1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,120 Speaker 1: If you want to support the show and get the 2 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:06,559 episodes early and ad free, head on over to Freemanbeyond 3 00:00:06,599 --> 00:00:10,359 the Wall dot com Forward slash Support. I want to 4 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:15,000 explain something right now. If you support me through substack 5 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,719 or Patreon, you have access to an RSS feed that 6 00:00:19,760 --> 00:00:24,239 you can plug into any podcatcher, including Apple, and you'll 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:27,239 be able to listen to the episodes through there. If 8 00:00:27,239 --> 00:00:31,120 you support me through subscribe, star gum Road, or on 9 00:00:31,199 --> 00:00:34,719 my website directly, I will send you a link where 10 00:00:34,759 --> 00:00:37,079 you can download the file and you can listen to 11 00:00:37,119 --> 00:00:41,439 it any way you wish. I really appreciate the support 12 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:44,759 everyone gives me. It keeps a show going. It allows 13 00:00:44,799 --> 00:00:47,960 me to basically put out an episode every day now, 14 00:00:48,439 --> 00:00:51,119 and I'm not going to stop. I'm just going to accelerate. 15 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:53,799 I think sometimes you see that I'm putting out two 16 00:00:54,600 --> 00:01:00,159 even three a day, and yeah, can't do it without you, 17 00:01:00,759 --> 00:01:02,880 So thank you for the support. Head on over to 18 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:07,159 Freeman Beyond the Wall dot com, Forward slash Support and 19 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:11,400 do it there. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone 20 00:01:11,519 --> 00:01:16,040 back to part three of my reading of Raizard Lguco's 21 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:20,760 Demon and Democracy. Took a week off there for Thanksgiving. 22 00:01:20,879 --> 00:01:24,359 Thank you for allowing that, and let's jump back in 23 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,519 and keep going. We're on chapter two. It's called utopia. 24 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,200 I am really stuffed up. So if you hear me 25 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,079 sniffle in or I'm going to try to mute out 26 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:39,000 all the sniffles and any kind of any other kind 27 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,000 of gross sounds. But you may hear me inhaling a bunch, 28 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,680 but it's just because something is in the air, and 29 00:01:45,719 --> 00:01:48,000 it's cause of me. Whenever it starts getting cold again 30 00:01:48,079 --> 00:01:52,040 and dry, just drives me out and it makes no sense, 31 00:01:52,079 --> 00:01:54,599 but it makes me sneeze and it makes me go crazy. 32 00:01:54,760 --> 00:02:03,799 So anyway, let's get going here. Utopia, communism, and liberal 33 00:02:03,799 --> 00:02:06,400 democracy are believed to be the ultimate stages of the 34 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:11,319 history of political transformations. The Marxist contended that communism was 35 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:14,439 the last act of human drama, and that once it 36 00:02:14,479 --> 00:02:17,560 was achieved, there was no incentive or reason to strive 37 00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:22,000 for anything superior. So when you think about something that 38 00:02:22,159 --> 00:02:28,439 is that, you can't think beyond it's God, right, God, 39 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,400 try to think of something greater than God. Communism is 40 00:02:33,479 --> 00:02:39,280 their God. Basically, Similarly, according to its followers, nothing politically 41 00:02:39,319 --> 00:02:42,840 superior can arise in the wake of liberal democracy, which 42 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:48,039 per a common though rarely explicitly articulated conviction exhausted the 43 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,840 process of political transformations if there is, if there is 44 00:02:51,919 --> 00:02:56,080 such a thing as an ability to hypothesize possible political arrangements, 45 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,000 this cannot lead us, in the first case, beyond communist 46 00:03:00,439 --> 00:03:04,599 or in the second beyond liberal democracy. They are the 47 00:03:04,719 --> 00:03:10,360 end points which we'll never get to. Both communism and 48 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:14,159 liberal democracy are therefore perceived from an inside perspective as 49 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:18,479 having no alternatives. The only change that one can imagine 50 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,240 happening was one for the worse, which in the eyes 51 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:26,159 of supporter is meant not a slight deterioration but a disaster. Basically, 52 00:03:26,199 --> 00:03:30,240 if you turn away from communism or democracy, you're an apostate. 53 00:03:32,680 --> 00:03:35,960 The communists would say, if communism is rejected or prevented, 54 00:03:36,039 --> 00:03:41,400 then society will continue to be subjected to class exploitation, capitalism, imperialism, 55 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:47,280 and fascism. Yeah, the liberal democrats would say, if liberal 56 00:03:47,319 --> 00:03:51,800 democracy is not accepted, then society will fall prey to authoritarianism, fascism, 57 00:03:51,919 --> 00:03:55,560 and theocracy. In both cases, the search for an alternative, 58 00:03:55,879 --> 00:04:01,280 alternative suggestion is at best nonsensical and not worth the moment. 59 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:05,680 It's reflection and at worst, a highly reckless and irresponsible game. 60 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:09,120 The belief that socialism has no alternatives stemmed from a 61 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,560 presupposition that this system eliminated the root causes of social 62 00:04:13,599 --> 00:04:17,439 and economic conflicts, which, if it will be recalled, allegedly 63 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:19,439 set in motion the machine that, in the course of 64 00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:24,199 history transferred one political order into another. By fully implementing 65 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,800 the idea of class justice, communism put an end once 66 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:31,079 and for all to that state of dis equilibrium from 67 00:04:31,120 --> 00:04:34,720 which societies suffered since the earliest stages of their existence. 