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 --> 00:01:12,560 do it there. Thank you. I want to welcome everyone 20 00:01:12,599 --> 00:01:19,159 back to part four of my reading of Raizard Legut 21 00:01:19,239 --> 00:01:23,760 goes demon in Democracy. We left off right in the 22 00:01:23,799 --> 00:01:27,159 middle of chapter two let's finish up chapter two today, 23 00:01:27,439 --> 00:01:32,480 shall we? All right, let's do this. But churchill statement 24 00:01:32,519 --> 00:01:36,000 can also have another interpretation. Democracy is not good, but 25 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,760 a better system has not been invented. To many people today, 26 00:01:39,799 --> 00:01:43,200 this sentence is unquestionably true, but it is patently false. 27 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,519 Of course, a better system was invented, and it happened 28 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:50,280 conceptually in antiquity as a result of a long debate 29 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,879 about the best political regime. It first appeared in Plato's 30 00:01:53,959 --> 00:01:59,519 late works and was further developed by Aristotle. The argument 31 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:02,040 of the ancient thinkers was simple, and it rose from 32 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,200 an accurate observation, well grounded in political experience, that most 33 00:02:06,239 --> 00:02:09,560 regimes are defective by being one sided, that is, by 34 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:13,120 going too much in one direction, determined by the specificity 35 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:16,879 of the group that exerts the predominant influence in the 36 00:02:16,879 --> 00:02:22,080 functioning of the system. This observation, one could say, anticipated 37 00:02:22,159 --> 00:02:26,159 Churchill's view, or rather that Churchill's view reiterated in a 38 00:02:26,199 --> 00:02:31,520 slightly changed form the classical insight. The ancients distinguished three 39 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,479 basic types of regimes monarchy one man rule, oligarchy called 40 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:44,319 sometimes aristocracy, minority rule, and democracy majority rule. They regarded 41 00:02:44,439 --> 00:02:47,240 each of them as good in some aspects and deficients 42 00:02:47,319 --> 00:02:51,520 in others. Each system, then, while being superior to the alternatives, 43 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,439 was also inferior to them. For example, the advantage of 44 00:02:55,479 --> 00:02:58,639 the monarchy was that it was simplified, that it simplified 45 00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:02,919 the decision making process and gave it greater consistency. Its disadvantage, 46 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,599 among other things, was the danger of tyranny. The advantage 47 00:03:06,599 --> 00:03:11,319 of oligarchy was its educational elitism, and its disadvantage a 48 00:03:11,439 --> 00:03:14,599 possible subordination of the public interest to that of a 49 00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:19,759 minority group. The advantage of democracy was its representativeness and 50 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:27,039 its disadvantages anarchy and factionalism. A possible solution of the 51 00:03:27,039 --> 00:03:29,840 problem of one sided us was to mix the three types. 52 00:03:30,479 --> 00:03:34,280 One could therefore devise a political structure that combined monarchy, oligarchy, 53 00:03:34,319 --> 00:03:37,120 and democracy in such a way that each would foster 54 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:41,879 the advantages and neutralize the disadvantages of the others. We 55 00:03:41,919 --> 00:03:45,159 would then have, for example, a democratic representativeness, but at 56 00:03:45,199 --> 00:03:50,479 the same time, some oligarchic aristocratic institutions that would perform 57 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,240 a form of elitism, as well as some form of 58 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:58,599 monarchy guaranteeing the efficiency of governance. Such combination depended on 59 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,280 the ingenuity of the policy peticians and the character of 60 00:04:01,319 --> 00:04:05,000 a particular society, and could produce a variety of hybrid 61 00:04:05,039 --> 00:04:08,919 political forms. Once this role referred to this mixed regime, 62 00:04:09,039 --> 00:04:13,240 he used the term res publica. This was the beginning 63 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:19,439 of a very important republican tradition in Western civilization. In 64 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:24,759 its modern versions, republicanism moved along complex paths, sometimes losing 65 00:04:24,759 --> 00:04:27,720 the original meaning, especially when used solely as a shorthand 66 00:04:27,759 --> 00:04:32,079 for revolutionary anti monarchism, but the main message given to 67 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:36,920 it by the ancients was often preserved. The political community 68 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,240 organized as republic was a structure containing various elements, one 69 00:04:41,319 --> 00:04:45,720 being a democratic component. Even the American system, which today 70 00:04:45,759 --> 00:04:50,560 is regarded as the exemplary embodiment of representative democracy, was 71 00:04:50,639 --> 00:04:54,920 established as a hybrid constructionism. Some of the founding fathers 72 00:04:54,959 --> 00:04:57,279 regarded it as a major problem, how to limit the 73 00:04:57,399 --> 00:05:00,319 rule of the demos and secure the proper role of 74 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:04,160 the aristocratic element, whose responsibility would be the defense and 75 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:11,040 propagation of ethical and political virtues. That's the job of 76 00:05:11,079 --> 00:05:20,279 the elite. The aristocrats. Tokeville contemplated a similar problem, which 77 00:05:20,319 --> 00:05:23,360 seemed to him even more pressing, considering that he saw 78 00:05:23,399 --> 00:05:27,079 the advents of democracy as irresistible in the new times 79 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,160 that we're approaching, It then became a matter of utmost 80 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:34,079 urgency to inject some aristocratic spirit into an ever more 81 00:05:34,199 --> 00:05:40,360 egalitarian society. Even in the twentieth century, approximately up to 82 00:05:40,399 --> 00:05:43,439 the thirties, this hybrid view of political regimes was still 83 00:05:43,519 --> 00:05:47,040 quite widespread, although the word democracy started making it his 84 00:05:47,199 --> 00:05:51,519 rapid career, becoming not just a description but also the norm. 85 00:05:51,920 --> 00:05:56,160 What World War One gave us Intentionally, in my opinion, 86 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:00,439 this meant moving away from thinking about political reat in 87 00:06:00,519 --> 00:06:03,160 terms of pros and cons to the idolatry of one 88 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:08,439 type of political arrangement whose flaws were systematically disregarded. But 89 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,079 simon has become a common practice, unfortunately rather ridiculous, to 90 00:06:12,199 --> 00:06:16,839 complement certain political conducts and actions as democratic and condemn 91 00:06:16,959 --> 00:06:22,600 others as undemocratic. Sometimes such labeling may be quite amusing, 92 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:27,319 but its funny side escapes most observers. So when a 93 00:06:27,319 --> 00:06:31,040 politician is criticized for being undemocratic because in the parliament 94 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:34,079 he disobeys the speaker and refuses to yield the floor, 95 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,160 one cannot but laugh. This is a democratic behavior in 96 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:41,319 its purest form, invented in a democracy and having a 97 00:06:41,439 --> 00:06:46,079 very long tradition in a democratic history at any rate. 98 00:06:46,319 --> 00:06:49,720 Before it disappeared giving way to the idolatry of democracy, 99 00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:52,160 the concept of a hybrid system known as a mixed 100 00:06:52,199 --> 00:06:56,439 regime had played a creative role in political thought and practice, 101 00:06:56,759 --> 00:07:00,759 as it prevented the politicians from falling into util topianism. 102 00:07:03,079 --> 00:07:06,360 There was no one combination model, and the particular political 103 00:07:06,439 --> 00:07:11,160 arrangements reflected national traditions, usually dating from pre democratic times. 