sort of movement. well just a small but also large correction it actually wasn't hume it was jurist by the last name of hell actually. yes yes you're right and you know and he didn't like hale either i'm sorry. ok i didn't i didn't want to pour david hume's tombstone. but matthew hale was a jurist and he came up with the doctrine about that involves the question of sexual consent in a marriage and the doctrine that he formulated and it proved to be extraordinarily influential and as you said lost it for many centuries was that essentially when a woman consents to marry a man and she has to consent to that it's very important that she does consent to that that she's essentially consenting to give him sexual access to her body not just at that very moment but for the for the property of their marriage and this

became a notion of basically it was called implicit consent so that throughout a marriage if a husband or a man ever wanted to have sex with his wife he essentially did not have to get her say so he could have it and therefore if he raped her by definition it wasn't rape because she had given her consent at the moment when she consented to be married and what's you know what's astonishing about that argument is not just the argument itself but what's really historic is that it lasts and endures as a principle of common law in the united states up until the one nine hundred eighty s. in the book i cite a legal textbook in the one nine hundred fifty seven i believe it was and i remember one nine hundred fifty seven that is the heyday of the warren court and when we think of the triumph of the modern liberal jurisprudence in one nine hundred fifty seven a textbook would say that basically a man legally cannot be held to have or. his wife because of this principle and it

took an extraordinarily long time and again it wasn't until about the one nine hundred eighty s. that legislatures and courts began overturning this principle now the reason why this matters and the reason i talk about it in my book is because it points to the persistence of these private forms of domination in what we call the private sphere of the family or the workplace and that it has been the job of the left in this country and elsewhere to try to use the power of the state to overturn these private relations of domination and these have been extraordinarily ferocious struggles that have prompted the resistance of husbands of employers of slave holders and that conservatism is really the theoretical voice of that resistance to these movements and again you see this in berkeley looks the french revolution he sees many things but one of the things he sees in the french revolution is this

effort by commoners to overturn the power of their superiors in the private sphere and he predicts that the french revolution is going to him and lead to the revolution of the slaves in haiti which of course eventually did and so on and so forth and so i think in the end that's really the struggle between the left and the right it's whether or not people in their private life are going to be able to live lives of equality or not and the left has tried to make that the case and the right has always consistently resisted that effort and i think probably the most important of those areas right now is the workplace we're seeing an assault with in wisconsin indiana you know across the absolutely absolutely i mean i say this at the end of the book that in the two thousand and ten election immediately following that when you had this wave of tea party victories what was the two areas where these repub. governors and legislatures state legislatures were most active the

first was on the question of workplace rights as you just pointed out and that was a fundamental bottom line and it continues to be and the other was on the question of reproductive rights there was a real effort you know just of seen this past week. begin to go back to two thousand and ten to defund planned parenthood because these these two spheres reproductive freedom and labor freedom the right of workers are really i think the front lines of the battle between left and right today russell russell kirk in one nine hundred fifty one hundred fifty three when he wrote the conservative mind. you know started out with burke but around that time he had given an interview in which he had basically predicted the sixty's as suggested that if the middle class america became large enough and powerful enough if if if the average person the people that john adams of america's first conservative president arguably used to refer to as the rabble if those people were given enough power you would see riots

in the streets and in the one nine hundred sixty s. william f. buckley on his program firing line would frequently cite that i used to watch it and say see we're seeing the fulfillment of kirk's prediction these people have been given too much power the blacks are rising up in demanding power and now the women are burning their bras the young kids don't want to go off to war they're saying no to authority figures this is a society that is disintegrating because we've given too much power to the middle class and the subtext it seems to me of that in retrospect is we have to take that power away from the middle class in order to stabilize society in order to make it safe for american america you know assuming the very best of intentions on the part of buckley it would you agree with that with that analysis and if so how far are we into that process of stripping the middle of their power. certainly the economic