68 00:04:35,439 --> 00:04:39,600 Attacking the socialist order was therefore not a normal political activity, 69 00:04:39,879 --> 00:04:43,079 but a monstrous sin and assault on the most precious 70 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:48,240 achievement in the entire history of humanity. Basically what I said, 71 00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:54,959 it is, in fact a religion. Liberal democracy is also 72 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,480 viewed by its supporters as the final realization of the 73 00:04:57,519 --> 00:05:01,519 eternal desires of mankind, plate those of freedom and the 74 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:05,879 rule of the people. Remember who was it who said, 75 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:12,959 at the end of history, I know at least a 76 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:16,279 thousand of you are screaming at me right now the 77 00:05:16,319 --> 00:05:21,920 person's name if, as did the liberals, we interpret history 78 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,360 as a complex set of conflicts that slowly but irresistibly 79 00:05:25,399 --> 00:05:30,120 maximize the freedom of the individual, and as the Democrats 80 00:05:30,639 --> 00:05:34,240 as a comparably complex set of conflicts that slowly but 81 00:05:34,319 --> 00:05:37,800 irresistibly liberated the people from tyranny and empowered them with 82 00:05:37,879 --> 00:05:42,160 political instruments of self government, then liberal democracy will indeed 83 00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:46,519 seem to be a happy ending of the eternal human dreams, 84 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:54,879 because liberal democracy assumes the individual is supreme to all, 85 00:05:55,000 --> 00:06:01,920 above anything, and nothing can be added to it. And 86 00:06:02,519 --> 00:06:10,399 even if you want to collectivize voluntarily, you become a 87 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:16,639 threat to those who just want to be individuals. They 88 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,879 may not say that now, but they're going to be 89 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,279 afraid that you're going to start You're going to start 90 00:06:23,279 --> 00:06:26,079 a tyrannical government, and you're going to start taxing them, 91 00:06:26,120 --> 00:06:30,199 and it's all immorality and all yeah, straight on down 92 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:35,560 the line. Because it is extremely difficult to imagine something 93 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,720 that might follow this last stage of historical development without 94 00:06:38,759 --> 00:06:42,759 constituting an improve vision of it, version of it. It 95 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:45,759 is equally difficult to imagine that anyone who is morally 96 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,279 balanced and of a sound mind could in faith act 97 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:53,079 against liberal democracy and the ideals it embodied. All you 98 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:58,240 have to do is start going on social media X, 99 00:06:59,439 --> 00:07:03,480 go into a thread of people who are rah rah 100 00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:08,839 rah the regime and start talking about an alternative to it, 101 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:13,920 start talking about the opposite of it. All these people 102 00:07:13,959 --> 00:07:18,600 are globalists, start talking about becoming nationalists, or start talking 103 00:07:18,639 --> 00:07:27,800 about becoming quote unquote fascist. See what happens. See that 104 00:07:27,879 --> 00:07:36,240 you are not looked upon as an insane person. It 105 00:07:36,279 --> 00:07:39,639 is therefore more than natural that both systems identified existing 106 00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:44,319 structures with human ideals. Communism was social justice, and social 107 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:47,560 justice was communism. This marriage between the system and the 108 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:51,319 ideal gave birth to a particular type of mentality, inadvertently 109 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:59,000 prone to political moralizing. Yeah, political moralizing is the greatest moralizing. 110 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:01,920 Once you if you've ever done it, if you've ever 111 00:08:01,959 --> 00:08:07,519 fallen for it. Once you stop politically moralizing, the people 112 00:08:07,519 --> 00:08:12,319 who are still politically moralizing look upon you as a savage, 113 00:08:13,759 --> 00:08:19,519 like an animal, because you're not sharing the morality of politics. 114 00:08:22,639 --> 00:08:25,600 Living in such a system, one could not simply describe 115 00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:29,279 facts or express one's political persuasion, because everything had to 116 00:08:29,279 --> 00:08:33,039 be entangled in the phraseology referring to the good of humanity, 117 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:37,159 the liberation of peoples, the wickedness of imperialism, the blessings 118 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:40,919 of a classless society, and the happiness of life under socialism. 119 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:48,039 From the very beginning socialism communism was sanctioned in moralistic terms, 120 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,799 without which it was in a system inconceivable. Every communist 121 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,320 or socialist, even if cynical or cruel, was compelled to 122 00:08:56,320 --> 00:09:00,200 see some see some communists and socialist ideals reflect that 123 00:09:00,279 --> 00:09:03,159 even in the simplest matters, and could not express the 124 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:07,039 simplest thought without referring to them another way, that they 125 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:13,879 are looking to replace God because their morality has no foundation. 126 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:20,919 Oh oh, it's immoral. It's wrong for somebody to own 127 00:09:20,919 --> 00:09:26,080 a company and employ people. Okay, why give me, give 128 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:30,320 me a reason? And I guess that comes back to 129 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:33,320 something that ce Jangle talked about we talked about on 130 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:40,639 my show is natural rights versus historical cultural rights. Natural 131 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,559 rights are universal. That means you have to apply them 132 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:50,879 to everyone, even the person pouring over your border who 133 00:09:50,919 --> 00:09:54,039 isn't supposed to be here. They have the same natural 134 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,039 rights that you do. Well, why are you keeping them 135 00:09:57,080 --> 00:10:02,200 from them? No rights are cultural historical. If rights are 136 00:10:02,279 --> 00:10:05,960 not a cultural and historical, then you must apply them 137 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,639 to everyone. You must open the borders, you must go 138 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:13,320 to war for somebody who is who is being enslaved 139 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,159 on the other side of the world. If you don't, 140 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:24,720 it's illogical cultural historical. The rights we have in this 141 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:31,600 country are cultural historical to Anglo Saxon law. So liberal 142 00:10:31,639 --> 00:10:36,159 democracy boasts of bestowing freedom on individuals and emancipation on groups, 143 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,600 while simultaneously taking it for granted that freedom and emancipation 144 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:43,039 are possible only in a liberal democracy, or rather that 145 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:48,360 freedom and emancipation are liberal democracy. Over time, the mind 146 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,600 of a liberal democrat began to resemble that of a socialist, 147 00:10:51,919 --> 00:10:55,279 exhibiting the same tendency to combine the languages of the 148 00:10:55,360 --> 00:10:59,639 languages of morality and politics, as no other discourse could 149 00:10:59,639 --> 00:11:03,000 possibly do justice to the nature of the system. There 150 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,639 are no topics, no matter how trivial, that the liberal 151 00:11:05,639 --> 00:11:10,840 democrat could raise or discuss without mentioning freedom, discrimination, equality, 152 00:11:11,159 --> 00:11:17,159 human rights, emancipation, authoritarianism, and other related notions. No other 153 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:23,240 language is used or even accepted. Both assertions about the 154 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,360 unity of institutions and ideals, those of the communists and 155 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:31,360 the liberal democrats, are completely unfounded. Communism does not represent 156 00:11:31,399 --> 00:11:35,519 class justice, nor was liberal democracy the soleentative of freedom. 