This

Digby posted this video of a colloquy at the New School between Chris Hayes (who has a Book Out, "Twilight of the Elites") and Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation magazine.

It's really very good.

Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

I've liked vanden Heuvel for years now, though when I used to watch the Sunday Shows I found her to be far too reticent and "nice" in the context.

Hayes I've been more reserved about. He's obviously a careerist "public intellectual" -- whatever that truly is -- who's had a kind of meteoric trajectory from blogging to his own teevee show and whatnot. But his presentation here -- at least so far as I've seen it (I'm at 36 minutes in and must do some chores) -- is really spot on.

And that gets me to thinking: do I find his arguments sound because they sound right to an old fart like me, in other words because they are familiar, or because they are intrinsically sound?

I've been making the kinds of arguments about elites and institutions that Hayes does for many years. Now that someone in the Media is making similar arguments, does that make them right? Or...

Spend some time to hear what these two have to say. I haven't got to it yet, but the question period at the end is supposed to be very good as well.

Note, the video has about 3-4 minutes of dead time at the beginning as the speakers are apparently still in the green room. Some of those who tried to watch at Digby's apparently think the video is bad or that she posted the wrong link. Neither is true. If you have trouble with Livestream, though, this one probably won't work for you.