104 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:15,000 Given that France post revolutionary was considered a republic, just 105 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,560 like England and the Netherlands, despite the last two formerly 106 00:07:18,639 --> 00:07:21,600 being monarchies, and the United States to a certain degree, 107 00:07:21,639 --> 00:07:27,319 the republican formula allowed for a considerable diversity political experimentation 108 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:30,439 and a great number of innovations that combined modern elements 109 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,120 with traditional ones at various levels of public life. In 110 00:07:34,199 --> 00:07:37,800 several decades, this approach to political systems not only completely 111 00:07:37,839 --> 00:07:41,519 disappeared from the public consciousness, but was also marginalized by 112 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:46,319 political science. The word republic is used today only in 113 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:49,399 the sense of the form of government, and any attempts 114 00:07:49,399 --> 00:07:52,439 to extend its meaning and to restore its former scope 115 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:57,480 provoke the irritation of political scientists. So you're free to 116 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:03,680 use the term republic. Yours is not free to practice 117 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:12,519 to set up to govern as a republic. Politicians are 118 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:16,279 equally reluctant to use the word republic because people tend 119 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:21,360 to associate it with some form of oppressive statism, People's 120 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:26,079 Republic of China, the Democratic Republic of North Korea, Yiada. 121 00:08:27,199 --> 00:08:30,360 They definitely prefer the word democracy, which they have been 122 00:08:30,399 --> 00:08:36,759 taught to associate with freedom, openness, and diversity. These associations 123 00:08:36,799 --> 00:08:39,399 are wrong, of course, because a republic has a higher 124 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:44,840 internal diversity than a liberal democracy, also incorporating undemocratic institutions, 125 00:08:44,879 --> 00:08:50,799 for example, aristocratic and monarchical, and satisfying non democratic sensibilities. 126 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:55,960 Liberal democracy is more restrictive, being strongly correlated with egalitarian 127 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:00,360 principles that are quite wrongly believed to generate diversity. The 128 00:09:00,399 --> 00:09:06,360 opposite is true. Egalitarianism does not tolerate aristocratic and monarchical tendencies, 129 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:09,039 not only in the political structures of the state, which 130 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:13,519 might be understandable, but in any other area of public life. 131 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:23,840 Get that mark that down. Egalitarianism does not tolerate aristocratic 132 00:09:23,879 --> 00:09:27,399 and monarchical tendencies, not only in the political structures of 133 00:09:27,399 --> 00:09:31,440 the state, which might be understandable, but in any other 134 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:37,240 area of public life. So when aristocrac when you have 135 00:09:37,279 --> 00:09:43,600 an institution that may be aristocratic and monarchical, let's say 136 00:09:43,639 --> 00:09:52,360 the Church, that can't be tolerated, and yet liberal democracy, 137 00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:55,679 being the single most homogenizing force in the modern world, 138 00:09:55,799 --> 00:10:00,720 creates the illusion that it alone stands for social differentiation. 139 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:05,159 A liberal democratic man surrenders to the illusion he believes, 140 00:10:05,240 --> 00:10:08,720 quite wrongly, that he has managed to make his inner 141 00:10:08,759 --> 00:10:12,600 self more and more intrinsically diversified, and therefore, while imprinting 142 00:10:12,639 --> 00:10:15,679 his ideas on the world around him, he cherishes a 143 00:10:15,720 --> 00:10:19,360 reassuring conviction that though that through him, the world also 144 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:23,480 becomes more diversified. But since in fact he himself dramatically 145 00:10:23,519 --> 00:10:26,799 loses his sensitivity to diversity, he is utterly unable to 146 00:10:26,799 --> 00:10:30,279 see how, by his influence, the world around him slowly 147 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:38,120 submerges in an ever more stifling uniformity. The consequences of 148 00:10:38,159 --> 00:10:42,600 this version of churchill saying are similar to those of 149 00:10:42,639 --> 00:10:47,360 the socialist doctrine the system is not subject to any criticism. 150 00:10:47,639 --> 00:10:50,320 In practical terms, this means that one cannot move away 151 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,000 from liberal democracy in any aspect or area of life. 152 00:10:54,759 --> 00:10:57,960 Just as one could not move away from socialism in 153 00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:02,639 any aspect or area. And even if such a retreat 154 00:11:02,639 --> 00:11:06,759 were actually happening by accident or under the pressure of circumstances, 155 00:11:07,039 --> 00:11:09,480 one must not admit it or call it a retreat, 156 00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:11,759 or even speak or think of it in a way 157 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:16,399 that would suggest a deviation from the liberal democratic model. 158 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:24,600 Not allowed to talk about the failures, folks. The failures 159 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:29,000 are just progress, and these people just need to be 160 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:36,720 able to fix what they've screwed up. Five. There is 161 00:11:36,759 --> 00:11:39,840 a possible counter argument to this. One can say that 162 00:11:39,919 --> 00:11:44,320 modern Western political countries are actually hybrid regimes, despite the 163 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:47,759 fact that they are called democracies. Their mixed character is 164 00:11:47,799 --> 00:11:51,320 well expressed by the name itself as liberal democracies. They 165 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:55,000 are combinations of liberalism and democracy, which, it can be argued, 166 00:11:55,039 --> 00:11:59,120 further retains the original specificity of the mixed regime, although 167 00:11:59,159 --> 00:12:03,000 modified in the court with modern realities. But is it 168 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:08,399 indeed the case? Is liberal democracy a mixed regime? We 169 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:11,320 do not know exactly when the term liberal democracy entered 170 00:12:11,320 --> 00:12:14,799 into a wider usage, but it certainly happened fairly recently. 171 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:19,320 In the mid nineteenth century, John Stuart Mill wrote how 172 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:24,600 freedom was threatened after the fall of traditional autocracies, particularly 173 00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:29,039 by the process of democratization, through which a society gained 174 00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,399 an indirect but more profound control of the mind of 175 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:36,559 an individual. He argued that a possible countervailing force to 176 00:12:36,639 --> 00:12:40,759 this dangerous tendency was liberalism, which would open the space 177 00:12:40,799 --> 00:12:45,519 for individual disobedience and eccentricity. In the twentieth century, or 178 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:50,919 Tega Egassette advocated some form of aristocratic liberalism, also as 179 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:55,159 a counterweight to a stage of democratization that he called 180 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:59,639 a mass society. In short, it was obvious for a 181 00:12:59,639 --> 00:13:02,799 long time time that liberalism and democracy point in two 182 00:13:02,879 --> 00:13:08,960 opposite directions and generate incompatible attitudes. Combining them looked therefore 183 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:14,120 like an enterprise well worth undertaking. The establishment of democracy 184 00:13:14,159 --> 00:13:19,480 seems to require an urgent counteraction, more so because democracy, 185 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:22,799 has pointed out by such shrewd observers as Toqueville and Ortega, 186 00:13:23,399 --> 00:13:26,399 was something more than a mechanism for the peaceful transfer 187 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:29,200 of power. It had also an ability to change the 188 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,480 whole mindset of society by depriving it of all intellectual 189 00:13:32,519 --> 00:13:37,840 and psychological impulses, all social habits and aspirations. However, creative 190 00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:44,639 and valuable that did not conform to democratic practices. Those 191 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:47,519 writers used a different language and faced a different political 192 00:13:47,519 --> 00:13:51,840 reality than the ancient philosophers, but expressed similar concerns, notably 193 00:13:51,919 --> 00:13:55,639 arguing that democracy tends to enslave people's minds through methods 194 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,919 that are not easily legible and controllable, yet no less profit. 195 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,399 This is quote. I know no country in which there 196 00:14:05,519 --> 00:14:08,320 is less independence of mind and less genuine freedom of 197 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:13,360 thought than in America, wrote Chokeville in his Democracy in America. 198 00:14:14,159 --> 00:14:16,480 And when he spoke about limitations on freedom, he did 199 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,759 not mean the legal constraints to express one's ideas, but 200 00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:23,279 rather the pressure to remove from one's mind everything that 201 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:30,519 a democratic society did not give a stamp of legitimacy. 