[Applause]
one of my earliest childhood memories is
my parents grandpa’s relative sitting
around the kitchen table and telling
jokes I didn’t understand at all and the
reason is that they grew up in communism
and I would tell these old political
jokes which had references to obese
people that I didn’t know and they also
had the sense of you know bitter
political irony and a sense of
powerlessness that I in my life couldn’t
quite relate to but I have to say over
the last couple of years as we’ve seen
the rise of populism all around the
world as we’ve seen Britain go to
Black’s it as we’ve seen the election of
Donald Trump I started to remember some
of those old jerks so I’ll tell you one
of them today
it’s from the Soviet Union but it’s easy
to understand a man is worker walking
home after work late at night and he
sees another guy who’s completely drunk
standing by the side of the road farang
out his guts into regatta and as soon as
he sees this guy his face brightens up
he walks over he puts a hand on his
shoulder and he says my dear comrade
I completely grieve your political
analysis you see I most of you in this
room most of the people watching this
online we’ve spent most of our lives in
ordinary times in ordinary times the
stakes of politics are high they always
are but we have an understanding that we
can figure out our disagreements through
peaceful democratic means that if we
fight for a just cause and we’re
defeated then justice isn’t declined
forever it might be deferred until
tomorrow but if we lose this battle
there’s always another way to win the
fight and my fear is that we’re now
entering an era of it’s quite different
we’ve seen the election in countries
which had gained the freedom when the
Berlin Wall fell a few hundred years
from now they build this vibrant
imperfect but free liberal democracies
but now in Poland and Hungary we’ve seen
the election of people
already abolished the independence of
most of a country’s courts who’ve
undermined the freedom of the media
who’ve brought it to a point where the
opposition no longer knows whether they
have a fair chance of unseating the
government in the next election in
Western Europe we see here in Germany
the rise of a far-right party that’s
likely to be in the Bundestag my
national parliament for the first time
since world war ii in france marine
lepen didn’t win but 2017 presidential
elections but she got 33% of the vote
twice as much as her father did 15 years
ago and in the United States we now have
a man in the White House who has deep
and evident disregard for most basic
norms and rules of liberal democracy now
all of this didn’t come as a complete
surprise to me because over the last few
years as a political scientist I’ve been
working on people’s attitudes towards
democracy on the deep disenchantment
they have not just with particular
governments but with a political system
itself and some of the things that I
found were quite shocking in the United
States for example when you ask older
people born in the 1930s and 1940s how
important it is to them to live in a
democracy over two-thirds say really
important essential when you ask
Millennials born since 1980
less than one-third say that it’s
crucial to them to live in a democracy
even when you ask about pretty radical
alternatives to democracy there’s a
growing number of people who endorse
those twenty years ago one in 16
Americans said that they liked the idea
of army rule today it’s one and six and
it’s not just about the United States in
Europe to support for a strongman leader
who doesn’t have to bother with
parliament and elections as rising in
Germany one in six Germans believed that
20 years ago now it’s 1 and 3 in the
United Kingdom and was 1 in 4 20 years
ago and now every second Brit says for
he likes the idea of a strong man leader
so I think we need to change our
understanding of a political situation
we have we’re now living in
extraordinary times in extraordinary
times the stakes of politics aren’t just
high
they’re existential if justice is
deferred today it may be out of reach
indefinitely
and if we lose the next few decisive
battles but we might lose the whole
fight so one important question is how
this came about because to know what we
do we have to have an understanding of
the causes of its popular streisand I
want to say this a little bit about that
the first is economic stagnation I’m in
stagnation of living standards for
ordinary people all through the history
of democratic stability we’ve seen a
rapid increase in living standards for
average people that’s no longer the case
in the United States from 1935 for 1930
to 1960 the standard of living of the
average American doubled from 1960 to
1985 it doubled again and since 1985
it’s essentially been stagnant mat
really changes how people think about
politics I never laughed politicians
been ever completely trusted them but
they used to say you know what I’m doing
twice as well as my parents where my
kids are going to do twice as well as me
let’s give him the benefit of a doubt
and now they’re saying you know what
I’ve worked really hard all of my life
and I don’t have much to show for it and
my kids are probably going to do worse
than me so let’s throw some against
the wall and see what sticks the second
thing is about identity I think we
underestimate the degree to its most
democracies were founded on a
mono-ethnic basis in Germany in Poland
and Hungary in France in Italy all of
those countries claimed that they
descended from a common ethnic stock
when they were founded and over the last
decades we’ve had lots of immigration we
suicides have become a lot more
pluralist and immigrants my descendants
are now demanding equality and full
inclusion and when
and some people are very happy about