157 00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:39,039 In the case of communism, the truth may seem may 158 00:11:39,039 --> 00:11:42,440 seem little controversial today, given that the crimes committed under 159 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:47,279 its slogans exceed human imagination. The portrayal of liberal democracy 160 00:11:47,279 --> 00:11:49,879 as a realization of the eternal desire for freedom is 161 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:54,360 very popular, almost verging on a platitude, especially in recent decades. 162 00:11:54,919 --> 00:12:00,799 This picture is false. First, liberalism was certainly not the 163 00:12:00,799 --> 00:12:04,200 only orientation expressing the desire for freedom, nor was it 164 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:10,799 particularly consistent in this devotion. The supporters of republicanism, conservatism, Romanticism, Christianity, 165 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,159 and many other movements also demanded freedom and did a 166 00:12:14,159 --> 00:12:19,639 lot to advance its cause. If freedom, as we understand 167 00:12:19,639 --> 00:12:22,759 it in Western civilization is not only an abstract value, 168 00:12:22,919 --> 00:12:27,000 but has a concrete shape, well grounded in institutions, social practices, 169 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:30,240 and mental habits, then the contribution of liberalism is one 170 00:12:30,279 --> 00:12:34,159 of many, far from decisive. It is hard to imagine 171 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,759 freedom without classical philosophy and the heritage of antiquity, without 172 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:41,919 Christianity and Scholasticism, without different traditions in the philosophy of 173 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,480 law and political and social practices, without ancient and modern republicanism, 174 00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:50,440 without strong anthropology and ethics of virtues and duties, without 175 00:12:50,519 --> 00:12:54,559 Anglo Saxon and continental conservatism, or many other components of 176 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:59,559 the entire Western civilization. All of that, what are you 177 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:04,559 talking about? As he's talking about cultural where we came from. 178 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,120 Liberal democrats circumvent this objection in such a way that 179 00:13:09,159 --> 00:13:12,559 they attribute the term liberal to everything they think succeeded 180 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:15,360 in making a breakthrough in the walls of oppression and authority. 181 00:13:15,960 --> 00:13:18,879 This allows them to accept that Socrates was a liberal 182 00:13:18,919 --> 00:13:24,759 compared compared to Plato, the Sophists were liberals compared to Socrates, 183 00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:29,240 accum compared to Saint Thomas Erasmus, compared to Luther, Luther 184 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:34,440 compared to Calvin, and so on. In this somewhat bizarre view, liberalism, 185 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:39,840 whether democratic or not yet democratic, existed in Western culture 186 00:13:39,879 --> 00:13:42,200 from the very beginning, but only in the modern day 187 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:45,519 did it gain momentum and finally triumph in recent times. 188 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,519 Such lavish squandering of the term liberal is obviously fraudulent 189 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:54,559 and constitutes a completely unjustified attempt to elevate liberalism to 190 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,840 a privileged position, allowing it to grant favors to some 191 00:13:58,519 --> 00:14:03,080 and taking them away from others. When we look at 192 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,159 the activities of liberals in the course of the last 193 00:14:05,279 --> 00:14:08,440 hundred years, it turns out that they were quite dogmatic 194 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:11,240 on the issue of freedom on a theoretical level, but 195 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:15,639 very opportunistic in practice. They did not shun seeking allies 196 00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:19,840 in enlightened absolutisms. In the twentieth century, they engaged in 197 00:14:19,879 --> 00:14:23,759 a long term flirtation with socialism, including its Soviet version, 198 00:14:25,159 --> 00:14:29,840 being probably motivated by a similar assumption. Even the most 199 00:14:29,879 --> 00:14:34,039 liberal of liberals displayed extraordinary softness against the Soviet Union 200 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:39,200 and the Soviet Communism, and sometimes even actively supported the 201 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:43,320 idea of unilateral disarmament of the West, as did libertarians, 202 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:48,600 all in the name of freedom. Liberals also showed weakness 203 00:14:48,639 --> 00:14:52,279 against terrorism and the left wing dictatorships in the Third World, 204 00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,039 but many of them reacted with noticeable self restraint when 205 00:14:55,039 --> 00:14:58,440 it came to anti communist activities of groups in the 206 00:14:58,519 --> 00:15:03,320 Soviet block countries. Their freedom related account is therefore not 207 00:15:03,799 --> 00:15:11,440 overly clean. So this is what we know this. We 208 00:15:11,519 --> 00:15:14,879 know this. All we have to do is look and see. 209 00:15:15,159 --> 00:15:18,960 It is perfectly fine in an American university in this 210 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:24,399 quote unquote liberal democracy, to teach the benefits of the 211 00:15:24,399 --> 00:15:27,919 Soviet Union, to deny the hola doom, or all of 212 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:31,840 these things. Now, let's talk about the German. Now let 213 00:15:31,919 --> 00:15:34,080 them start talking about the Germans in World War Two 214 00:15:35,440 --> 00:15:45,159 in a positive light or asking questions Part two. The 215 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:50,320 above similarities point to something more significant. Both systems, by 216 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:54,960 being final, meet the criteria by which we define utopianism. 217 00:15:55,960 --> 00:16:00,639 Both they're simply utopias. A note of clarification is required, however, 218 00:16:01,039 --> 00:16:05,159 a widely accepted, though not accurate definition that states that 219 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:09,000 the word utopia denotes some political project that is idealistic 220 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:15,200 in its intentions, but completely unrealistic, impracticable, impractical, and incompatible 221 00:16:15,399 --> 00:16:20,639 incompatible with human experience. The creators of utopias are therefore 222 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:24,080 usually looked down upon as naive sentimentalists or feared as 223 00:16:24,159 --> 00:16:29,919 dangerous in human social engineers. This definition is wrong. None 224 00:16:29,919 --> 00:16:32,440 of the great utopians created their blueprints for a good 225 00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:35,559 society with the assumption that these plans were completely devoid 226 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,960 of practical value. None of them considered himself to be 227 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:43,440 a dreamer, deliberately separating himself from and ignoring all lessons 228 00:16:43,440 --> 00:16:51,159 of human experience. What have I been saying for four years? 