September 10, 2006

Free Resource Highlights: Week 4

We’ve been sending out our “Free Resource of the Day Email” for a number of months now, and we want to share some of the free audio & video titles from past weeks that we have offered. Here are the free resources from Week 4:

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard University Commencement Address

This is a free speech that is not to be missed. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian author of the The Gulag Archipelago) delivered the Harvard University Commencement Address in 1978. While in exile from the Soviet Union, he spent a number of years in the United States and this address is his analysis of the Western predicament.

In this comprehensive one hour speech he discusses Western politics, the media, our role in Vietnam, the lack of courage in leadership, Soviet communism, commercialism and materialism, and the spiritual state of Western man. Most of Solzhenitsyn’s criticisms still hold true today. He delivers the speech in Russian and it is simultaneously translated into English. This speech is offered by American Rhetoric and you can download the speech on MP3 or listen to it streaming.

SWSX 2006 Interactive Panel Podcasts

Every spring thousands of people descend on Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and conference. It’s a really cool mix of movies, music and technology and brings a lot of movers and shakers to the area to talk about what’s on the horizon. This year’s keynotes featured luminaries such as Bruce Sterling, Craig Newmark (of Craig’s List fame), Heather Armstrong and Jason Kottke. If you didn’t have a chance to attend this year’s SXSW festival and want to see what all the buzz is about click on the link below for free audio from the keynotes.

Was America Responsible for the Attacks of September 11th?

A bit of a provocative title perhaps but this debate offered from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute really doesn’t cover the September 11th attacks. Instead it is more of an overall debate about whether American power and wealth in the world is generally good or bad.

Dinesh D’Souza, author of What’s So Great About America, argues that the American way of life is superior than other cultures and that we all too often ignore the freedoms and priviledges that make us the envy of the world. Rabbi Michael Lerner argues that the American empire is excessively selfish and greedy, and that our financial and military power has been used to oppress cultures throughout the world. It makes for a very heated and interesting debate. It is available on streaming audio and video as well as on MP3 download.