that and they welcome that but some
people are resentful against ed in their
push against it and that’s one of the
drivers of this populist anger the
United States has always been
multi-ethnic they’ve never been
mono-ethnic and the way that European
nations have claimed to be but they are
– there used to be a strict racial
hierarchy and that is also slowly being
overcome as more racial equality again
there’s lots of Americans who embrace
that who welcomed that we celebrate that
but there are some who push against that
who were worried about that as we’ve
seen tragically in places like
Charlottesville’s last weeks and months
and a third big transformation of course
is social media now five years ago
everybody Ford about Twitter and
Facebook was wonderful for democracy now
everybody thinks that for Facebook and
Twitter a short to destroy democracy I
think it’s more complicated than that
what they do is to close the
technological gap between elites and
everybody else in some places that’s
great and a dictatorship it gives you
opposition more tools to challenge
dictatorial rulers but in democracy it
also gives hateful extreme xenophobic
racist voices much greater ability to
influence for political system so those
are three big causes economic stagnation
a challenge to our identity and the rise
of social media I think a lot more about
that in my book the people versus
democracy but what I want to focus on
today is what can we do about all of
this how can we actually save our
democracies and the easy answer is to
say well I don’t know that we can do
very much the fire of it’s raging is so
huge it’s going on in so many different
countries its causes are so complicated
in each of us what can we do I was
feeling a little disheartened about our
ability to actually affect change a few
weeks ago and I happened to listen to
his great talk by almost always the
wonderful novelist who is saying there
is a big fire raging that’s right
and each of us only has a little spoon
and all we can do is to fill that little
spoon with a little bit of water and go
to the fire and that won’t do very much
if I go of my spoon to the fire it’s not
going to change anything but if all of
us do that if a whole mass of us goes
and do that that won’t together we might
actually be able to
extinguish the fire so today I want to
suggest four ways in which you can carry
that spoon for things so that might mean
concretely
in the context of liberal democracy the
first thing to do especially in places
where populace have already taken over
like in Poland or Hungary like in the
United States is to go out and protest
one of the core claims that the populace
make is that they alone stand for the
people but the real people all support
them of it anybody who disagrees with
them is a traitor they’re not a real
American or Paul or Hungarian and so the
best way to challenge that is to go out
in the streets and show from millions of
people in the public squares that no the
populace do not get to speak for us and
that’s worked historically in South
Korea last year two million people came
out to Seoul Plaza to purchase the
corrupt president she’s now in jail the
second thing we can do is a little less
popular it’s to actually get involved in
ordinary boring politics and party
politics I know from our research but a
lot of young people don’t like and don’t
trust traditional politics but in the
end the best way to beat a populist is
still to beat them at the polls so go
and join a political party go and
campaign for a candidate you like even
if you’re not perfect and if you really
can’t find any candidate you like well
go and run for office yourself the third
thing you can do is to change the kind
of policies we pursue a lot of
politicians want to say there’s so many
big forces going on globalization
automation there’s not much we can do
but that’s not true we can still design
a set of economic policies that make
sure but the bulk of economic growth
actually arrives in the wallets of
ordinary people the nation-state can
still be open to the world and yet
ensure that it helps its citizens be in
control of their lives and we can build
an inclusive patriotism in which we
emphasize what device
what unites us across racial and
religious lines rather than what divides
us but we have to go and make those
suggestions do that research and push it
on to political parties that’s hard work
we need to do it the fourth thing is in
some ways most important to me look all
the way through the history of political
thinking from Plato to Aristotle from
Machiavelli to Rousseau
political thinkers were obsessed with
the idea of educating citizens of
transmitting political virtue from one
generation to the next of explaining why
we care about certain things to enjoy to
new generations and this is something
that in democratic societies we pay lip
service to every now and again but
because we’ve assumed that our
democracies will always be stable they
were not in danger we haven’t taken it
very seriously of late and that’s
something that all of us can do all of
us can go and talk to our children to
our nieces and nephews if you don’t have
children if you’re a teacher to your
students if you’re a writer to your
readers we commit them to our basic
values explain why liberal democracy
where individual rights and the rule of
the people ideals were fighting for
look everybody spoon is different
everybody will want to attack different
parts of a fire none of us can
accomplish much on our own but if we all
work together we can actually go a long
way towards extinguishing that fire now
this is sort of mayor more or less where
a normal TED talk would end right I’ve
done a little call to action I’ve said
something hopefully somewhat inspiring
