[Applause]
hi we live in troubling times the
parallels with the 1930s are there for
all to see the loud nationalist slogans
the protectionism the looming economic
crisis the scapegoating of refugees the
impatience with migrants with democracy
and with liberalism the empty rhetoric
above unity and strong leadership and
greatness as society becomes more and
more deeply divided and bitterly divided
I’m a Nestorian so the first thing that
strikes me that strikes many of us is
we’ve been here before people were no
better or worse they were no stronger or
weaker in the past so how can we avoid
repeating some of those same mistakes
sliding into the same sort of organized
legitimized legalized inhumanity to our
fellow man that took place not once not
twice but many times over the 20th
century not just in Germany not just in
Russia but all over Europe I think the
first thing we need to understand is
that none of what occurred in the past
not the genocides and not the show
trials not the forced expulsion the
concentration camps the gulag the gas
chambers none of this was inevitable the
first and second world wars were not
inevitable these were the results of
individual human choices and
particularly widespread complicity
sometimes overt complicity sometimes
tacit our silence our desire to conform
to keep our heads down to stay out of
trouble this is what props up evil
regimes this is what allows them to keep
power and to hold on to power so what do
we know from the past for sure what do
we know from what has happened
we know that dictatorships are not
imposed overnight public opinion is
softened up
with simplistic slogans with repeated
phrases that work a bit like
advertisements to link certain ideas
together under fascism Jewish and
Bolshevik under communism bourgeoisie
and conspiracy or reaction today Muslim
and terrorist these stock repeated
simplistic phrases again and again
soften us up these ideas are not just
circulated by politicians or the press
but crucially they’re repeated and
circulated by us by ordinary people by
not challenging them we allow them to
become part of a vocabulary part of our
way of thinking and this is what gives
ideas their power it’s in casual
conversations and expressions of opinion
and these were what were monitored very
very carefully by the secret police in
totalitarian regimes which are monitored
today by focus groups and opinion polls
these things actually do matter
we know that dictatorships normally
follow some sort of plebiscites or
election or referendum even the most
oppressive regime feels the need to hold
elections they may be rigged elections
they may be limited they may be
pressured to be sure but they are
elections dictators claim they need to
claim to represent the will of the
people or the interests of the nation or
the class Hitler as we all know claim to
represent the German people in a new way
that cut across social class Stalin
claimed to represent the working-class
both brought their countries to ruin or
to misery dictatorships need to be able
to claim some sort of legitimacy some
sort of mandate in order to be able to
co-opt enough people into complicity or
resignation or conformity where they
can’t count on enthusiastic support so
we know dictatorships are not imposed
all at once we know that they do rely on
public opinion and we know that public
opinion is galvanized or shaped through
propaganda especially the repeated
linking of certain stock ideas certain
simplistic slogans in the media in
political speeches which we then repeat
and circulate and accept what may be
less obvious is the role that ideology
plays in sustaining regimes and in
silencing opposition so in my time in my
lifetime at least Nazism Stalinism which
are sort of our code words for the
supreme evil these had been treated as
if they were the other as if they had
nothing to do with us they were what
defines who we are through opposition so
they are the black to our white the evil
to our good the totalitarianism to our
so-called democratic values and in fact
I think they were much more like us that
it’s comfortable to remember nasty
receipt regimes do not
characteristically literally they do not
literally force their ideas on everyone
because they don’t have to once certain
parameters have been set ordinary people
can unfortunately be relied upon to
police one another to inform upon one
another to seek to harm one another to
overtake one another not because they
necessarily have any particular interest
in politics or in ideas but because they
want a pay-rise
or a new house or to get even with a
rival or because they’re interested in
some man or woman they want to get to
know better the convenience for the
regime of ideology is that it enables
ordinary perfectly ordinary normal
people us to justify otherwise shameful
behavior in lofty terms so it might feel
instinctively wrong to denounce a Jewish
neighbor
whose house you want to buy at a
knockdown price but if you can claim to
be purifying the Aryan race and
defending yourself against Jewish
Bolshevik conspiracy or taking back what
is rightfully yours suddenly it feels a
whole lot more comfortable again if you
want to take the property of a small
farmer and throw him into jail that
would seem cruel to anyone unless you
tell yourself that it’s for the good of
the working
so ideology allows us to excuse bad
behavior to ourselves and the same of
course applies under any political
system it can apply in a democracy to
refuse jobs or benefits or healthcare or
entry to refugees may feel instinctively
