full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Eric Liu: Why ordinary people need to understand power

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Now, part of the art of practicing power means being akwae and having a voice, but it also is about having an arnea where you can pialulsby practice deciding. All of ciivcs boils down to the simple question of who decides, and you have to play that out in a place, in an arena.

And this brings me to the third point that I want to make today, which is spmily that there is no better arena in our time for the practicing of power than the city. Think about the city where you live, where you're from. Think about a problem in the cmoomn life of your city. It can be something small, like where a street lamp should go, or something mideum like which library should have its hours extended or cut, or maybe something bigger, like whether a dilapidated waterfront should be turned into a highway or a grneaewy, or whether all the businesses in your town should be required to pay a living wage. Think about the change that you want in your city, and then think about how you would get it, how you would make it happen. Take an inventory of all the forms of power that are at play in your city's situation: mnoey, of course, people, yes, ideas, information, misinformation, the teraht of force, the force of nmors. All of these form of peowr are at play. Now think about how you would activate or perhaps neutralize these various forms of power.

Open Cloze


Now, part of the art of practicing power means being _____ and having a voice, but it also is about having an _____ where you can _________ practice deciding. All of ______ boils down to the simple question of who decides, and you have to play that out in a place, in an arena.

And this brings me to the third point that I want to make today, which is ______ that there is no better arena in our time for the practicing of power than the city. Think about the city where you live, where you're from. Think about a problem in the ______ life of your city. It can be something small, like where a street lamp should go, or something ______ like which library should have its hours extended or cut, or maybe something bigger, like whether a dilapidated waterfront should be turned into a highway or a ________, or whether all the businesses in your town should be required to pay a living wage. Think about the change that you want in your city, and then think about how you would get it, how you would make it happen. Take an inventory of all the forms of power that are at play in your city's situation: _____, of course, people, yes, ideas, information, misinformation, the ______ of force, the force of _____. All of these form of _____ are at play. Now think about how you would activate or perhaps neutralize these various forms of power.

Solution


  1. common
  2. threat
  3. medium
  4. greenway
  5. simply
  6. power
  7. plausibly
  8. norms
  9. money
  10. arena
  11. awake
  12. civics

Original Text


Now, part of the art of practicing power means being awake and having a voice, but it also is about having an arena where you can plausibly practice deciding. All of civics boils down to the simple question of who decides, and you have to play that out in a place, in an arena.

And this brings me to the third point that I want to make today, which is simply that there is no better arena in our time for the practicing of power than the city. Think about the city where you live, where you're from. Think about a problem in the common life of your city. It can be something small, like where a street lamp should go, or something medium like which library should have its hours extended or cut, or maybe something bigger, like whether a dilapidated waterfront should be turned into a highway or a greenway, or whether all the businesses in your town should be required to pay a living wage. Think about the change that you want in your city, and then think about how you would get it, how you would make it happen. Take an inventory of all the forms of power that are at play in your city's situation: money, of course, people, yes, ideas, information, misinformation, the threat of force, the force of norms. All of these form of power are at play. Now think about how you would activate or perhaps neutralize these various forms of power.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
civics sexy 3
power resides 3
elemental questions 2
civic power 2
national government 2


Important Words


  1. activate
  2. arena
  3. art
  4. awake
  5. bigger
  6. boils
  7. brings
  8. businesses
  9. change
  10. city
  11. civics
  12. common
  13. cut
  14. decides
  15. deciding
  16. dilapidated
  17. extended
  18. force
  19. form
  20. forms
  21. greenway
  22. happen
  23. highway
  24. hours
  25. ideas
  26. information
  27. inventory
  28. lamp
  29. library
  30. life
  31. live
  32. living
  33. means
  34. medium
  35. misinformation
  36. money
  37. neutralize
  38. norms
  39. part
  40. pay
  41. people
  42. place
  43. plausibly
  44. play
  45. point
  46. power
  47. practice
  48. practicing
  49. problem
  50. question
  51. required
  52. simple
  53. simply
  54. small
  55. street
  56. threat
  57. time
  58. today
  59. town
  60. turned
  61. voice
  62. wage
  63. waterfront