but I want to be honest I can’t promise
you a happy end I can’t promise you but
everything will turn out to be great it
may be that the rise of populism
is going to turn from a populist moment
to a populist age but we can’t stop and
so I’ve been thinking a lot about a very
old story
back from the Roman Empire and includes
a senator philosopher and a famous
dictator Nero at the heart of his rule
Nero
demanded a famous Roman senator to go
and dance in his games a huge
humiliation and way of showing fealty
and the senator didn’t know what to do
so he went to a philosopher to ask for
advice and he said look if I go and
partake in the game I bring shame upon
my family and I endorse Nero but if I
don’t he’ll probably have my head cut
off what should I do and you know he
expected with loss of to say well he
should do the right thing he’s a
philosopher right of course you should
do the right thing stand up for what’s
right don’t go to the games
but if philosopher didn’t say that he
said look the way you asking the
question maze will go and take part in
the games
I’m Ascenta was flummoxed he said really
so why don’t you go take part in the
games what are you talking about and
philosophy explain to say look once you
start thinking about those kinds of
things once you start doing the sums
once you start considering should I go
should I not go you’ve already lost your
character if you ask me is it gonna have
good consequences if I go should I
rather live and die of course you should
rather live and die of course pain is
better than pleasure is better than pain
so sure though I am not even thinking
about it and I found that advice a
little puzzling but story a little
puzzling but it speaks to me in a deep
way because I think it shows that we
need to commit ourselves now while we’re
not yet in danger while we can still
speak up freely for our rights when to
commit ourselves in two ways when you
commit ourselves to make sure we never
get into a situation we’re doing the
right thing it’s as dangerous as it was
for that senator back in Rome and we
also need to commit ourselves to the
courage and the virtue that it takes an
extraordinary times to stand up for the
right thing in the right moment I’m
going to think about that now because if
we only start thinking about it once we
face real danger it’s likely going to be
too late with
to do the sums and we’re going to be
like that senator who ends up dancing in
the games so I want each of you to take
a moment if you agree with the
importance of liberal democracy all the
things I’ve been talking about to take a
pledge not to me not to anybody else to
yourself that you will start carrying
the little spoon to the fire as much as
you can but even when it starts to feel
dangerous to carry the spoon even when
it starts to feel futile you’ll do what
you can to defend liberal democracy
thank you
[Applause]
one of my earliest childhood memories is
my parents grandpa’s relative sitting
around the kitchen table and telling
jokes I didn’t understand at all and the
reason is that they grew up in communism
and I would tell these old political
jokes which had references to obese
people that I didn’t know and they also
had the sense of you know bitter
political irony and a sense of
powerlessness that I in my life couldn’t
quite relate to but I have to say over
the last couple of years as we’ve seen
the rise of populism all around the
world as we’ve seen Britain go to
Black’s it as we’ve seen the election of
Donald Trump I started to remember some
of those old jerks so I’ll tell you one
of them today
it’s from the Soviet Union but it’s easy
to understand a man is worker walking
home after work late at night and he
sees another guy who’s completely drunk
standing by the side of the road farang
out his guts into regatta and as soon as
he sees this guy his face brightens up
he walks over he puts a hand on his
shoulder and he says my dear comrade
I completely grieve your political
analysis you see I most of you in this
room most of the people watching this
online we’ve spent most of our lives in
ordinary times in ordinary times the
stakes of politics are high they always
are but we have an understanding that we
can figure out our disagreements through
peaceful democratic means that if we
fight for a just cause and we’re
defeated then justice isn’t declined
forever it might be deferred until
tomorrow but if we lose this battle
there’s always another way to win the
fight and my fear is that we’re now
entering an era of it’s quite different
we’ve seen the election in countries
which had gained the freedom when the
Berlin Wall fell a few hundred years
from now they build this vibrant
imperfect but free liberal democracies
but now in Poland and Hungary we’ve seen
the election of people
already abolished the independence of
most of a country’s courts who’ve
undermined the freedom of the media
who’ve brought it to a point where the
opposition no longer knows whether they
have a fair chance of unseating the
government in the next election in
Western Europe we see here in Germany
the rise of a far-right party that’s
likely to be in the Bundestag my
national parliament for the first time
since world war ii in france marine
lepen didn’t win but 2017 presidential
elections but she got 33% of the vote
twice as much as her father did 15 years
ago and in the United States we now have
a man in the White House who has deep
and evident disregard for most basic
norms and rules of liberal democracy now
all of this didn’t come as a complete
surprise to me because over the last few
years as a political scientist I’ve been
working on people’s attitudes towards
democracy on the deep disenchantment
they have not just with particular
governments but with a political system
itself and some of the things that I