202 00:14:31,200 --> 00:14:36,480 Think about it. Today, anything that's outside the box of 203 00:14:36,519 --> 00:14:43,080 the regime is immediately attacked. It's called fascism, it's called stalitarianism. 204 00:14:43,519 --> 00:14:47,399 It's a threat, and it's a threat to be put down. 205 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:54,679 The regime thinks that having to show an ID to 206 00:14:54,799 --> 00:15:07,080 vote is undemocratic. Therefore and racists somehow. Therefore, if you say, 207 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:12,080 you know, everyone really should have an ID to vote, 208 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:17,519 you're a democratic and even racist. The aridity of the 209 00:15:17,679 --> 00:15:21,440 democratic mind could be discerned and deplored at the same time, 210 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:25,240 because classical education was still in force, providing an outside, 211 00:15:25,559 --> 00:15:30,679 non democratic perspective of evaluation. People educated on Aristotle, Plutarch, 212 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:34,159 and Cicero could not help but notice that rampant democratization 213 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,840 was accompanied by the unification of thinking that was a 214 00:15:37,879 --> 00:15:43,200 direct offshoot of an anti hierarchical conformity so typical of 215 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,120 the democratic man. It might seem, therefore, and it did 216 00:15:47,159 --> 00:15:50,960 seem to people such as Mill and Tookeville, that liberalism 217 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:54,759 functions as a vehicle of an aristocratic factor along the 218 00:15:54,799 --> 00:16:00,279 lines previously indicated by the ancients. By introducing more individual freedom, 219 00:16:00,399 --> 00:16:04,279 liberalism could reawaken strong desires for high aspirations and infuse 220 00:16:04,320 --> 00:16:09,720 some life into the omnipresent pressure of mediocrity. A wave 221 00:16:09,799 --> 00:16:13,440 of liberalism was to encourage an attitude of eccentricity, which 222 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,759 Mill hoped would stimulate the human spirit to search for 223 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,600 the new and the extraordinary. Putting democracy and liberalism together 224 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:25,120 seemed a most promising idea. Democracy ensured the overall balance 225 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,480 of the entire political order, while liberalism was responsible for 226 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,279 enriching the society with individual aspirations to improve things, supporting 227 00:16:33,279 --> 00:16:38,600 a human desire for creativity and for change, for adventure, 228 00:16:39,679 --> 00:16:45,080 on and on. The concept of liberal democracy, understood as 229 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:49,039 the mix of democracy and liberalism, is usually explained by 230 00:16:49,039 --> 00:16:53,720 contrasting it with the totalitarian democracy. The latter term was 231 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:59,279 popularized by Jacob Jacob Talmon, who coined it while analyzing 232 00:16:59,399 --> 00:17:03,200 the philosoph of Jean Jacques Rousseau. The favorite quote with 233 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:05,920 which Rousseau was said to seal his fate as the 234 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,839 totalitarian comes from the Social Contract, from the passage in 235 00:17:09,839 --> 00:17:12,680 which he wrote that the general will is entitled to 236 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:17,680 coerce the individual will to obey, because such action constitutes 237 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:25,559 coercion to freedom quote unquote coercion to freedom. The expression 238 00:17:25,599 --> 00:17:28,920 is unfortunate, indeed that the idea behind it is more 239 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,200 complex than most critics of Rousseau admit. In any case, 240 00:17:32,200 --> 00:17:38,079 for Atalman and subsequent other authors, totalitarian democracy is one 241 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:41,079 in which, in principle, the conflict between the state and 242 00:17:41,079 --> 00:17:44,119 the individual should not exist, and the events of such 243 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:46,559 a conflict, the state has the moral duty to coerce 244 00:17:46,599 --> 00:17:51,960 the individual to obey. The people with liberal sensitivity rejected 245 00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,279 this possibility with indignation asserting quite rightly that it defies 246 00:17:56,319 --> 00:18:01,519 the most elementary assumption that freedom and coercion are exclusive. Thus, 247 00:18:01,519 --> 00:18:05,680 from the onset, the liberals emphasized a principle considered unchallengeable 248 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,200 that in liberal democracy man must not be coerced to freedom, 249 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,039 because the decision is not of the government, the church, 250 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,519 the nation, or any community, but of the man himself. 251 00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:21,240 Of course, the republican democracy, as developed in America and 252 00:18:21,319 --> 00:18:26,559 later in Europe, never resembled Rousseau's quasi totalitarian system, at 253 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:30,599 least in its structural mechanism. They were not ruled by 254 00:18:30,599 --> 00:18:33,680 the general will, but by political parties and factions, which 255 00:18:33,759 --> 00:18:37,960 Rousseau would have considered the exact antithesis of his conception. 256 00:18:39,119 --> 00:18:43,359 When Tokeville, Ortega and others postulated introducing a more libertarian 257 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,480 element in democracy, they were less concerned with the political 258 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:51,640 structure of democracy, but more with its social and cultural content. 259 00:18:52,599 --> 00:18:55,519 What they feared was the tyranny of sentiment and opinion 260 00:18:55,599 --> 00:19:01,680 and the general gravitation of a democratic society towards conformist mediocrity. 261 00:19:02,559 --> 00:19:05,640 Although the introduction of civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, 262 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,400 and various legal guarantees could sometimes but not always create 263 00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:13,480 a barrier against the concentration of political power. This was 264 00:19:13,559 --> 00:19:17,119 not really a response to the dangers of democracy that 265 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:20,640 were so accurately identified by the representatives of what I called, 266 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:30,160 for want of a better term, aristocratic liberalism. Six. When 267 00:19:30,200 --> 00:19:33,079 we look at the changes in liberal democratic societies, especially 268 00:19:33,079 --> 00:19:35,720 in recent decades, at a time when the republican model 269 00:19:35,759 --> 00:19:39,079 lost its impact, we see what actually happened was not 270 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,759 so much the introduction of liberalism into the democracy, but 271 00:19:42,880 --> 00:19:49,279 the democratization of liberalism. The effect proved to be the 272 00:19:49,319 --> 00:19:54,839 opposite of the expected divergent elements such as the democratic 273 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,039 and the aristocratic, where one would offset the weakness of 274 00:19:58,079 --> 00:20:02,039 the other, were not incorporated in to one system. Liberalism 275 00:20:02,079 --> 00:20:05,359 did not diversify democracy because it was a different type 276 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:09,240 of liberalism than the one of the American founding fathers. 277 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:14,720 Tookeville and Ortega hoped for, not aristocratic but egalitarian, and 278 00:20:14,759 --> 00:20:17,519 as such it reinforced what it should what it should 279 00:20:17,559 --> 00:20:21,279 have moderated. This should not have been a surprise, because 280 00:20:21,279 --> 00:20:30,079 the original idea of liberalism was indeed egalitarian. Isn't it great? 