229 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,840 What indeed would have been the point of such fantasies? 230 00:16:56,879 --> 00:16:59,120 Who would have devoted the time and energy to create 231 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:05,119 political projects that were politically useless. The designers of Utopia's 232 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,839 knew very well and often admitted that, given the circumstances, 233 00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:12,279 the implementation of their products would be difficult, extremely difficult, 234 00:17:12,559 --> 00:17:18,720 or even unlikely. I would use the term impossible. Yet 235 00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:21,240 they never had the slightest doubt about their functional value, 236 00:17:21,279 --> 00:17:26,119 and their intention was put. Yet, they never had the 237 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,079 slightest doubt about their functional value, and their intention was 238 00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:34,079 put was to put them to practice. Sorry, for some reason, 239 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:39,519 that sentence just messed me up. Utopia is thus not 240 00:17:39,599 --> 00:17:43,880 a political fantasy, but a bold project, bolder than others, 241 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:46,559 because it aims at a solution to all the basic 242 00:17:46,599 --> 00:17:49,559 problems of collective life that humanity has faced since it 243 00:17:49,599 --> 00:17:54,079 began to organize itself. Politically, utopia is, I beg the 244 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:58,640 reader's pardon for such a vile sounding phrase. The final 245 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:04,079 solution following its implementation in justice, poverty, tyranny, and other 246 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:08,599 political sins will disappear once and for all. Their disappearance 247 00:18:08,599 --> 00:18:13,480 will be structural and not depend on contingent factors. The 248 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,359 first utopias were written about in the Renaissance, the period 249 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:20,519 when belief in human greatness was a primary article of faith, 250 00:18:20,599 --> 00:18:24,920 as well as major intellectual and artistic incentive. The message 251 00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,119 was simple, man can achieve greatness and be equal to 252 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:33,680 God because he has an unlimited creative potential. Yes, he 253 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:35,880 can fall lower than the beasts, but he can also 254 00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:38,680 reach higher than ever before, as there is no upper 255 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:42,759 limit to knowledge or art. The greatness thesis led to 256 00:18:42,799 --> 00:18:45,519 another argument in the centuries that followed. While it was 257 00:18:45,559 --> 00:18:48,880 true that great artists created extraordinary works of painting, music, 258 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:53,839 and literature, and also superb works in mathematics, philosophy, and physics, 259 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:57,200 it was equally true that in one area human genius 260 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:03,039 had not yet appeared politics. Why not then create a 261 00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:07,400 great political work of art? Why not devise a political 262 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:12,680 construction that would be comparable to other great human achievements. 263 00:19:13,279 --> 00:19:17,960 Utopia was precisely to be such a political masterpiece. To 264 00:19:17,960 --> 00:19:20,880 put it differently, the human race gave the world Dante, 265 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:25,960 Plato and eschelis I apologize for not knowing how to 266 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:30,039 pronounce that name, and later still Bach, Shakespeare and other geniuses, 267 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,440 and it was now high time that it had its 268 00:19:32,559 --> 00:19:38,119 genius of political creation. The fact that so far no 269 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,559 political masterpiece had been created did not mean that creativity 270 00:19:41,559 --> 00:19:44,599 in politics was an exception. To human greatness, but that 271 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,720 the attempts were not sufficiently vigorous, or that such a 272 00:19:47,759 --> 00:19:52,599 great political artist had not yet been born. Communism was 273 00:19:52,599 --> 00:19:55,480 to be such a masterpiece. It is true that Karl 274 00:19:55,519 --> 00:19:58,960 Marx and Utopias would contempt attributing the term utopian to 275 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,799 his socialist opponent, invariably with an attitude of annoyance. He 276 00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,519 used this word in a colloquial sense, however, which gave 277 00:20:06,559 --> 00:20:09,960 him grounds to accuse previous generations as socialists of a 278 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,079 faulty reading of reality they naively believed. In fact, they 279 00:20:14,079 --> 00:20:17,440 did not. But this is what he said, that socialism 280 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:22,519 would triumph simply by its own intrinsic righteousness, and this 281 00:20:22,599 --> 00:20:27,400 belief he angrily rejected. The mere attractiveness of a political 282 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:31,640 ideal did not make it practically feasible. The world, he said, 283 00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:35,240 was not malleable to human whims, and any change must 284 00:20:35,279 --> 00:20:39,720 derive from an accurate description of the objective laws according 285 00:20:39,759 --> 00:20:46,720 to which the world develops. After these rather simple minded criticisms, 286 00:20:46,759 --> 00:20:50,680 he felt entitled to refer to his own theory as scientific, 287 00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:54,440 which was later repeated with delight by his followers, from 288 00:20:54,559 --> 00:20:57,039 Angles and Lenin through Stalin and to the teachers of 289 00:20:57,079 --> 00:21:03,359 Marxism in the Soviet Bloc countries. The scientific nature of socialism, however, 290 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:05,400 has been dubious from the start, because it was not 291 00:21:05,519 --> 00:21:08,359 clear what science was behind it and what it was 292 00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:12,720 supposed to justify. Such a science, of course, did not exist. 293 00:21:13,839 --> 00:21:16,359 The most that can be said was that socialism was 294 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,960 backed by some sort of theory of society and history, 295 00:21:20,519 --> 00:21:24,599 which in no case was scientific. Its justification of socialism 296 00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:27,640 as political structure did not even meet the criteria of 297 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:32,240 a decent argument. Thus, serious scholars of Marxist socialism, such 298 00:21:32,279 --> 00:21:37,039 as Lesak Kolakowski, had no doubt that it was a utopia. 