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David Graeber, anthropology teacher at the University of London’s Goldsmith College, argues that America’s political system is only responsive to the wealthy and has disenfranchised the remainder of the population. He contends that the country’s understandings of democracy must be redefined and focused on inclusion and a greater engagement by the majority of the population.

David Graeber offers an insider account of the Occupy Wall Street movement and other contemporary movements, while sharply challenging prevailing notions of democracy. He argues that what is often labeled a democratic system is, in reality, institutionalized bribery—responsive primarily to the wealthy—and has systematically disenfranchised the majority in favor of a privileged rentier class.

David Graeber discusses and clarifies the majority of topics described in the book. He elaborates on such things as measuring the success of movements like OWS, the mafia capitalism and its ongoing self-destruction, the unifying factor for the people in movements like OWS and the various strategies for delegitimization of existing systems.

16:38: On class and class power, the 1% and state as the direct enforcer of the economic claims of the rentier class

17:56: On mafia capitalism

18:40: On the physical act of protesting in a public space

22:00: Caring labor as the common factor among the participants of OWS and taking caring for each other as a way of defying capitalism

23:50: Why are working class people getting more attracted to populist right more than the left?

28:45: Revolution is the transformation of common sense

30:00: Reclaiming communism, anyone who cooperates actually works like a communist

31:23: Capitalism is a bad way of organizing communism

34:02: Delegitimization effort as the strategy of OWS movement

36:36: On police and their fusion with bankers and financial power

40:13: The need of a central place for people to show up

44:00: The institutional setups or networks that followed OWS 

45:00: The problems with the democratic left in the US

48:50: On being not a policy guy but supporting Universal Basic Income 

52:45: On egoism and altruism existing in relation to one another and the importance of a more complex, nuanced idea of what people are.

59:19: Defaulting on debts as civil disobedience against finance capital

1:01:40: On the increase in guard labor in the US to prevent the rise of new mass movements