281 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:34,000 How well he writes, and how simple it is? Where 282 00:20:34,079 --> 00:20:36,920 I just feel like reading and it's like well, what 283 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,559 am I going to comments on. I'm just gonna agree 284 00:20:39,599 --> 00:20:45,119 with him. I mean, I may have some points here 285 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:50,759 and everything to make and maybe relates to something in 286 00:20:50,839 --> 00:20:56,359 the modern day or out of history, but this all 287 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:58,519 makes sense. This all makes so much sense, and it's 288 00:20:58,519 --> 00:21:03,759 so simple that you know, well, the starting position of 289 00:21:03,799 --> 00:21:06,440 liberalism and at the same time a final perspective is 290 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:11,240 a hypothetical situation in which relative, independent units cooperate through 291 00:21:11,279 --> 00:21:16,599 a system of contracts. The democratization turned liberalism into a 292 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,160 doctrine in which the primary agents were no longer individuals, 293 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:24,279 but groups and the institutions of the democratic state. Instead 294 00:21:24,279 --> 00:21:27,000 of individuals striving for the enrichment of social capital with 295 00:21:27,039 --> 00:21:30,880 new ideas and aspirations, there emerged people voicing demands called 296 00:21:31,079 --> 00:21:35,880 rights and acting within the scope of organized groups. These 297 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:40,039 groups subsequently petitioned state institutions and exerted pressure on them 298 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,240 to change legislation and political practices. Over time, they began 299 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:48,079 to affect judicial decisions by the courts, demanding legal acceptance 300 00:21:48,079 --> 00:21:51,440 of their position and acquired privileges. In the final outcome, 301 00:21:51,519 --> 00:21:54,279 the state and liberal democracy ceased to be an institution 302 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,759 pursuing the common good, but became a hostage of groups 303 00:21:57,799 --> 00:22:01,519 that treated it solely as an instrument of change securing 304 00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:06,599 their interests. I don't even know whether I agree. I 305 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:10,440 don't think I agree with the state being the state 306 00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:14,640 of liberal democracy, being an institution pursuing the common good. 307 00:22:15,599 --> 00:22:21,119 But you could see how it just becomes a vehicle 308 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:26,440 for special interests that doesn't even need to be explained. 309 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:32,079 We even have things called NGOs non gencized, I mean 310 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:38,240 non governmental organizations. The state, more and more involved in 311 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:42,440 the process of supporting group aspirations, largely lost its general 312 00:22:42,519 --> 00:22:46,960 republican character and turned into a conglomerate of the social, economic, cultural, 313 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:51,240 and other policy programs enacted and imposed through democratic procedures. 314 00:22:51,759 --> 00:22:54,480 This in turn meant that the state had to take 315 00:22:54,599 --> 00:22:58,079 over more and more specific responsibilities, far beyond the normal 316 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:01,799 operations of the state apparatus. As the new expectations of 317 00:23:01,839 --> 00:23:03,839 the groups had more and more to do with their 318 00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:08,079 status and social recognition, the traditional means of the state 319 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,240 policy were no longer sufficient. It became necessary to intervene 320 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:16,279 deeply into the social substance where the roots of status 321 00:23:16,319 --> 00:23:20,599 and recognition resided, either through direct political action or indirectly 322 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:25,039 by changing the laws, making appropriate judicial decisions, and adjusting 323 00:23:25,079 --> 00:23:31,640 morality and social moras drastically to guarantee equality. Politics is 324 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:39,759 not downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from power. Understand 325 00:23:39,799 --> 00:23:45,279 that anyone who's saying that politics is downstream from culture 326 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:50,799 does not understand power, does not understand what Luguco wrote 327 00:23:50,839 --> 00:23:56,039 right here, the state represents armed with the rhetoric of 328 00:23:56,079 --> 00:24:01,599 anti discrimination felt it was the state representatives armed with 329 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,920 the rhetoric of anti discrimination, felt it was their duty 330 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,880 to regulate matters for that, for far too long had 331 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,799 remained unregulated, which often meant giving privileges to certain groups 332 00:24:12,799 --> 00:24:16,920 and taking them away from others. Once the liberal democracy 333 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,240 became established, those who in the past had complained about 334 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:22,680 the growth of the communist state and compared it with 335 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,200 a glorious example of the asceticism of a liberal state 336 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:31,559 could invoke such contrast no longer. The liberal democratic state, 337 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,759 still more effective than a communist state, slowly and steadily 338 00:24:34,839 --> 00:24:38,279 underwent a similar expansion and likewise deeply intruded in the 339 00:24:38,319 --> 00:24:43,279 lives of its citizens. However, while the communist states spread 340 00:24:43,319 --> 00:24:48,599 an intrusive interference had their source in the determination of 341 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:51,599 the authorities, who, in order to survive had to impose 342 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,480 forcefully more and more controls of social spontaneity in a 343 00:24:55,519 --> 00:24:59,440 liberal democratic state. The source of this growing intrusion was 344 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:03,359 the citizens themselves, both as individuals and as members of 345 00:25:03,559 --> 00:25:10,759 privilege seeking groups. With the democratization of liberalism, the state 346 00:25:10,839 --> 00:25:14,359 unleashed a drive for hyperactivity by those groups, which in 347 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,039 turn resulted in the hyperactivity of political and legal institutions. 348 00:25:18,519 --> 00:25:21,519 The government, the courts, and the legislative bodies were under 349 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,920 constant pressure to continue their policy of distributing further privileges 350 00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:30,200 and granting further rights. Politicians soon discovered that giving way 351 00:25:30,279 --> 00:25:33,640 to this pressure, or even preempting it was there was 352 00:25:34,039 --> 00:25:37,119 to their advantage, because the continuation of the policy of 353 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:41,279 equality was the best method to acquire electoral votes, to 354 00:25:41,279 --> 00:25:46,640 secure democratic legitimacy, and to stay in power. Thus a 355 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,000 peculiar race began. On the one hand, the groups were 356 00:25:50,039 --> 00:25:53,000 inventing more and more effective means to influence the policies 357 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:58,240 of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches, and on the other, politicians, lawmakers, 358 00:25:58,279 --> 00:26:01,119 and judges were increasingly involved in a competition to see 359 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,359 which would be the best provider of the new privileges 360 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:09,599 and rights to those groups. A growing number of group 361 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:14,559 claims required new legislative and judicial decisions, new roles of 362 00:26:14,599 --> 00:26:17,000 all sorts to impose the existing law and to provide 363 00:26:17,039 --> 00:26:20,799 it with new and even more up to date interpretations. 364 00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:25,680 The legislatures and the court struggled tirelessly with the new 365 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:29,839 political reality, and often assume the initiatives themselves in order 366 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:34,359 to strengthen and legitimize their political role. Reversing this process 367 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,720 was impossible. Withdrawal of the state from some areas would 368 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:43,480 entail reducing the activity of the government, ministers, local officials, parliamentarians, 369 00:26:43,519 --> 00:26:46,839 provincial and regional governors, and others. And such a thing 370 00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,400 could not and is not to be permitted, because in 371 00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,960 democratic politics it is in nobody's interest. The democratic mechanism 372 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,599 itself was created not to limit political activity, but to 373 00:26:57,680 --> 00:27:02,000 keep it going at an ever higher speed, restless acting 374 00:27:02,039 --> 00:27:07,000 and reacting, amending and modifying, initiating and taking over, responding 375 00:27:07,039 --> 00:27:10,079 to new challenges, and challenging others. All of these have 376 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,039 been perceived by politicians, society, and the media as the 377 00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,839 proper conduct according to which the man of politics is 378 00:27:16,839 --> 00:27:27,279 to be evaluated. Man Naturally, it is sometimes difficult to 379 00:27:27,319 --> 00:27:30,000 see the relationship between the interests of a particular group 380 00:27:30,039 --> 00:27:32,559 and those of the state. Due to the constant activity 381 00:27:32,559 --> 00:27:36,799 of the politicians and political institutions, the state that does 382 00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:40,039 not engage in a flurry of activity or effectively convince 383 00:27:40,039 --> 00:27:43,960 its citizens that it will vigorously hustle and bustle to 384 00:27:44,039 --> 00:27:47,839 ensure better conditions for specific groups quickly passes into the 385 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,400 hands of new parties or new trustees of political power. 