299 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:40,640 It was the movement's utopia and not specific nature, that 300 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:47,559 made the Marxist version of communism so phenomenally popular. The 301 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:52,200 utopianism of liberal democracy is not so obvious. Besides, liberalism 302 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,839 and democracy are not related to utopian thinking in the 303 00:21:54,880 --> 00:22:00,400 same way. Initially, liberalism, especially in some economic versions, seemed 304 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:04,799 anti utopian because it precluded any perfect and ultimate form 305 00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:09,240 of economic order. Free market economy was even called the 306 00:22:09,319 --> 00:22:13,839 dismal science to emphasize the gloomy aspect of its consequences. 307 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,000 But there were also highly optimistic versions according to which 308 00:22:18,079 --> 00:22:21,039 to free market was a miraculous instrument to eliminate war 309 00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:23,920 and bring about the global brotherhood of humanity and a 310 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:28,240 future of commerce, a future era of commerce. Commerce, it 311 00:22:28,319 --> 00:22:30,480 will be recalled, was seen as the trademark of the 312 00:22:30,519 --> 00:22:34,799 new civilization of peace, wealth and stability. Oh what did 313 00:22:34,839 --> 00:22:39,440 the man say? If goods don't cross borders, armies will. 314 00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:44,440 If you trade with someone, they'll be your friend. How's 315 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:51,160 that working out? This rediscovery of liberal utopianism in the 316 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:55,240 twentieth century, especially in free market theories, can be easily explained. 317 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,599 It is enough to imagine a liberal order in its simplicity, 318 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,039 free market without an any state intervention, and individual rights 319 00:23:02,119 --> 00:23:05,519 unregulated by the state except the general rules of cooperation, 320 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,160 and to realize that these simple mechanisms have never really 321 00:23:09,200 --> 00:23:14,519 been tried. Real libertarianism has never been tried. Real communism 322 00:23:14,599 --> 00:23:17,240 has never been tried, Real socialism has never been tried. 323 00:23:17,839 --> 00:23:22,519 Real classical liberalism has never been tried. What's his name? 324 00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:27,079 James Lindsay once said, classical liberalism hasn't even started yet, 325 00:23:27,839 --> 00:23:33,680 It hasn't even begun. To fight hum For some liberals, 326 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,119 such simplicity will be tempting precisely because the liberal solution 327 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:42,039 has been applied in diluted form. There were always compromises 328 00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:46,519 with other political and economic systems, with traditionally inherited institutions, 329 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:50,720 or with people's conservatism. But once we do away with 330 00:23:50,759 --> 00:23:54,160 the mitigating factors and try the free market solution uncompromisingly 331 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,559 and radically, we will have a pure system esplicily simple 332 00:23:57,559 --> 00:24:02,119 and universally applicable mechanisms to solve all major problems. In short, 333 00:24:02,519 --> 00:24:09,240 we will have a utopia. The utopia intendency has yet 334 00:24:09,240 --> 00:24:13,640 an extra dimension. Economic liberals could not get over the 335 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:17,599 popularity of socialism, which they considered a completely irrational idea, 336 00:24:18,079 --> 00:24:21,039 but which, for reasons with which they were never satisfied, 337 00:24:21,079 --> 00:24:23,519 managed to touch the hearts and minds of millions of 338 00:24:23,519 --> 00:24:27,799 people throughout the world. This tremendous success of their main 339 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,359 enemy made them critically reassessed to previous methods by which 340 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:35,359 the free marketeers wanted to win popular support. The failure 341 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:38,119 of the free market and the contest of popularity, they thought, 342 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:42,279 was precisely that contrary to socialism, it never existed in 343 00:24:42,319 --> 00:24:45,880 its simple and pure form. And this and this never 344 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:49,559 happened because of the weakness and half heartedness of its message. 345 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,319 And so they concluded, if the free market is presented 346 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,720 not in a timid, apologetic and cowardly way, but in 347 00:24:56,839 --> 00:25:01,599 proud openness as an optimal answer to every important problem, 348 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,119 If it officially, as it were, entered into an ideological 349 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,160 race with socialism as a superior, all encompassing formula, it 350 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:15,000 must and would win. Once the economic liberals drew this conclusion, 351 00:25:15,079 --> 00:25:18,960 they deliberately and consciously started using the term utopia for 352 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,279 what they were advocating. After all, what can be more 353 00:25:22,319 --> 00:25:26,519 attractive than a utopia that works, and work it must, 354 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,400 they said. Some liberals could not even conceal their bewilderment 355 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:35,839 that such a fantastic project as theirs, giving everyone, literally everyone, 356 00:25:36,039 --> 00:25:38,920 the freedom to pursue their own desires, had not yet 357 00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:43,119 caught human imagination strongly enough. So they openly spoke of 358 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,799 a liberal utopia to promote what they thought to be 359 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:50,079 the only one worth the name. Friedrich von hayek Leedric 360 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,960 von messes Einrand, Robert Nozick, and many other historians did 361 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,519 precisely this. It went far beyond the realm of the 362 00:25:57,519 --> 00:26:01,039 free market. As Nozick wrote in his famous work under 363 00:26:01,039 --> 00:26:05,960 the symptomatic title anarchy, state and utopia. What the liberals 364 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,559 advocated was not just another utopia, but rather a utopia 365 00:26:09,599 --> 00:26:12,359 of utopias, or, in other words, a regime that would 366 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:17,680 include all other regimes, a final order incorporating all other orders. 