found were quite shocking in the United
States for example when you ask older
people born in the 1930s and 1940s how
important it is to them to live in a
democracy over two-thirds say really
important essential when you ask
Millennials born since 1980
less than one-third say that it’s
crucial to them to live in a democracy
even when you ask about pretty radical
alternatives to democracy there’s a
growing number of people who endorse
those twenty years ago one in 16
Americans said that they liked the idea
of army rule today it’s one and six and
it’s not just about the United States in
Europe to support for a strongman leader
who doesn’t have to bother with
parliament and elections as rising in
Germany one in six Germans believed that
20 years ago now it’s 1 and 3 in the
United Kingdom and was 1 in 4 20 years
ago and now every second Brit says for
he likes the idea of a strong man leader
so I think we need to change our
understanding of a political situation
we have we’re now living in
extraordinary times in extraordinary
times the stakes of politics aren’t just
high
they’re existential if justice is
deferred today it may be out of reach
indefinitely
and if we lose the next few decisive
battles but we might lose the whole
fight so one important question is how
this came about because to know what we
do we have to have an understanding of
the causes of its popular streisand I
want to say this a little bit about that
the first is economic stagnation I’m in
stagnation of living standards for
ordinary people all through the history
of democratic stability we’ve seen a
rapid increase in living standards for
average people that’s no longer the case
in the United States from 1935 for 1930
to 1960 the standard of living of the
average American doubled from 1960 to
1985 it doubled again and since 1985
it’s essentially been stagnant mat
really changes how people think about
politics I never laughed politicians
been ever completely trusted them but
they used to say you know what I’m doing
twice as well as my parents where my
kids are going to do twice as well as me
let’s give him the benefit of a doubt
and now they’re saying you know what
I’ve worked really hard all of my life
and I don’t have much to show for it and
my kids are probably going to do worse
than me so let’s throw some against
the wall and see what sticks the second
thing is about identity I think we
underestimate the degree to its most
democracies were founded on a
mono-ethnic basis in Germany in Poland
and Hungary in France in Italy all of
those countries claimed that they
descended from a common ethnic stock
when they were founded and over the last
decades we’ve had lots of immigration we
suicides have become a lot more
pluralist and immigrants my descendants
are now demanding equality and full
inclusion and when
and some people are very happy about
that and they welcome that but some
people are resentful against ed in their
push against it and that’s one of the
drivers of this populist anger the
United States has always been
multi-ethnic they’ve never been
mono-ethnic and the way that European
nations have claimed to be but they are
– there used to be a strict racial
hierarchy and that is also slowly being
overcome as more racial equality again
there’s lots of Americans who embrace
that who welcomed that we celebrate that
but there are some who push against that
who were worried about that as we’ve
seen tragically in places like
Charlottesville’s last weeks and months
and a third big transformation of course
is social media now five years ago
everybody Ford about Twitter and
Facebook was wonderful for democracy now
everybody thinks that for Facebook and
Twitter a short to destroy democracy I
think it’s more complicated than that
what they do is to close the
technological gap between elites and
everybody else in some places that’s
great and a dictatorship it gives you
opposition more tools to challenge
dictatorial rulers but in democracy it
also gives hateful extreme xenophobic
racist voices much greater ability to
influence for political system so those
are three big causes economic stagnation
a challenge to our identity and the rise
of social media I think a lot more about
that in my book the people versus
democracy but what I want to focus on
today is what can we do about all of
this how can we actually save our
democracies and the easy answer is to
say well I don’t know that we can do
very much the fire of it’s raging is so
huge it’s going on in so many different
countries its causes are so complicated
in each of us what can we do I was
feeling a little disheartened about our
ability to actually affect change a few
weeks ago and I happened to listen to
his great talk by almost always the
wonderful novelist who is saying there
is a big fire raging that’s right
and each of us only has a little spoon
and all we can do is to fill that little
spoon with a little bit of water and go
to the fire and that won’t do very much
if I go of my spoon to the fire it’s not
going to change anything but if all of
us do that if a whole mass of us goes
and do that that won’t together we might
actually be able to
extinguish the fire so today I want to
suggest four ways in which you can carry
that spoon for things so that might mean
concretely
in the context of liberal democracy the
first thing to do especially in places
where populace have already taken over
like in Poland or Hungary like in the
United States is to go out and protest
one of the core claims that the populace
make is that they alone stand for the
people but the real people all support
them of it anybody who disagrees with
them is a traitor they’re not a real
American or Paul or Hungarian and so the
best way to challenge that is to go out
in the streets and show from millions of
