
| worker noun | /ˈwɝ.kɚ/ | One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor. |
| liberty noun | /ˈlɪbəti/ | The condition of being free. |
| humanity noun | /hjuˈmænɪti/ | Humankind; human beings as a group. |
| elect verb | /ɪˈlɛkt/ | To choose or make a decision (to do something). |
| dictator noun | /ˈdɪkˌteɪtəɹ/ | An authoritarian leader of a country, nation, or government. |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| courage noun | /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ | The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate. |
| relation noun | /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/ | The manner in which two things may be associated. |
| dialogue noun | /ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/ | A conversation or other form of discourse between two or more individuals. |
| vulnerable adjective | /ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/ | More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally. |
| torture noun | /ˈtoɹt͡ʃɚ/ | The infliction of severe pain or anguish, especially as an interrogation technique or punishment; (usually in the plural) a technique, method, or device which… |
| tremendous adjective | /tɹɪˈmɛndəs/ | Awe-inspiring; terrific. |
| organize verb | /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/ | To arrange in working order. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| go along with verb | To acquiesce to or comply with a proposal, despite lacking a desire or value for it. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were duped · being produced · being demonized |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | man's been elected · I've had |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 20 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, you've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: apathy /ˈæ.pə.θi/, thinker /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: relation /ɹɪˈleɪʃ(ə)n/, institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, commercialize /kəˈmɚʃəˌlaɪz/
- Long words — get the stress right: humanity /hjuˈmænɪti/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, institution /ˌɪn.stɪˈtʃuː.ʃən/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, intellectual /ˌɪntəˈlɛkt͡ʃʊəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like demo, worker, liberty.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.