367 00:26:19,759 --> 00:26:22,319 With this, the millennial long dispute about which system was 368 00:26:22,319 --> 00:26:25,960 supreme would be finally resolved. The utopia of utopias would 369 00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,519 offer a place for everyone to have and strive for 370 00:26:28,599 --> 00:26:32,599 his own concept of a utopia for socialists and conservatives, 371 00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:37,160 royalists and egalitarians, and everyone else. The utopia of all 372 00:26:37,279 --> 00:26:42,079 utopias would be, as Nosa claimed, the only morally legitimate state, 373 00:26:42,279 --> 00:26:46,480 the only morally tolerable one, the state that best realizes 374 00:26:46,519 --> 00:26:52,400 the utopian aspirations of untold dreamers and visionaries. To call 375 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,640 it a utopia of utopias was to give it a 376 00:26:54,759 --> 00:26:58,599 luster to thrill the heart or inspire people to struggle 377 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:04,519 or sacrifice to man barricades. Under its banner, democracy did 378 00:27:04,519 --> 00:27:10,839 not have obvious links with utopian thinking. Since antiquity, democracy 379 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,039 has been considered one of the defective systems, not better, 380 00:27:14,079 --> 00:27:17,480 but certainly not worse than oligarchy or monarchy. Plato and 381 00:27:17,519 --> 00:27:22,240 Aristotle gave us an insightful critical analysis of it, taking 382 00:27:22,279 --> 00:27:26,240 as evidence the functioning of the democratic experience in ancient Athens. 383 00:27:28,319 --> 00:27:30,799 Much of what they said had a lot of validity today, 384 00:27:31,279 --> 00:27:35,000 even though the ancient democracy differed considerably from what passes 385 00:27:35,039 --> 00:27:38,680 for a democratic regime today. Plato and Aristotle were not 386 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,279 the only critics of the system. In fact, it is 387 00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:44,519 extremely difficult to find a classical philosopher who would be 388 00:27:44,559 --> 00:27:48,680 its defender. Democratus was one of the few. Some scholars 389 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:55,720 also mentioned Protagorasts, although his democratic credentials are highly problematic. 390 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,119 The ancient philosopher's primary question was not what makes the 391 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:05,119 best regime? Democracy certainly did not qualify. Why not? The 392 00:28:05,200 --> 00:28:08,599 answer was simple. They thought democracy was a messy system, 393 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:13,920 symptomatically systematically undermining the rule of law, profoundly partisan, often 394 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:20,279 hostile to the most prominent leaders and citizens. The famous 395 00:28:20,279 --> 00:28:26,079 defense of democratic Athens delivered by Pericles Enthusidides the Peloponnesian War, 396 00:28:26,559 --> 00:28:30,279 is in fact more a defensive Athens and Athenium imperialism 397 00:28:30,599 --> 00:28:34,480 than of the democratic political model. When Plato and Aristotle 398 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:37,839 wrote their scathing remarks about the Athenian system, they thought 399 00:28:37,839 --> 00:28:40,640 it was already in decline, and Athens might soon become 400 00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:42,599 a victim of the crisis from which it would not 401 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,000 be able to recover. And this is exactly what happened. 402 00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:51,440 In early modernity, this classical view of democracy did not 403 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:55,200 change much. Political thinkers were interested in why and how 404 00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:58,119 the state comes about, how it should work, how to 405 00:28:58,119 --> 00:29:01,480 secure its stability, and who the sovereign is. In all 406 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:04,599 these considerations, the problem of democracy was relegated to a 407 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:09,079 secondary or even tertiary place. There was no challenge to 408 00:29:09,119 --> 00:29:12,559 the ancient theory that it was a defective system. When 409 00:29:12,599 --> 00:29:15,559 the founding fathers were creating the foundations of the American Republic, 410 00:29:15,599 --> 00:29:18,839 they treated democracy, as well as other political models, with 411 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:23,359 great suspicion, and therefore devised a complex political mechanism to 412 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:30,599 alleviate its weaknesses. When Tokville observed the same society a 413 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,279 few decades later, however, he had no doubts about its 414 00:29:33,319 --> 00:29:37,119 democratic character. By then, democracy was not only driven out, 415 00:29:37,759 --> 00:29:41,160 had not only driven out all political alternatives and become 416 00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:43,720 the sole ruler of the American mind, but revealed itself 417 00:29:43,759 --> 00:29:47,920 as such an imposing way that the democratic scenario seemed 418 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,680 to be The French aristocrat seemed to the French aristocrat 419 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,160 to be the destiny of all Western societies. Such a 420 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,720 perspective did not make him happy, and he finished his 421 00:29:57,720 --> 00:30:03,240 book on a clearly pessimistic note. Clearly pessimistic note, democracy 422 00:30:03,359 --> 00:30:06,599 was more of a problem than a solution. What he 423 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,519 saw at the end of the democratic road was a 424 00:30:08,559 --> 00:30:13,839 new despotism, different from earlier despatic regimes, invisible but dangerously 425 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:17,960 enslaving people's minds, accepted willingly by the demos as the 426 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:25,000 most genuine representation of the people's desires. I'm not commenting 427 00:30:25,039 --> 00:30:30,400 here because I don't need to. This is I mean, 428 00:30:30,519 --> 00:30:38,400 just listen. You know you're if you're if you have 429 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,359 some instilled boomerism in you, or you know a boomer 430 00:30:41,359 --> 00:30:45,319 who's like, it's a republic, not a democracy. It was not, 431 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:55,240 And what's a republic? People are still voting, right. I mean, 432 00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,759 they limited the votes, but people are still voting, right, 433 00:30:58,359 --> 00:31:05,359 They're voting in their interest right. Well. Unconditional praise of democracy, 434 00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:08,119 absurd in the light of classical political theory, was for 435 00:31:09,079 --> 00:31:13,519 a long time, first and foremost an American specialty. However, 436 00:31:13,599 --> 00:31:17,440 the global triumph of democracy, the liberal democracy, actually had 437 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,599 to wait a little longer. E. M. Foster is famous 438 00:31:20,599 --> 00:31:24,720 for saying that it deserved two cheers, not three, which 439 00:31:24,839 --> 00:31:28,079 is exactly as many as Irving Crystal grants it to capitalism. 440 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:34,319 Several decades later, in its famous aphorism, Churchill indirectly acknowledged 441 00:31:34,319 --> 00:31:37,519 the old truth that democracy was not a political masterpiece, 442 00:31:37,599 --> 00:31:40,920 though and it was something new. He seemed to hint 443 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,920 that it was superior to other regimes, which was tantamount 444 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,400 to granting it a position it had never occupied before. 