Television personality Jerry Springer kicked off this year's MSE Symposium speaker series, "America's Boundless Possibilities." Although notorious for his raunchy tabloid talk show, Springer's focus was on politics and class divisions during his lecture Wednesday night.
Springer started by thanking the audience for the invitation to speak. Then he began in earnest.
"What were you thinking by bringing me here?" he asked.
Springer immediately admitted to his show being "stupid" before getting in to the real meat of his lecture. He spoke of how, just that morning he had been on Fox and Friends, and had become incensed by the complaints from the top one or two percent about being overtaxed.
"[This is] the issue that will divide us, it is evidence we are in a class war," Springer said.
He then turned the conversation towards voting. Springer believes that the poor and middle class are now being kept out of the vote due to new legislation.
"The only power that middle income people have, is numbers," he said.
Springer asserted that he does not blame either political party. He blames the political system, and believes that we have to stop being like "sheep."
"We are being raised to hate our government" he said, and inquired where patriotism has gone.
Nevertheless, Springer recognized how lucky he is and that, as a taxpayer, he can afford to spare some extra change.
"Capitalism has been great for [me]! [I] love it!" Springer said.
He believes that if the United States should thrive as a country, everyone should make it, not just the richest percentile.
When the question and answer section began, focus immediately shifted from the political realm to the entertainment world.
Springer tried to keep the topic semi-educational, but he eventually changed tack and answered to the requests of the audience.
He believes the show to be "a pretty accurate mirror" to general society as a whole.
"It's a fraternity party," he said.
He believes that his show is the first to reflect the whole public, and not just the white upper class.
"The show is purely for entertainment purposes, there is no social value in it," Springer said.
He also warned the audience against judging his show's guests, insisting that everyone is human.
"Don't believe that any one of us is better than anyone on my show. Some of us just dress better because we are luckier," he said repeatedly.
Students appreciated the perspective Springer shared to the Hopkins community and recognized its incongruity to their expectations.
"I didn't expect him to be so political and far left. I really agreed with his points about putting people to work," said Jeffrey Zhu, a graduate student at the School of Public Health, immediately following Springer's speech.
Zhu was also impressed by Springer's use of statistics and that he didn't blame a specific group for the problems in our country.
"He was very knowledgeable and educated," Zhu said.
Freshman Connie Chang mirrored this sentiment, generally enjoying the event despite not knowing Springer previously.
"I really like his points about the ‘class war,'" she said.
Junior Alex Dakos, who came to the lecture to quench his curiosity, was met with an anti-climax.
"I thought it was a pretty standard lecture," Dakos said, "I thought he would be more controversial, but my curiosity is satisfied."
Though many members of the audience may have been expecting flying chairs and crazy antics, Jerry Springer deviated from expectations through his discussion on money in politics and the "class war."
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