386 00:27:51,799 --> 00:27:55,920 The slogan to change and reform is repeated during every election, 387 00:27:56,279 --> 00:28:00,640 regardless of the economic and political situation. Oftentimes the changes 388 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:05,039 are superficial and unnecessary. They complicate simple things, replace better 389 00:28:05,079 --> 00:28:07,960 with worse, or lesser evil with a greater one. But 390 00:28:08,039 --> 00:28:11,319 everyone feels the urge to act, even if the activity 391 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,960 is phony. They just have to appear to be doing something, 392 00:28:18,279 --> 00:28:22,559 because this is all about progress. This is all about improvement. 393 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:28,920 This is all about a goal that changes constantly and 394 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:31,880 you never reach it there and you have special interest 395 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,200 groups that come in and go, well, we can't achieve 396 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:39,079 that goal unless we're given this, And politicians are willing 397 00:28:39,119 --> 00:28:46,359 to start a committee to look into that because it 398 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:50,519 not only increases their power, but it increases the need 399 00:28:50,599 --> 00:28:55,279 for them. It is also typical of our time that 400 00:28:55,319 --> 00:28:57,599 the growth of the state does not go along with 401 00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,759 belief as exhibited in the past miraculous power. The state 402 00:29:01,799 --> 00:29:04,039 has ceased to be associated with great hopes and is 403 00:29:04,039 --> 00:29:07,200 no longer viewed as a political object of worship. Rather, 404 00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:11,079 it appears that with its growing influence and progressive taking 405 00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:14,599 on of new responsibilities, the state has lost the respect 406 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:18,559 of its citizens. Demands directed at the state are nowadays 407 00:29:18,559 --> 00:29:21,880 expressed in a tone of exasperation and angry impatience, rather 408 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:26,640 than with belief in its charitable omnipotence. It can be 409 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,680 considered a paradox that a liberal democratic man expects more 410 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:35,920 and more from the state that he values less and less. 411 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:42,119 That's I mean. That is pretty much people who vote 412 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,240 for Democrat who vote for Democrats because of the Gibbs. 413 00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:51,359 That's it right there. They care nothing about the state, 414 00:29:52,279 --> 00:29:55,319 They don't value it in the least. They wouldn't even 415 00:29:55,400 --> 00:30:01,880 vote if it wasn't for Gibbs. And yet, surprisingly, despite 416 00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,960 this somewhat cynical view of today's politics and political institutions, 417 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,200 the faith in the absolute superiority of liberal democracy remains unshaken. 418 00:30:11,559 --> 00:30:15,160 The coalescing of liberal and democratic institutions that we observe today, 419 00:30:15,279 --> 00:30:18,640 which contributes to the notion that liberal democracy has no alternative, 420 00:30:19,119 --> 00:30:21,839 is nowhere seen more clearly than in the European Union. 421 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,559 The current EU doctrine explicitly states that it is the 422 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:32,400 ultimate system, a culminating emanation of European values, a final 423 00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:35,839 stage of history of the European peoples, worthy of absolute 424 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:39,880 protection and praise. The countries that break loose to the 425 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:43,559 process of the politicians who express reservations, no matter how timidly, 426 00:30:43,880 --> 00:30:50,000 are immediately subject to disproportionately harsh criticism. EU propaganda that 427 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,680 has has it that the ongoing political debate in Europe 428 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:56,599 for two and a half thousand years has come to 429 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,880 an end, and that Europeans have finally resolved all major 430 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,240 political problems, not only on an intellectual level or at 431 00:31:04,279 --> 00:31:07,279 the level of the institutions across not only on an 432 00:31:07,319 --> 00:31:10,599 intellectual level or at the level of the institutions across 433 00:31:10,599 --> 00:31:13,920 the continent and globally, the U has become the highest 434 00:31:14,079 --> 00:31:19,039 arbiter of engaging all political developments in the world, and, 435 00:31:19,079 --> 00:31:21,960 as the Soviet Union once did, the hope of the 436 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:28,839 oppressed peoples of all continents just put a nice new 437 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:34,480 wrapper on it. Not surprisingly, the EU has become a 438 00:31:34,519 --> 00:31:38,200 major regulating power in Europe, and its politicians proudly state 439 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:42,279 that they are responsible for seventy percent of the national legislation. 440 00:31:43,119 --> 00:31:45,839 This legislation is mostly a necessary in view of the 441 00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,839 majority of the citizens, but necessary from the perspective of 442 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:53,119 the European institutions. It confirms their power, regardless of whether 443 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,640 it is beneficial for the people or not. The process 444 00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:01,119 of legislation involves vast numbers of people, organizations and committees, 445 00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,640 and thus creates a colossal army, preparing the ground for 446 00:32:04,759 --> 00:32:12,240 subsequent legislation and so far very effectively neutralizing any critics. 447 00:32:13,279 --> 00:32:16,279 All this is submerged in a sea of propaganda and ideology. 448 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:19,400 Every piece of legislative regulation is presented not as a 449 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,799 simple organizational or administrative decision, but as a step towards 450 00:32:24,839 --> 00:32:29,519 something great for which we, the Europeans should be grateful. 451 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:36,240 Every directive, Council, document, resolution or report of the European 452 00:32:36,279 --> 00:32:40,759 Parliament must be accompanied by a boastful rhetoric proclaiming it 453 00:32:40,839 --> 00:32:44,920 to be another irresistible proof of the coming victory of 454 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:52,279 the European project is about you know, want to be 455 00:32:51,759 --> 00:32:54,240 the last the first one to stop clapping with Stalin. 456 00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:01,599 With these people, you can never stop clapping. Even what 457 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,440 seems to be an obvious failure is presented as a 458 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:09,440 resounding success. The year twenty twenty eleven, in which the 459 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,519 eurosystem collapsed was, in the words of the President of Europe, 460 00:33:13,559 --> 00:33:18,599 that is, the President of the Council, the anis horribilious, 461 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:25,480 and my latinus so about the annus horribilius, which he added, 462 00:33:25,799 --> 00:33:30,160 in the future will be considered the Annis mirabilis. The 463 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,440 communist politicians resorted to the same device. They also categorically 464 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:37,880 brushed away any suggestion that the system had an inherent weakness, 465 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,920 and kept busy convincing the citizens that a constant struggle 466 00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:49,480 with the permanent crisis only confirmed the system's superiority. Seven 467 00:33:50,759 --> 00:33:54,240 taken for granted that liberal democracy is an ultimate political solution, 468 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,039 had another consequence, perhaps more disconcerting than others, because it 469 00:33:59,119 --> 00:34:02,839 contradicted a fund the mental assumption of the liberal democratic doctrine. 