wrong until you appeal to the need to
take back control of your borders or put
Britain or Scotland or Wales or France
or America first to make your so-called
nation great again suddenly your
meanness doesn’t sound so bad it sounds
heroic noble rightful unnatural silence
our desire to conform sometimes through
fear more often times through
self-interest is what props up evil
policies and evil regimes and the
opposite is also true our instinctive
understanding our natural connection
with decency kindness fairness empathy
these can prevent the implementation of
evil policies but the talat Aryan regime
looks impenetrable from the outside its
leaders make a big show of force there
will be uncompromising even brutal
language towards its real or imagined
enemies there will be symbolic or real
violence large military parades with
state-of-the-art weapons prisons full to
bursting
there will be surveillance control of
the press propaganda and constant talk
of the need for unity and strong
leadership these brief facts will be
made palatable through a combination of
populist measures so under Hitler there
were fantastic job schemes for the
unemployed under most Mussolini there
was no litter in the streets there was
famously the trains were made to run on
time that will be combined those
genuinely popular policies with utopian
language and usually with scapegoating
of an imaginary enemy or other there’ll
be a bogeyman Islamic terrorism whatever
happens to be convenient but this is not
where the regime’s real strength lies
regimes even regimes that once
looked as strong as Nazi Germany built
to last for a thousand years or as grand
as the Soviet Union supposed to be an
ideal for the world to follow they can
suddenly crumble they can suddenly lose
all appearance of majesty it’s like the
emperor’s new clothes
the little boy pointed his finger and at
that moment the emperor who had been
flattered and obeyed and fond upon by
everyone suddenly looked naked and
vulnerable evil regimes last for as long
as they do because enough of us seemed
to profit from them at least for a time
but the really deep underlying problem
is this the distinction between us and
them between perpetrator and victim
between oppressor and oppressed is not
rigid and not fixed it does not divide a
worthy us from an evil then the line
between the perpetrator and the victim
runs within each of us sometimes we fall
victim to injustice or cruelty sometimes
we help by our actions or inactions
to oppress or intimidate or exclude
others liberal democracies when they are
tolerant of difference when they believe
in taking care of the weak as well as
the strong the stranger as well as the
local that helps to protect all of us
not just from one another but crucially
from ourselves ideology propaganda
creates a climate in which everyone
becomes trapped politicians and
journalists as much as voters if all we
hear about all we repeat is the
scapegoating of a particular group we
trap our own politicians into feeling
persuaded that they need to solve an
imaginary problem we do not have to
think this way we do not have to repeat
or endorse cruel or degrading speech
about other people we do not have to buy
newspapers or watch TV programs that
peddle them what we can do what I would
suggest that we
do is watch our own language consider
our own use of terms consider the truth
of received ideas and if there were one
sort of takeaway method for thinking of
this I would say let’s try not to think
big let’s not think in terms of Nations
or classes or greatness or Empire or
even humanity maybe we should think
small maybe we should think in terms of
kindness or fairness or decency the real
person in front of me not the symbolic
imaginary person who is representing
some abstraction we can call things by
their real names we can avoid jargon
business speak political cliches we can
do our part to prevent lies from
becoming normal from becoming normalized
from creating this atmosphere which
traps us all into these set ways of
thinking so I would say historically
speaking Nazism Stalinism have barely
passed away they scarred Europe for
generations the effects are still being
felt now again before the last people
have died who suffered all of that we
seem to be sleepwalking again into
something altogether too horribly
familiar it’s tempting to blame a
particular politician we can hold up
Trump or lepen or Faraj and to forget
that the power they wield is only as
strong as we collectively allow through
our silent complicity the fascist and
communist regimes that I know best the
ones that dominated Europe in the 20th
century these relied on everyday human
flaws envy gossip malice career ISM to
tempt ordinary people voluntarily to
police and report on one another
ideology enabled the oppression of
everyone by everyone to be justified
through lofty abstractions the Aryan
race the interests of the nation the
working class the will of the people
since the fault line if I’m right
between the oppressor and the oppressed
is not out there
it’s
within each of us we will not change
society by changing one leader for
another or even one ideology for another
our most powerful defense as human
beings against the new forms of
oppression which I fear are coming is to
call things by their real names and to
value always remember actual human
beings not an abstraction this is I
think the only way that we can safeguard
ourselves against propaganda and try to
prevent it bringing out the humanity in
all of us thank you
[Applause]
hi we live in troubling times the
