The Royal Society for the Arts has been recording talks given by important public intellectuals and adding animation to make them a bit more accessible. Three of the talks so far have been by leading Marxists, and they’re really worth a watch.

If you’re friends with a lefty person on Facebook, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the first of these two videos, it was doing the rounds a couple of weeks ago, but it’s worth putting up for those that haven’t seen it. David Harvey is Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York, and one of the world’s leading figures in geography and the social sciences. He’s also a Marxist, and his work has done a lot to put Marxism back on the academic map. Here’s his take on the current global economic crisis:

Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the leading feminist and socialist authors in the US. She regularly writes important pieces of journalism, and is the author of 22 books. Her latest one is about how positive thinking has undermined society, especially in the US, and the sinister side to the self-help industry that encourages you to have “a good attitude.”

The newest in the RSAnimate series is a talk by Slavoj Zizek, a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology at Ljubljana Uni, Slovenia. He’s one of the world’s most important philosophers and critical theorists. His talk is about how modern capitalism turns people’s worries about the impact of consumerism in the world into a way of making money. Paying a higher price for organic or fair trade food might make you feel good, but in fact it upholds the idea that we can solve the ecological and social crises facing the world through our existing society, which is pish.

The animations are a great idea, and there’s more from other people here (although I didn’t agree with absolutely everything in it, I thought the one by Jeremy Rifkin was also great.)

Obviously the talks are ultimately aimed at an academic audience, but I think there still pretty accessible and make a lot of interesting points. Any language or concepts that you don’t quite get or aren’t familiar with yet, make a note of it and then ask in the comments. Collectively we can educate ourselves.