470 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,279 As we recall, liberal democracy was said to differ from 471 00:34:06,319 --> 00:34:10,920 its utalitarian democracy in one crucial respect. In the former, 472 00:34:11,039 --> 00:34:14,599 the citizens could not be coerced to be free. It 473 00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:17,880 appears however, that the regime has not only been persistently 474 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:24,039 violating this principle exhibit, but exhibiting a powerful tendency to 475 00:34:24,079 --> 00:34:28,199 go in the opposite direction. What we have been observing 476 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:30,559 over the last decades is an emergence of a kind 477 00:34:30,599 --> 00:34:34,159 of liberal democratic general will. Whether the meaning of the 478 00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:37,559 term itself is identical with that used by Rousseau is 479 00:34:37,599 --> 00:34:42,519 of negligible significance. The fact is that we have been 480 00:34:42,599 --> 00:34:46,880 more and more exposed to an overwhelming liberal democratic omnipresence 481 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:50,400 which seems independent of the will of individuals, to which 482 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:55,440 they humbly submit and which they perceive is compatible with 483 00:34:55,480 --> 00:35:00,480 their innermost feelings. Reminds me of ted Kay's over socialzation. 484 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:07,800 This will permeates public and private lives, emanates from the media, advertising, films, 485 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:11,159 theater and visual arts, expresses itself through common wisdom and 486 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:18,239 persistently brazen stereotypes, though educational curricula from kindergarten, from kindergartens 487 00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:22,599 to universities, and through works of art. This liberal democratic 488 00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:26,960 general will. This liberal democratic general will does not recognize 489 00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:30,840 geographical or political borders, and although it does not have 490 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:34,239 a control center or an executive body, it seems to 491 00:35:34,280 --> 00:35:37,559 move forward relentlessly and to conquer new territories, as if 492 00:35:37,639 --> 00:35:41,599 under a single, well structured and well organized command following 493 00:35:41,639 --> 00:35:46,880 a superbly devised strategy. Legislatures that are free, independent and 494 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,440 accountable only to voters make laws and accordance with its requirements, 495 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:54,400 and the judges even more free, more independent, and accountable 496 00:35:54,440 --> 00:36:00,440 to no one issue adjudications as its most faithful servants. 497 00:36:01,159 --> 00:36:05,559 The liberal democratic general will reaches the area that Rousseau 498 00:36:05,679 --> 00:36:15,760 never dreamed of. Language, gestures and thoughts, remember Orwell wrote 499 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,719 nineteen eighty four. In nineteen forty eight, he wasn't talking 500 00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:23,280 about the Soviet Union. He was describing what he thought 501 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:31,320 England would become through people's actions and minds. This will ruthlessly, 502 00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:36,960 This will ruthlessly imposes liberal democratic patterns on everything and everyone, 503 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:41,320 including those who should firmly stand for alternative proposals. The 504 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,400 socialists and communists, while defending their position or trying to 505 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:46,760 prove that they are more democratic and liberal than the 506 00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:52,559 liberal Democrats, more open, pluralistic, tolerant, inclusive, and enthusiastically devoted 507 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,599 to entitlements of individuals and groups, more feminist minded and 508 00:36:56,719 --> 00:37:01,280 non discriminatory. The conservatives, who in principles should oppose. The 509 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:05,239 socialists and liberal Democrats quite sincerely argue that they too 510 00:37:05,559 --> 00:37:10,159 are open, pluralistic, tolerant and inclusive, dedicated to the entitlements 511 00:37:10,159 --> 00:37:13,960 of individuals and groups, nondiscriminatory, and even supportive of the 512 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:18,639 claims of feminists and homosexual activists. All in all, the 513 00:37:18,679 --> 00:37:22,000 liberal Democrats, the socialists, and the conservatives are unanimous in 514 00:37:22,039 --> 00:37:27,920 their condemnations. They condemn racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, intolerance, and 515 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,239 all the other sins listed in the Liberal Democratic catechism, 516 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:35,239 while also participating in an unimaginable stretching of the meaning 517 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:40,599 of these concepts and depriving them of any explanatory power. 518 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,880 So if you see people who especially groups that advocate 519 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:56,519 for absolute freedom, decrying racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, intolerance, if 520 00:37:56,519 --> 00:37:59,519 you see them decrying it, even if they say, well, 521 00:37:59,559 --> 00:38:02,519 we don't want to make a law against it, just 522 00:38:02,599 --> 00:38:08,119 remember where the spirit of that comes from. All thoughts 523 00:38:08,159 --> 00:38:10,800 in all modes of linguistic expression are moving within the 524 00:38:10,840 --> 00:38:15,159 circle of the same cliches, slogans, spells, ideas and arguments. 525 00:38:15,559 --> 00:38:17,880 All are involved in the grand design of which those 526 00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:20,239 who think and speak are not the authors, but with 527 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:25,880 whose authorship they deeply identify, or in case of doubt 528 00:38:26,239 --> 00:38:29,440 from which they do not find strength or reasons enough 529 00:38:29,599 --> 00:38:33,880 to distance themselves. The grand Design, its supporters say, should 530 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,679 be implemented at all costs, because it is believed to 531 00:38:36,719 --> 00:38:41,599 bring with itself freedom, autonomy, tolerance, pluralism, and all other 532 00:38:41,679 --> 00:38:47,719 liberal democratic treasures. Therefore, all barriers that block its coming 533 00:38:47,880 --> 00:38:50,400 can and must be broken down, also for the benefit 534 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:54,480 of those who put up these barriers. If abortion means freedom, 535 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,719 then we should raise the consciousness of those who think differently, 536 00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,480 force doctors to support this freedom, and silence priests so 537 00:39:01,519 --> 00:39:05,000 they do not interfere with it. If same sex marriage 538 00:39:05,039 --> 00:39:08,199 means freedom, we should then compel its opponents to accept 539 00:39:08,199 --> 00:39:10,679 it in silence fools who may have doubts about it. 540 00:39:11,199 --> 00:39:13,760 If political correctness is a necessity of life in the 541 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:19,920 liberal democratic society, than imposing it is after all, nothing 542 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:23,119 else but a measure of its emancipation. For all the 543 00:39:23,159 --> 00:39:26,000 groups that manage to capture this liberal phraseology and the 544 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,599 logic that underlies it, such as homosexuals and feminists, have 545 00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:33,000 exerted a disproportionate influence on the government, to the extent 546 00:39:33,039 --> 00:39:36,679 that the state institutions, including the courts, have taken upon 547 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,159 themselves the task of breaking the resistance of less conscious 548 00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:47,159 and more stubborn groups, that is, of coercing them to freedom. 