portion their power and the political power and and you know where are we going with this and how might we stop it assuming that you agree with that analysis. yeah i mean i think i've just slightly tweak it which i think that the conservative movement of the twentieth century was really about restoring power to employers and restoring power to husbands in the case of the women's movement and restoring power to white people and that those two latter to the women's movement and civil rights movement cuts across certain class lines and it's part of the reason why conservatism has had such appeal across class lines and has been able to build a majority coalition but as i say i my reading of things today is that that project has really run its course and it's been so overwhelmingly sex is successful i mean you see these numbers that come out daily about the levels

of inequality in the country i mean there are mind boggling. but until there is a left that really is serious about doing something about those numbers and i just i don't quite see us there yet i mean you see stirrings of course as you mentioned with occupy and in certain parts of the democratic party but we're nowhere near where we were in the one nine hundred thirty s. of the one nine hundred sixty s. until you start seeing a movement like that i think we're going to be in a bit of a holding pattern and and. it'll it'll persist for a bit it could persist do you think it could go even more conservative i mean at the time of the american revolution there were actually maximum wage laws in england it was illegal to pay a worker more than a maximum amount because the people in power did not want a middle class to emerge they wanted there to be small riches small mercantile middle class and a very large class of disempowered working poor we seem to be moving in the direction our. how much farther do we have to go before there's a a a

a liberal reaction or a progressive reaction that actually can push back against. well this is an interesting question i mean i don't know the answer and i don't think anybody does and the reason that we don't is that when the left or liberals whatever you want to use the term it's always the most unpredictable thing in the world nobody predicted the civil rights movement nobody predicted the labor movement nobody predicted the women's movement nobody predicted the abolitionist movement the left is a politics of initiative and is on no particular timetable and so we really have no idea you know sometimes i think occupy is the first shot across the bow and it may become something quite big or it may fizzle out and this is just you know we just have no way of predicting that question it's going to be we're going to have to keep an eye on our politicians as it were and keep a lot of wind on their backs to move this thing along dr corey robin thank you so

much for joining us tonight. thank you it's a very it's a pleasure an honor to have you with us to watch this conversation again as well as other conversations of great minds go to our web site of conversations of great minds. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our web sites of thom hartmann to free speech dot org and. also check out our two youtube channels there are links to thom hartmann dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and you can visit our marvin dot com to download the audio podcast of our daily new three radio show and we have a free tom our of an i phone or i pad app at the app store he said his feedback on twitter of tom underscore hartman on facebook at tom underscore arbonne in our blogs message boards and telephone comment line at tom hartman dot com and don't forget democracy begins with you get out there and get active tag you're it.

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international maneuvers the u.s. and its allies play hardball over syria russia and china push for a diplomatic solution all while iran looks on nervously at its struggling ally. labia holds a referendum on whether russian should be an official language state work third of the population battles just to be accepted. european impartiality comes under scrutiny as a number of schools are accused of brainwashing values into children diversity.

ninety m. of the russian capital you're watching r t and i'm marina joshie welcome to the program how crisis locked syria finds itself between two very different diplomatic efforts as the u.s. and its allies piled pressure on the governments russia and china are trying to mediate a negotiated solution while being gene's top diplomat is in damascus meeting members of the ruling elite and the opposition the chinese out first follows up on months of attempts by moscow to bring the warring sides together. but there were also refused to talk unless president assad gives up power violence is escalating almost daily now with dozens reportedly killed over the past twenty four hours well now we can get some insight and analysis on this from political science professor joseph

chang who is in hong kong and he joins us live. hello to mr chang now china as we know is thousands of kilometers away from syria so there is no geographical proximity and doesn't have strong economic ties was damascus so can you tell us why has been taking such a tough stance on all this well basically. the united states has been exerting pressure on the middle east with don't respect the interests of russia and china and that is against the idea. and this is a matter of a lack of respect for the interests of major powers russia and china china certainly wants to. do and don't know is influence in the middle east region which is of strategic importance to china and china even.

