Robert Lenzner
StreetTalk
Forbes.com
12/7/2010
Billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros warned tonight in New York that the combination of Fox News, Glenn Beck, The Tea Party, and the ability of Americans to fantasize unrealistically about their political system might lead “this open society to be on the verge of some dictatorial democracy.”
Soros mentioned George Orwell’s novel, “1984″ as a possible precedent for the kind of fantasies being promulgated in our culture today. Orwell’s “1984″ satirized the Communist system of absolute control over society and politics that prevailed in the Soviet Union until 1990.
Soros was speaking extemporaneously in conversation with CNN newsman Fareed Zakaria at a International Crisis Center dinner that honored him at the Pierre Hotel.
Former President Bill Clinton, Lord Christopher Patten, Chancellor of Oxford University, hedge fund multibillionaire Paul Tudor Jones, all spoke eloquently about Soros contribution to global order.
The article continues at Forbes.com
Robert Lenzner writes the StreetTalk column for Forbes.com and anchors the StreetTalk video show. Previously Lenzner was National Editor and Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine, New York Bureau Chief of The Boston Globe and Wall Street correspondent of The Economist.