445 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:52,160 A few decades later, all ambiguities were gone, and if 446 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,160 the slogan three cheers for democracy came from nobody's pen, 447 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,519 it was only because there were better compliments at hand. 448 00:31:58,799 --> 00:32:04,960 Democracy was spoken of of by Pierre Rosenvolan Vallon, among others, 449 00:32:05,079 --> 00:32:10,400 as an unfinished project, that is, one that was constantly 450 00:32:10,519 --> 00:32:17,039 being revised, still undergoing improvements, never completed, and still allowing 451 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:22,920 a lot of room for human creativity. It was democracy 452 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:28,440 constantly democratizing itself so to surpass democracy, or something equally vague, 453 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:35,559 almost meaningless. Similar remarks about democratic democracy or democracy so 454 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,960 democratic that it continues to go beyond democracy? Where to 455 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,599 be where to be found? In dereda Finally, the word 456 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,000 utopia had to appear, and it did. The man who 457 00:32:46,039 --> 00:32:49,720 called the liberal democratic political system of utopia was John Rawls, 458 00:32:49,799 --> 00:32:54,200 the greatest of the great authorities on all the supporters, advocates, 459 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,920 and analysts of the system, and the maker of what 460 00:32:57,079 --> 00:33:02,680 might be called today's liberal democratic orthodox. When he said it, 461 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:06,400 no one was surprised with his clear Anglo Saxon mind. 462 00:33:06,599 --> 00:33:10,079 Roles expressed in public what many had been thinking for 463 00:33:10,119 --> 00:33:15,359 some time but did not dare speak aloud. Let us 464 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,680 return to him for a moment to Churchill's famous quote. 465 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:21,960 It comes from the speech that he delivered at the 466 00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,759 British House of Commons in nineteen forty seven, and reads 467 00:33:24,759 --> 00:33:27,880 as follows. Many forms of government have been tried and 468 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,559 will be tried in this world of sin and woe. 469 00:33:30,759 --> 00:33:34,480 No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, 470 00:33:34,519 --> 00:33:36,599 it has been said that democracy is the worst form 471 00:33:36,599 --> 00:33:40,680 of government except all, except all those other forms that 472 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:44,440 have been tried. From time to time, the statement had 473 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,079 a life of its own and was repeatedly twisted or 474 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:51,160 modified according to the intentions of those invoking it. Two 475 00:33:51,279 --> 00:33:54,799 versions with two different interpretations stand out. The first one 476 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:58,079 is a mild paradox, democracy is the worst political system 477 00:33:58,119 --> 00:34:01,759 except for all the others. The sentence contains two main 478 00:34:01,839 --> 00:34:06,240 pieces of information about democracy, standing in a paradoxical relation 479 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:10,400 to other systems. Democracy is flawed. After all, it is 480 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,920 the worst, and at the same time it is superior 481 00:34:13,000 --> 00:34:15,440 to other regimes. Therefore, it turns out not to be 482 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:19,679 the worst, because the others are even worse. If we 483 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,360 assume that the first piece of information is more important, 484 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,920 then the lesson drawn from Churchill's statement would partly concur 485 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:28,840 that what the ancients wrote about the power of the people, 486 00:34:29,159 --> 00:34:33,119 that is, that it is a highly imperfect imperfect system 487 00:34:33,480 --> 00:34:38,519 and therefore requires great vigilance and implementation of corrective mechanisms 488 00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:46,400 that may also be undemocratic. Churchill did not identify any 489 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,239 particular fault of democracy, but one could read into a 490 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:53,679 suggestion of moderate skepticism and criticism of democratic procedures. But 491 00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,000 it was not the message of skepticism and criticism, however 492 00:34:57,079 --> 00:34:59,599 toned down, that won the hearts of millions of supporters 493 00:34:59,639 --> 00:35:03,440 and demiocracy around the world. Another conclusion, different from the 494 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,239 previous one, gained much larger support. The reasoning was simple. 495 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,159 It was enough to treat the second piece of information 496 00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:13,960 as a basic one, that all other regimes are more defective, 497 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,880 and to ignore completely the first part that democracy also 498 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:22,079 has many faults. This gave the conclusion an unambiguously pro 499 00:35:22,159 --> 00:35:26,599 democratic meaning, not that democracy is the least objectionable of 500 00:35:26,639 --> 00:35:29,679 all regimes, but that it is the best one, and 501 00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:34,000 if it is the best, its defects are negligible. With 502 00:35:34,079 --> 00:35:37,880 this swist of meaning, any criticism of democracy becomes unfounded, 503 00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:45,559 and any critic irresponsible and not worth listening to. There 504 00:35:45,639 --> 00:35:48,199 is no sense in criticizing something that, by definition is 505 00:35:48,199 --> 00:35:52,119 superior to the alternatives. The crowning step of this reasoning 506 00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:55,960 was that whatever democracy shortcomings, they can be removed by 507 00:35:56,079 --> 00:35:59,679 more democracy. The best cannot be corrected by anything but 508 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:03,880 the best. We take When we take a look at 509 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:07,360 each conclusion separately in the above reasoning, we can easily 510 00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:11,639 see that they in fact constitute a series of unsubstantiated claims. 