if there is a global power it has interests and these interests should be respected. well tell us continued support of negotiate a solution to the conflict is leaving it increasingly isolated on the international stage was the majority of young members now against president so what implications might this have for beijing and is beijing worried about that. i think beating is concerned beijing understands that is the tool instead of the stand certainly. not only the isolate itself in the international community is certainly brings on lot of pressure in terms of criticisms from the international media from the international community is position more significant still is goes against the goals against countries like turkey

and it therefore realizes that it has to do something and its best bet is to send a special envoy to syria and hopefully to push three the syrian president bashar assad at least to to immediately stop. action military actions against opposition i think this is the least that tiny that the time is of parties can do and hope to achieve in order to demonstrate that it is concerned with the human need care in issue or in syria in the middle east and to demonstrate that he can play some constructive role on dist issue well that's certainly one of the options they are but if the syrian government continues to stand strong and define against the rebels do you think there are other options to end this conflict and what are they. i do believe

given the rock to hawk trish and repressive style of not without the trust of the opposition forces you do difficult for china or to all for russia to in mediate do to alleviate the best narrative of course is stacked and these. china the support of russia can push through a. bus tomorrow assad to immediately stop military action forming the advice of the french government and stablished i'm kind of the mini parian current goal allow us of a forces and geos to enter the areas controlled by the. opposition forces and hopefully to get france to be involved to begin some kind of serious negotiations between the opposition

forces and the press and syrian government and certainly the birth of random on the constitution so the lay of the dissipation on the power of the opposition forces in the drafting of the new constitution as well as in the actual only being off the referendum on the constitution the full one can hope to have some real progress towards the peaceful settlement of the issue on mr jan let's now take a look at the geopolitical situation in the region in syria and around it so tell us what implications in european could the continued conflict there have for the entire region. well the major factor in wolf of course is the idea of the idea of some kind of just mean lesion

throughout the. middle east and north africa obviously the conservative countries in the region press china they do not want to see food as jesmyn action. and then secondly. time know russia to some extent some of the authoritarian regimes in the region do not want to see the united states and western powers to dominate the region and finally there is a force the issue of iran i think it is considered in beijing that as long as you have. a certain situation in syria to some extent you brownwood the show to that is to say it will be more unlikely for all the united states and israel to pay the rent military action against iran if the

crisis in syria remain. the right to tell the chang professor of political science from hong kong thanks very much indeed for sharing your views with us here on our team thank you very much as damascus feels the squeeze from was in syria at the rod its closest allies are also growing increasingly nervous experts warn that if the syrian regime falls iran will feel isolated and compelled to act i just laura smith has a story. iran's military is put through its paces but how long will this carry on being a drill as the conflict in syria gets bloodier by the day western powers range against president. ally iran the strategic position looks increasingly shaky some suggest it's no coincidence there is a proxy conflict between israel and its western allies and iran which basically

only has one ally in the region which is the syrian republic so if you can get syria away from iran either through a diplomatic deal which they're trying to really is all through regime change which seems to be the direction of travel now that would definitely weaken iran and all roads in the middle east right now do seem to lead back to tehran experts are calling the last thing deployed and come back bring down throw a rainy and ask that and replace it with opposition because you've already said they did don't concede terror on foreign policy neutralizing nuclear iran is most powerful ally since the iran iraq war iran and syria have developed all sorts of ties cultural and economic included but crucially iran uses syria as a conduit for support for hezbollah in lebanon and how mass in the palestinian authority both declared foreign terrorist organizations by the u.s.

state department take that away and do wrong influence in the region you could where you're cornered iran could bite perhaps accelerating the nuclear program prospects on raising its. interference the perceived interference in other countries in the region press bahrain probs lebanon perhaps palestinian territories . and that will be the way that iran will react so you can make a case for suggestion that the removal of assad make iran even more protective or more dangerous it's a knife edge situation and one which gracious no. kerry if there's events in rio worse than the u.s. even though says israel could attack iran in a matter of months the possibility all conflict between the major western powers and iran becoming a conflict between the world's major powers is all motorised storm clouds thing over the region reports of emerge that the qatari and saudis are already funding

and operating with the syrian opposition iran looks increasingly isolated with the style israel of the north. while we are closely following developments in syria now website has well so log on to r.t. dot com to get all the latest updates and here is what else you'll find there right now. joining forces pakistan pledges to support iran of the u.s. launches a military attack against the islamic republic get more information online. also the cyber war goes on the anonymous group assaults half a dozen u.s. federal government websites within the past week to express their anger at an anti-piracy law.