parallels with the 1930s are there for
all to see the loud nationalist slogans
the protectionism the looming economic
crisis the scapegoating of refugees the
impatience with migrants with democracy
and with liberalism the empty rhetoric
above unity and strong leadership and
greatness as society becomes more and
more deeply divided and bitterly divided
I’m a Nestorian so the first thing that
strikes me that strikes many of us is
we’ve been here before people were no
better or worse they were no stronger or
weaker in the past so how can we avoid
repeating some of those same mistakes
sliding into the same sort of organized
legitimized legalized inhumanity to our
fellow man that took place not once not
twice but many times over the 20th
century not just in Germany not just in
Russia but all over Europe I think the
first thing we need to understand is
that none of what occurred in the past
not the genocides and not the show
trials not the forced expulsion the
concentration camps the gulag the gas
chambers none of this was inevitable the
first and second world wars were not
inevitable these were the results of
individual human choices and
particularly widespread complicity
sometimes overt complicity sometimes
tacit our silence our desire to conform
to keep our heads down to stay out of
trouble this is what props up evil
regimes this is what allows them to keep
power and to hold on to power so what do
we know from the past for sure what do
we know from what has happened
we know that dictatorships are not
imposed overnight public opinion is
softened up
with simplistic slogans with repeated
phrases that work a bit like
advertisements to link certain ideas
together under fascism Jewish and
Bolshevik under communism bourgeoisie
and conspiracy or reaction today Muslim
and terrorist these stock repeated
simplistic phrases again and again
soften us up these ideas are not just
circulated by politicians or the press
but crucially they’re repeated and
circulated by us by ordinary people by
not challenging them we allow them to
become part of a vocabulary part of our
way of thinking and this is what gives
ideas their power it’s in casual
conversations and expressions of opinion
and these were what were monitored very
very carefully by the secret police in
totalitarian regimes which are monitored
today by focus groups and opinion polls
these things actually do matter
we know that dictatorships normally
follow some sort of plebiscites or
election or referendum even the most
oppressive regime feels the need to hold
elections they may be rigged elections
they may be limited they may be
pressured to be sure but they are
elections dictators claim they need to
claim to represent the will of the
people or the interests of the nation or
the class Hitler as we all know claim to
represent the German people in a new way
that cut across social class Stalin
claimed to represent the working-class
both brought their countries to ruin or
to misery dictatorships need to be able
to claim some sort of legitimacy some
sort of mandate in order to be able to
co-opt enough people into complicity or
resignation or conformity where they
can’t count on enthusiastic support so
we know dictatorships are not imposed
all at once we know that they do rely on
public opinion and we know that public
opinion is galvanized or shaped through
propaganda especially the repeated
linking of certain stock ideas certain
simplistic slogans in the media in
political speeches which we then repeat
and circulate and accept what may be
less obvious is the role that ideology
plays in sustaining regimes and in
silencing opposition so in my time in my
lifetime at least Nazism Stalinism which
are sort of our code words for the
supreme evil these had been treated as
if they were the other as if they had
nothing to do with us they were what
defines who we are through opposition so
they are the black to our white the evil
to our good the totalitarianism to our
so-called democratic values and in fact
I think they were much more like us that
it’s comfortable to remember nasty
receipt regimes do not
characteristically literally they do not
literally force their ideas on everyone
because they don’t have to once certain
parameters have been set ordinary people
can unfortunately be relied upon to
police one another to inform upon one
another to seek to harm one another to
overtake one another not because they
necessarily have any particular interest
in politics or in ideas but because they
want a pay-rise
or a new house or to get even with a
rival or because they’re interested in
some man or woman they want to get to
know better the convenience for the
regime of ideology is that it enables
ordinary perfectly ordinary normal
people us to justify otherwise shameful
behavior in lofty terms so it might feel
instinctively wrong to denounce a Jewish
neighbor
whose house you want to buy at a
knockdown price but if you can claim to
be purifying the Aryan race and
defending yourself against Jewish
Bolshevik conspiracy or taking back what
is rightfully yours suddenly it feels a
whole lot more comfortable again if you
want to take the property of a small
farmer and throw him into jail that
would seem cruel to anyone unless you
tell yourself that it’s for the good of
the working
so ideology allows us to excuse bad
behavior to ourselves and the same of
course applies under any political
system it can apply in a democracy to
refuse jobs or benefits or healthcare or
entry to refugees may feel instinctively
wrong until you appeal to the need to