511 00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:17,440 The sequence of the steps is as follows. One, all 512 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:21,599 systems other than democracy are worse than democracy. Two, Democracy 513 00:36:21,639 --> 00:36:24,960 is the best political system. Three Democracy must not be 514 00:36:25,039 --> 00:36:28,599 criticized because such criticism may undermine something for which there 515 00:36:28,639 --> 00:36:33,159 is no better alternative. Four, only democracy is acceptable, and 516 00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:36,679 therefore all changes and adjustments in democracy can be performed 517 00:36:36,679 --> 00:36:40,440 by democratic means. Five. The remedy for the weakness of 518 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:45,480 democracy is more democracy is now what we always is. 519 00:36:45,519 --> 00:36:47,000 Now what a lot of people say. It's like, Oh, 520 00:36:47,039 --> 00:36:50,000 the government broke it. Now the people who broke it 521 00:36:50,039 --> 00:36:55,639 are going to try and fix it. Well, I mean sure, 522 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:03,599 the people who broke it probably aren't going to be 523 00:37:03,639 --> 00:37:07,840 able to fix it, even if they want to. It 524 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,199 would take other people to fix it. I'm not going 525 00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:13,199 to even say it'll take another system to fix it. 526 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,639 But if we know that democracy is already flawed, why 527 00:37:18,639 --> 00:37:20,840 would you want to fix it? You would just want 528 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:26,400 it to die? Thoughts that even hits me. Each subsequent 529 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,519 step was made by adding more content to the previous one, 530 00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:32,800 which results in a gradual departure from the initial statement, 531 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:37,920 which created finally, a huge chasm between propositions one and five. 532 00:37:38,480 --> 00:37:42,079 Proposition one expressed a rather skeptical view about all regimes, 533 00:37:42,159 --> 00:37:45,800 including democracy, whose advantage over its rivals was it's a 534 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:52,800 somewhat less imperfect nature. Proposition. Proposition five is an enthusiastic 535 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:57,639 declaration of faith in democracy and absolute condemnation of everything undemocratic. 536 00:37:58,119 --> 00:38:03,840 Someone who asserted with that out cannot without violating logic, 537 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:10,599 smoothly past to assert the last assertion's absurdity leaves to 538 00:38:10,639 --> 00:38:12,719 the eye. But in spite of that, it is today 539 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:17,199 regarded surprisingly as an expression of a profound political wisdom. 540 00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:20,639 To see this absurdity, no special insight is needed, and 541 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,239 excess of anything is never good. After all, no one 542 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:27,000 will claim that the shortcomings of oligarchy can be removed 543 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,880 by extending oligarchy. Flaws of tyranny, by expanding tyranny, defects 544 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,639 and disadvantages a monarchy by increasing the element of monarchy. 545 00:38:36,039 --> 00:38:39,159 Nobody in his right mind will claim that progressive monopolization 546 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:42,440 is a cure for monopoly, and that the remedy for 547 00:38:42,519 --> 00:38:45,920 anarchy is more anarchy. Why then, if we agree that 548 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:49,559 democracy has its weaknesses, would such weaknesses be reduced by 549 00:38:49,599 --> 00:38:54,760 having more democracy? In what way? Will in what way 550 00:38:55,079 --> 00:38:59,440 will more democracy reduce? For example, democratic vulgarity, or the 551 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,639 cult of meati deocrity, or the weakening of social customs 552 00:39:02,639 --> 00:39:06,360 and traditions, or the overproduction of legislation, or the omnipresent 553 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:10,679 spirit of partisanship penetrating every aspect of life. If the 554 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,880 increasing role of the masses led to the vulgarization of culture, 555 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:18,320 why would placing even greater importance on the same masses 556 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:22,679 lead to culture's refinement. If democracy introduces yet further groups 557 00:39:22,679 --> 00:39:25,440 in the political and legislative process and provides them with 558 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,920 the tools to secure their interest through legislation, which in 559 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,719 turn leads to legislative excesses, then why would the increased 560 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:36,599 number of these groups and their increased influence generate legislative 561 00:39:36,639 --> 00:39:41,440 restraint and so forth and so on. Let us note 562 00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:46,320 that a similar rhetoric was used in communism. When faced 563 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,480 with the notoriously recurring symptoms of the decay of the system, 564 00:39:49,519 --> 00:39:54,760 communist rulers and propagandists euphemistically called the distortions, called them distortions, 565 00:39:55,199 --> 00:39:59,159 always saying that these resulted from the deviation from socialism 566 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,639 and that more genuine socialism was needed to set things right. 567 00:40:03,119 --> 00:40:06,000 No empirical experience could support this claim. In fact, the 568 00:40:06,079 --> 00:40:09,360 opposite seem true and truer every day, but evidence usually 569 00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:14,199 has little value against a strong political faith. Both claims 570 00:40:14,679 --> 00:40:18,079 that the cure for problems of socialism is more socialism, 571 00:40:18,119 --> 00:40:20,519 and that the cure for deficiencies of democracy is more. 572 00:40:20,559 --> 00:40:24,639 Democracy should be therefore treated not as propositions, but as 573 00:40:24,679 --> 00:40:28,360 manifestations of political piety, and to be more terse or 574 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:35,159 politically sanctimonious, or to be more terse of political sanctimoniousness. 575 00:40:35,159 --> 00:40:37,800 Democracy serves to create a state of mind where a 576 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:41,840 citizen feels an inner compulsion to emphasize, in public or 577 00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:45,880 in private, the absolute superiority of democracy, to dispel any 578 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,559 doubts about the superiority, and to delegitimize, as an act 579 00:40:49,559 --> 00:40:55,559 of reprehensible disloyalty, any attempt to consider non democratic corrective options, 580 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,760 if only in the forms of intellectual experiments. A person 581 00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:02,719 was such an attitude of democracy will probably not use 582 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:05,320 the term utopia, but there is no better words to 583 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:10,719 denote the system he has been taught to revere. I'm 584 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,400 going to cut it right there, come back in a 585 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,920 couple of days and finish up chapter two. I hope 586 00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:18,559 you're getting a lot out of this. I know me 587 00:41:18,679 --> 00:41:21,400 rereading this for this like second or third time. I 588 00:41:21,480 --> 00:41:25,480 think the second time I'm seeing things I didn't see 589 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,840 the first time, and I think this is a pretty 590 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:33,400 incredible book. So yeah, back in a couple of days 591 00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:38,719 and we will finish up chapter two of Laguto's demon 592 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:40,880 in Democracy, take Care