549 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:53,199 We're we're back to Rousseau. When they seek to break 550 00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:59,320 you of if you're against gay marriage, if you're against abortion, 551 00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:07,000 they're coercing you, or they're trying to convince you or 552 00:40:07,039 --> 00:40:12,360 to shame you. This is coercion to freedom. They're forcing 553 00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:20,280 you to be free. So obvious. Right today, those who 554 00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,960 write and speak not only face more limitations than they 555 00:40:23,079 --> 00:40:25,880 used to, but all the institutions and communities that traditionally 556 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,519 stood in the way of this coercion to freedom are 557 00:40:28,559 --> 00:40:32,599 being dismantled. As in all utopias, so in a liberal democracy, 558 00:40:32,599 --> 00:40:35,079 it is believed that the irrational residues of the past 559 00:40:35,119 --> 00:40:38,119 should be removed. Over the last few decades, we have 560 00:40:38,159 --> 00:40:40,639 observed legislation that has been passed in the name of 561 00:40:40,679 --> 00:40:44,119 freedom and of liberal democracy, but which led with little 562 00:40:44,119 --> 00:40:48,480 social resistance, to a considerable limitation of freedom. Parody and 563 00:40:48,599 --> 00:40:51,599 quota regulations are a case in point. Although they are 564 00:40:51,639 --> 00:40:56,880 typical egalitarian measures and as such inherently inimical to freedom, 565 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,840 they have been largely accepted as a political imperative of 566 00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:05,079 a liberal society. One cannot nowadays appoint an executive or 567 00:41:05,079 --> 00:41:10,119 elected representatives, be it in politics, business, or art, without 568 00:41:10,119 --> 00:41:14,199 a prior selection according to sex, ethnicity, or some other 569 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:19,079 non relevant criterion. Another type of legislation extremely dangerous and 570 00:41:19,159 --> 00:41:22,639 also illustrating coercions of freedom, relates to what has been 571 00:41:22,639 --> 00:41:27,639 called hate speech, and still another two domestic violence. These 572 00:41:27,679 --> 00:41:31,280 phrases tend to incriminate more and more acts of conduct 573 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,760 and of speech, allowing for further drastic intervention by the 574 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:39,159 government and courts in family life, the media, public institutions, 575 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,960 and schools. When such laws were being passed in some 576 00:41:44,119 --> 00:41:47,639 European countries some time ago, an immediate reaction was far 577 00:41:47,679 --> 00:41:51,559 from favorable. Many people in institutions, especially in the United States, 578 00:41:51,639 --> 00:41:55,159 voiced an opinion that such measures were Orwellian in nature, 579 00:41:55,480 --> 00:41:58,039 in the sense that the libertarian rhetoric was used to 580 00:41:58,119 --> 00:42:02,719 cover up coercion, making people believe that freedom is slavery 581 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:10,000 and slavery is freedom. Oh, those libertarians just the best dupes. 582 00:42:11,119 --> 00:42:16,480 They come up with ideas and phrases, and people in 583 00:42:16,559 --> 00:42:23,800 power just steal them and mangle them and turn them 584 00:42:23,800 --> 00:42:30,920 into something else. Oh, thank you so much libertarians. Later on, 585 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:37,239 the adjective orwellian was dropped, and more and more countries, 586 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:43,239 including the United States, adopted similar regulations spontaneously carried by 587 00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:46,159 the general will, with more and more support by the people, 588 00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:53,079 or those who claimed to claim to represent the people's will. Anyhow, 589 00:42:53,079 --> 00:42:55,760 the citizens did not protest, probably having been convinced that 590 00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,440 they were witnessing a global civilization of freedom in the making. 591 00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:04,199 A similar pressure is exerted on education in general, the 592 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:08,199 result being a rigorous conformity of thought and conduct, all 593 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:13,119 naturally in the name of empowerment of students and teachers. Consequently, teachers, 594 00:43:13,159 --> 00:43:15,880 like parents, can do less and less, although most of 595 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:18,960 them probably think that the changes are inevitable and that 596 00:43:19,079 --> 00:43:22,280 never before did they enjoy so much freedom. Their real 597 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:25,880 power has been shifting to government officials, who, ostensibly, in 598 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,239 order to empower young people, decide how their minds should 599 00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:33,000 be formed, free from the potential subversive influence of teachers 600 00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,519 and parents. But then, both teachers and parents have ceased 601 00:43:37,519 --> 00:43:40,400 to rebel because over time they have become part of 602 00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:44,360 the great universal liberal democratic will, bragging about their sincere 603 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:49,079 and deep devotion to it. This is what we call 604 00:43:49,119 --> 00:43:57,000 the postwar consensus or the Boomer truth. Regime, coercion, and 605 00:43:57,039 --> 00:44:01,480 spontaneity overlap in an almost perfect symbios and if there 606 00:44:01,519 --> 00:44:03,880 is still someone who has not resigned himselves to it, 607 00:44:04,119 --> 00:44:06,559 he will soon be called to order by the government 608 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,679 and the courts. The universities are undergoing the same process, 609 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:14,239 which is most unfortunate because they were regarded for centuries 610 00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:18,039 as free industries of the human mind. Today any such 611 00:44:18,079 --> 00:44:23,960 belief is clearly in discord with zealoich. Today any such 612 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:27,920 belief is clearly in discord with reality. The entire education 613 00:44:28,039 --> 00:44:30,960 process has been systematically standardized to make it as close 614 00:44:30,960 --> 00:44:34,039 as possible to the liberal democratic model, in which group 615 00:44:34,119 --> 00:44:38,440 rights are carefully watched. Detailed verification and appeal procedures have 616 00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:42,119 been established, and the principle of equality is increasingly more 617 00:44:42,639 --> 00:44:49,559 influential in academic community relations. The humanities and social sciences 618 00:44:49,599 --> 00:44:53,079 have long since declared a keen interest in participating in 619 00:44:53,119 --> 00:44:56,639 the process of liberal democratic changes, and are vigorously supported 620 00:44:57,079 --> 00:45:01,440 in their actions by ministries of education, political associations, and 621 00:45:01,599 --> 00:45:08,280 supranational institutions. The liberal democratic jargon which so painfully dominates 622 00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,840 political life also invaded academic life, which slowly became a 623 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:17,159 reflection of the entire public sphere. Universities are increasingly eager 624 00:45:17,199 --> 00:45:20,400 to introduce the liberal democratic regime, which makes the vast 625 00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:24,320 majority of academics convinced that they operate an institution that 626 00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,559 enjoys the greatest freedom in its history, but in fact 627 00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:31,920 freedom is in retreat. The emergence of liberal democracy at 628 00:45:32,000 --> 00:45:37,679 educational institutions led, as elsewhere, to considerable restrictions of the 629 00:45:37,800 --> 00:45:43,480 very liberty and that universities enjoyed previously. These developments are 630 00:45:43,519 --> 00:45:47,679 undermining a long and admirable academic tradition. Of course, in 631 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:52,480 the post communist countries, not much was left to be undermined, 632 00:45:52,519 --> 00:45:54,960 because the old regime managed to deal with the academic 633 00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:59,639 tradition very effectively, with no small participation of the academics themselves. 634 00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:04,519 Remnants of tradition were occasionally still invoked as a weapon 635 00:46:04,559 --> 00:46:10,039 against the excessive intrusion of the communist government. Whatever else 636 00:46:10,079 --> 00:46:12,239 remained of the old days was white cleaned by the 637 00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:16,280 new order. In an age of an increasing number of rights, 638 00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:21,559 continuous group demands, equality and officially hunted deviations from the 639 00:46:21,639 --> 00:46:26,280 established political line. Academic tradition did not stand the chance. 640 00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,960 The universities began to resemble businesses on the other hand, 641 00:46:30,199 --> 00:46:34,599 and liberal democratic political structures on the other on one hand, 642 00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:39,760 and liberal democratic political destruction structures on the other. Let 643 00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,840 us note here the disappearance of the academic eccentric, a 644 00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,960 well known personality for central centuries, almost inseparably associated with 645 00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:50,440 the academic tradition and its peculiar atmosphere of the freedom 646 00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:55,000 of inquiry and inimitable relations between teachers and students. It 647 00:46:55,039 --> 00:46:58,039 is not only the ominous presence of political correctness that 648 00:46:58,079 --> 00:47:01,480 makes the life of a dissonant unbearable. The functioning of 649 00:47:01,519 --> 00:47:05,880 the university itself has become so heavily controlled by procedures, rules, 650 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:10,440 and regulations that all deviations from the routine are strictly controlled. 