take back control of your borders or put
Britain or Scotland or Wales or France
or America first to make your so-called
nation great again suddenly your
meanness doesn’t sound so bad it sounds
heroic noble rightful unnatural silence
our desire to conform sometimes through
fear more often times through
self-interest is what props up evil
policies and evil regimes and the
opposite is also true our instinctive
understanding our natural connection
with decency kindness fairness empathy
these can prevent the implementation of
evil policies but the talat Aryan regime
looks impenetrable from the outside its
leaders make a big show of force there
will be uncompromising even brutal
language towards its real or imagined
enemies there will be symbolic or real
violence large military parades with
state-of-the-art weapons prisons full to
bursting
there will be surveillance control of
the press propaganda and constant talk
of the need for unity and strong
leadership these brief facts will be
made palatable through a combination of
populist measures so under Hitler there
were fantastic job schemes for the
unemployed under most Mussolini there
was no litter in the streets there was
famously the trains were made to run on
time that will be combined those
genuinely popular policies with utopian
language and usually with scapegoating
of an imaginary enemy or other there’ll
be a bogeyman Islamic terrorism whatever
happens to be convenient but this is not
where the regime’s real strength lies
regimes even regimes that once
looked as strong as Nazi Germany built
to last for a thousand years or as grand
as the Soviet Union supposed to be an
ideal for the world to follow they can
suddenly crumble they can suddenly lose
all appearance of majesty it’s like the
emperor’s new clothes
the little boy pointed his finger and at
that moment the emperor who had been
flattered and obeyed and fond upon by
everyone suddenly looked naked and
vulnerable evil regimes last for as long
as they do because enough of us seemed
to profit from them at least for a time
but the really deep underlying problem
is this the distinction between us and
them between perpetrator and victim
between oppressor and oppressed is not
rigid and not fixed it does not divide a
worthy us from an evil then the line
between the perpetrator and the victim
runs within each of us sometimes we fall
victim to injustice or cruelty sometimes
we help by our actions or inactions
to oppress or intimidate or exclude
others liberal democracies when they are
tolerant of difference when they believe
in taking care of the weak as well as
the strong the stranger as well as the
local that helps to protect all of us
not just from one another but crucially
from ourselves ideology propaganda
creates a climate in which everyone
becomes trapped politicians and
journalists as much as voters if all we
hear about all we repeat is the
scapegoating of a particular group we
trap our own politicians into feeling
persuaded that they need to solve an
imaginary problem we do not have to
think this way we do not have to repeat
or endorse cruel or degrading speech
about other people we do not have to buy
newspapers or watch TV programs that
peddle them what we can do what I would
suggest that we
do is watch our own language consider
our own use of terms consider the truth
of received ideas and if there were one
sort of takeaway method for thinking of
this I would say let’s try not to think
big let’s not think in terms of Nations
or classes or greatness or Empire or
even humanity maybe we should think
small maybe we should think in terms of
kindness or fairness or decency the real
person in front of me not the symbolic
imaginary person who is representing
some abstraction we can call things by
their real names we can avoid jargon
business speak political cliches we can
do our part to prevent lies from
becoming normal from becoming normalized
from creating this atmosphere which
traps us all into these set ways of
thinking so I would say historically
speaking Nazism Stalinism have barely
passed away they scarred Europe for
generations the effects are still being
felt now again before the last people
have died who suffered all of that we
seem to be sleepwalking again into
something altogether too horribly
familiar it’s tempting to blame a
particular politician we can hold up
Trump or lepen or Faraj and to forget
that the power they wield is only as
strong as we collectively allow through
our silent complicity the fascist and
communist regimes that I know best the
ones that dominated Europe in the 20th
century these relied on everyday human
flaws envy gossip malice career ISM to
tempt ordinary people voluntarily to
police and report on one another
ideology enabled the oppression of
everyone by everyone to be justified
through lofty abstractions the Aryan
race the interests of the nation the
working class the will of the people
since the fault line if I’m right
between the oppressor and the oppressed
is not out there
it’s
within each of us we will not change
society by changing one leader for
another or even one ideology for another
our most powerful defense as human
beings against the new forms of
oppression which I fear are coming is to
call things by their real names and to
value always remember actual human
beings not an abstraction this is I
think the only way that we can safeguard
ourselves against propaganda and try to
prevent it bringing out the humanity in
all of us thank you
[Applause]
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