law is holding a national referendum on saturday on whether russian should become a second official language but is unlikely to succeed even though the russian minority which makes up a third of the population are feeling ever more discriminated against in the place they call home are reports from mafia. valley from la to the russian minority says his country's government has gone too far having lived in law to be all his life it was only recently that he managed to exchange a temporary residence permit to a passport but now this father of three faces another hurdle for his family this time and that his children and their education was a pass through legislation that in the school schools sixty percent of the lessons must be taught in latin language but excuse me chemistry biology and physics it's difficult to get it even in your own language and it does create a lot of problems for the students at the moment and of course it lowers their

results it was the threat that these schools where at least some lessons are taught in their native russian would be closed down for good that scared the russian minority which constitutes one third of the country's population they initiated a referendum on making russian law to be a second state language something radical right wing parties call a threat to national integrity to fit into this war is against our constitution which says life is a man a national state and always be it it splits our society which has to have one solid foundation but if you want to it to be like russia then line going to russia and leave us be. at least three quarters of a million people must vote yes for a constitutional change to take place but with support predicted to be just half that seems to be unlikely the outcome however could have been different if another three hundred twenty thousand residents were allowed to vote those are ethnic

russians who spare and grandparents came here after nine hundred forty five they were denied citizenship after laundry became independent and are still carrying allien passports the newly appointed council of europe's commissioner for human rights believes the vote will not solve the discrimination problem and that its readers handling of the russian community that should be changed you have the human rights aspect of stateless children being born in libya. the clear norms in the convention on the rights of the child that every child has a right to citizenship from birth language use in the private sphere this also has human rights implications raise issues of proportionality here i think that things should be reviewed though it is widely accepted here that the russian language referendum will fail the russian minority hopes that the vote will bring their struggle out of the shadows and force the government to at least open a dialogue. right these russians are contemplating another vote to introduce changes into the citizenship law that is to abolish the so-called early and brass

boards and grant citizenship to those who are living without and many say in this case they have a good chance of succeeding as they would only need a little more than two hundred thousand both of their votes let's. see reporting from reader in latvia. look at some other stories from around the world riot police in senegal fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters after the country's opposition defied a government ban and held a demonstration calling for the president to step down the street battles between police and demonstrators continued through the night in the capital that leaving several people injured and president abdulai wade is campaigning for a certain time in office in next week's election. a man who thought he was carrying out a suicide bombing in washington has been arrested and. was attempting to detonate a fake explosive vest given to him by undercover f.b.i. officers he allegedly believed the officers were members of al qaida the moroccan

national have been under surveillance by the u.s. government for about a year. six trillion dollars worth of counterfeit u.s. bonds have been season is only the now is carrying the false date nine hundred thirty four and were transported from hong kong to do or in two thousand and seven where they were transferred to a swiss trust prosecutors say it appeared the suspects intended to sell the eight people have been arrested and charged with making financial operations using fake bonds as a guarantee. and believe thousands of people have been left homeless after overflowing rivers flood of more than half of the country's districts are red alert was issued and the army going back to wage a monsoon season which started in january has already claimed seven lives and caused a surge in sections diseases. i could i still had for you this hour here in our trading the supermarket or the farm how health conscious shoppers across russia are

selling their cupboards with organic food straight from the growers. financial crisis immigration under attack and member nations at each other's throats there doesn't appear a lot to recommend the e.u. to the europeans of the future unless you can plant the seeds of support early and some schools are exposing their pupils to values very young artist has are still in our reports but what do you know about your country the capital is the rule not the absolute would. be. a spanish french. these youngsters are attending one of the fourteen european schools set up primarily to educate children of e.u. stuff we are the only system which is able to provide education in twenty three different languages.