Inspired by a weekend spent watching CSPAN’s Book TV.

Moderator: And now we’d like to take some questions from the audience.

Questioner: [Unintelligible]

Moderator: Please speak into the microphone.

Questioner: Yes, thank you. I just wanted to comment? I think that the professor’s statements about early twentieth century American industrial production are really interesting, but what I wanted to point out that wasn’t addressed is how the Soviet collectivization of farming really… you know, impacted the manufacture of traditional Russian cheeses, which in turn, uh, has a lot to do with the kinds of realignment of—or, rather the eventual realignment of—I mean, how that led to the disastrous invasion of Afghanistan, which is something we’re dealing with now, and how that affected the trade policy of the rest of the West, as with, you know, uh, the turmoil of Western Europe in the late 70’s, and… and what I really feel is the whole… [makes a vague hand-gesture] crux of why Soviet competition was just so, so crucial to the Apollo missions, and—not that it justifies the purges or anything, but you know it was so, so crucial—and, anyway, I mean, I’m a sociology professor at Belmont Community College, and the thing I see repeated over and over again throughout history, is just how important the median presence is to a developing sense of the class-based dialog and just the whole tenor of mass media communications, which is just, I think, as far as it makes sense to me to point out that, if we ignore these factors there’s really a vital facet of the discussion that we’re missing, you know?

Moderator: I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand your question.

Questioner: I guess what I’m saying is, why wasn’t I on the panel?

Moderator: I’d like to thank you all for coming here tonight, but I’m afraid we’re out of time.