651 00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:15,079 If the legendary professors of old, whose unconventional behavior persists 652 00:47:15,119 --> 00:47:19,559 in real or imaginary stories to this very day, suddenly 653 00:47:19,599 --> 00:47:22,960 by some miracle managed to find themselves at today's universities, 654 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:27,360 they would soon be coerced to submission or disposed of 655 00:47:27,599 --> 00:47:33,119 as unruly troublemakers. The coercions of freedom also occurs in 656 00:47:33,199 --> 00:47:39,639 the supernatural supernational institutions, and particularly in the European Union, which, 657 00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:43,400 as I previously noted, considers itself the ultimate product of 658 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:47,320 the liberal democratic idea. Its coercid policies are not something 659 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,840 that happens by accident. They derive from the heart of 660 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:53,360 the European Union and from the logic of integration as 661 00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:57,559 it is conceived today. European institutions are supposed to represent 662 00:47:57,599 --> 00:48:02,000 European society, which theoretically seems understandable. The problem is that 663 00:48:02,039 --> 00:48:07,639 the EU institutions exist, whereas European society does not. Such 664 00:48:07,639 --> 00:48:10,960 a society will, we are told, come into existence sometime 665 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:13,199 in the future. But this belief is a part of 666 00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:15,920 the EU creed, for which evidence is, to say the 667 00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:25,840 least shaky, because people like their culture. But once we 668 00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:28,840 accept the basic premise that the existing institutions may act 669 00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:31,519 for and in the name of the society that is 670 00:48:31,559 --> 00:48:35,519 believed to emerge in the future, we give them extraordinary powers, 671 00:48:35,559 --> 00:48:38,960 far exceeding those that are granted within the framework of 672 00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:45,119 an ordinary society. Those institutions tend to ignore the rules 673 00:48:45,159 --> 00:48:49,039 followed in nation states, whose governments cannot ignore them because 674 00:48:49,079 --> 00:48:53,280 they are answerable to real societies with real identities and loyalties, 675 00:48:53,519 --> 00:49:01,159 not to some fictional future future of future Abelia. Yeah, 676 00:49:01,199 --> 00:49:05,880 that's a good word. The European institutions ignore these rules 677 00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,800 out of the conviction that they that by doing so, 678 00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:12,880 they represent what serve European society's best and what those 679 00:49:12,880 --> 00:49:16,079 societies really want, even if they are temporarily deluded by 680 00:49:16,119 --> 00:49:22,320 the unreason of national particularisms. The European Union, in other words, 681 00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:25,320 believes itself to be a vanguard in relation to the 682 00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:28,000 rest of the population ahead of them and recognizing what 683 00:49:28,119 --> 00:49:30,880 is real and what is fictional, and that, on their belief, 684 00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,199 it is pursuing a goal whose value the public will 685 00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:39,119 understand only in the future. A popular EU maxim that 686 00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:42,519 is striking in its stupidity but repeated as a sign 687 00:49:42,559 --> 00:49:46,280 of great wisdom is that integration is like riding a bicycle. 688 00:49:46,599 --> 00:49:50,280 You have to keep going otherwise you will fall. It 689 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:53,880 thus assumes that two groups exist in the EU, one 690 00:49:53,880 --> 00:49:56,880 that knows the final goal and that it is imperative 691 00:49:56,920 --> 00:49:59,360 for the whole process to be carried out, and one 692 00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:02,159 that is not cognizant of the final goal, does not 693 00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:06,000 understand it and rejects it to the detriment of itself 694 00:50:06,039 --> 00:50:10,440 and others. This second group represents resistance, and this resistance 695 00:50:10,519 --> 00:50:13,480 must be overcome for the sake of the whole, something 696 00:50:13,519 --> 00:50:17,800 the group will thoroughly understand over time when it gets 697 00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:22,599 over its own peculiarity and comprehends the full benefits of integration. 698 00:50:23,480 --> 00:50:25,920 Here we encounter a replication of the well known pattern 699 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,920 found in the theory and practice of communism. On the 700 00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:31,239 one hand, there is a party which knows the ultimate 701 00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:34,880 all of socialism, identifies with it completely, and understands the 702 00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:37,440 need for its existence. On the other are the real 703 00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:41,280 people who are not fully awake of, not fully aware 704 00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:43,480 of what is good for them, and who should be 705 00:50:43,599 --> 00:50:48,039 firmly guided toward the final goal despite their posed resistance. 706 00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:51,199 The emergence of such a pattern of thought and practice 707 00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,440 at the European level, for example, on the occasion of 708 00:50:54,519 --> 00:50:58,440 explicitly and unjustly forcing the Lisbon Treaty on all societies, 709 00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:01,840 shows that the coercion to freedom has gone very far, 710 00:51:02,639 --> 00:51:09,480 so far that it has eliminated several retreat mechanisms. There 711 00:51:09,519 --> 00:51:11,559 is no indication that the EU will break up with 712 00:51:11,639 --> 00:51:16,559 these self destructive and demoralizing practices. The EU mind, yes, 713 00:51:16,679 --> 00:51:19,480 there is such a thing generated such a mental habit 714 00:51:19,559 --> 00:51:23,199 that every descent is considered a blasphemous assault in the 715 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:25,840 very idea of the European Union and the noble principles 716 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,039 that constitute it. Just as in socialism, every descent was 717 00:51:29,079 --> 00:51:31,719 an incomprehensible act of treason that did not deserve to 718 00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:35,960 be left unpunished. The European Union has become the guardian 719 00:51:36,079 --> 00:51:41,360 of all diseases of the super national liberal democracy, while 720 00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,000 itself being the most vivid illustration of these diseases. It 721 00:51:45,079 --> 00:51:49,320 is diseases it has led its institutions actions that human 722 00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:53,119 minds to such a level of dogmatization that any future 723 00:51:53,119 --> 00:51:58,079 remedial movements aimed at restoring freedom and reason will have 724 00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:01,920 conflicted with it to a higher or lesser degree, in 725 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,880 the course of which the EU itself will increasingly sentence 726 00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:08,960 itself to play the role of the encion regime. It 727 00:52:09,039 --> 00:52:12,920 is hard to imagine that, while producing such so much 728 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:17,480 regulatory power, the EU would suddenly dismantle it and comes 729 00:52:17,519 --> 00:52:22,559 to the conclusion that integrational abstinence would better serve peace 730 00:52:22,679 --> 00:52:27,519 and cooperation than the coercion to freedom. The emergence of 731 00:52:27,559 --> 00:52:31,280 such beliefs in the EU sphere would encourage a European 732 00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:36,880 pers droika something that the European Union might not survive, right, 733 00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:40,199 And that's the end of chapter two. If you take 734 00:52:40,199 --> 00:52:44,320 away anything from this, the concept of coercions of freedom. 735 00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:49,119 I think that is one of the most insightful things 736 00:52:49,159 --> 00:52:54,199 from chapter two and insightful things of this book. And 737 00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:58,960 it's something that you can I think you can even 738 00:52:59,039 --> 00:53:03,719 explain it to your normy family. They should be able 739 00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:08,400 to understand what it means. Now we know that they'll 740 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:09,960 be like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense and 741 00:53:10,000 --> 00:53:11,480 the next day and do not care anything about it, 742 00:53:11,519 --> 00:53:19,199 but okay someday. So that's it. I'll be back with 743 00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:22,760 part five and we'll start chapter three in a couple 744 00:53:22,800 --> 00:53:26,320 of days and until then, to carry yourselves. See you 745 00:53:26,559 --> 00:53:28,400 and thanks for tuning in.