Award-winning editor, author, columnist and political analyst Dr. Fareed Zakaria entered the hallowed halls of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to an eager crowd that filled nearly every seat.
Most Portlanders only get the chance to see Zakaria on his new CNN show GPS, which airs every Sunday at 1 p.m., or on his frequent appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The World Affairs Council of Oregon brought the popular and well-respected editor of Newsweek International to Portland for the second time since their International Speaker Series began in 2000.
Other prominent world figures featured in the speaker series over the last decade include President Mikhail Gorvechev, Dr. Jane Goodall, Dan Rather, Bono and Queen Noor of Jordan. Zakaria is the only speaker who has been featured twice.
This past Monday, Zakaria’s charisma and charm immediately filled the concert hall, and despite his numerous accolades, he was able to laugh at himself and exude a humble confidence.
“A friend told me once, that whenever you give a speech to a large audience, you’ve got to have a point,” he said, “I have a confession to make up front, I haven’t got a point.”
He spoke candidly—no note cards, no teleprompter. Zakaria didn’t even stand behind the podium. While he may not have intended to have a point, his words certainly resonated in the minds of many in the concert hall.
“We are in the worst financial crash since 1929. The worst depression since the great depression, ” Zakaria said. He explained that this all started in1979.
“1979 is the year that the old world ended and the new world began,” he said. “In 1979 the Soviet Union, which was on a roll, makes a giant mistake, it invades Afghanistan.”
Zakaria called the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union the first big push that led to this current economic crisis.
“The second big push is the rise of a kind of accelerated form of capitalism,” he said.
The break down of tariffs and regulation in the 1980s—known to Americans as Reganonmics—was initially led by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and caused unprecedented global economic movement, Zakaria explained.
The opening up of markets, the eventual technological and political “pushes” of the 1990s and first years of the new century, he explained, has created a “crisis of democracy.”
“We got to this point because nobody wanted to tell the American people ‘No,'” he said. “We have created appetites that cannot be satisfied and we aren’t willing to put limits on it.”
He described the crisis as a bit ironic.
“As the world opens up, we’re getting suspicious. This was the world we wanted to create,” he said.