people in the public squares that no the
populace do not get to speak for us and
that’s worked historically in South
Korea last year two million people came
out to Seoul Plaza to purchase the
corrupt president she’s now in jail the
second thing we can do is a little less
popular it’s to actually get involved in
ordinary boring politics and party
politics I know from our research but a
lot of young people don’t like and don’t
trust traditional politics but in the
end the best way to beat a populist is
still to beat them at the polls so go
and join a political party go and
campaign for a candidate you like even
if you’re not perfect and if you really
can’t find any candidate you like well
go and run for office yourself the third
thing you can do is to change the kind
of policies we pursue a lot of
politicians want to say there’s so many
big forces going on globalization
automation there’s not much we can do
but that’s not true we can still design
a set of economic policies that make
sure but the bulk of economic growth
actually arrives in the wallets of
ordinary people the nation-state can
still be open to the world and yet
ensure that it helps its citizens be in
control of their lives and we can build
an inclusive patriotism in which we
emphasize what device
what unites us across racial and
religious lines rather than what divides
us but we have to go and make those
suggestions do that research and push it
on to political parties that’s hard work
we need to do it the fourth thing is in
some ways most important to me look all
the way through the history of political
thinking from Plato to Aristotle from
Machiavelli to Rousseau
political thinkers were obsessed with
the idea of educating citizens of
transmitting political virtue from one
generation to the next of explaining why
we care about certain things to enjoy to
new generations and this is something
that in democratic societies we pay lip
service to every now and again but
because we’ve assumed that our
democracies will always be stable they
were not in danger we haven’t taken it
very seriously of late and that’s
something that all of us can do all of
us can go and talk to our children to
our nieces and nephews if you don’t have
children if you’re a teacher to your
students if you’re a writer to your
readers we commit them to our basic
values explain why liberal democracy
where individual rights and the rule of
the people ideals were fighting for
look everybody spoon is different
everybody will want to attack different
parts of a fire none of us can
accomplish much on our own but if we all
work together we can actually go a long
way towards extinguishing that fire now
this is sort of mayor more or less where
a normal TED talk would end right I’ve
done a little call to action I’ve said
something hopefully somewhat inspiring
but I want to be honest I can’t promise
you a happy end I can’t promise you but
everything will turn out to be great it
may be that the rise of populism
is going to turn from a populist moment
to a populist age but we can’t stop and
so I’ve been thinking a lot about a very
old story
back from the Roman Empire and includes
a senator philosopher and a famous
dictator Nero at the heart of his rule
Nero
demanded a famous Roman senator to go
and dance in his games a huge
humiliation and way of showing fealty
and the senator didn’t know what to do
so he went to a philosopher to ask for
advice and he said look if I go and
partake in the game I bring shame upon
my family and I endorse Nero but if I
don’t he’ll probably have my head cut
off what should I do and you know he
expected with loss of to say well he
should do the right thing he’s a
philosopher right of course you should
do the right thing stand up for what’s
right don’t go to the games
but if philosopher didn’t say that he
said look the way you asking the
question maze will go and take part in
the games
I’m Ascenta was flummoxed he said really
so why don’t you go take part in the
games what are you talking about and
philosophy explain to say look once you
start thinking about those kinds of
things once you start doing the sums
once you start considering should I go
should I not go you’ve already lost your
character if you ask me is it gonna have
good consequences if I go should I
rather live and die of course you should
rather live and die of course pain is
better than pleasure is better than pain
so sure though I am not even thinking
about it and I found that advice a
little puzzling but story a little
puzzling but it speaks to me in a deep
way because I think it shows that we
need to commit ourselves now while we’re
not yet in danger while we can still
speak up freely for our rights when to
commit ourselves in two ways when you
commit ourselves to make sure we never
get into a situation we’re doing the
right thing it’s as dangerous as it was
for that senator back in Rome and we
also need to commit ourselves to the
courage and the virtue that it takes an
extraordinary times to stand up for the
right thing in the right moment I’m
going to think about that now because if
we only start thinking about it once we
face real danger it’s likely going to be
too late with
to do the sums and we’re going to be
like that senator who ends up dancing in
the games so I want each of you to take
a moment if you agree with the
importance of liberal democracy all the
things I’ve been talking about to take a
pledge not to me not to anybody else to
yourself that you will start carrying
the little spoon to the fire as much as
you can but even when it starts to feel
dangerous to carry the spoon even when
it starts to feel futile you’ll do what
you can to defend liberal democracy
thank you
[Applause]
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