Etienne Chouard - Looking for the mother of all causes - TEDxRepubliquesquare - Mars 2012
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0:08 - 0:13I'm here to talk about democracy.
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0:13 - 0:14But the real one.
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0:15 - 0:18The one that doesn't exist at all !
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0:18 - 0:22The one that, I think, would get us out of this mess.
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0:22 - 0:28I am a teacher in Marseille, and in 2005, I started to exist.
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0:28 - 0:33I woke up, politically speaking, thanks to a public debate in France.
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0:33 - 0:37A referendum about a so-called "constitution" (NT: a European treaty).
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0:37 - 0:42While reading it, I became angry, I found it dangerous.
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0:42 - 0:46I wrote a response of about ten pages, with notes.
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0:46 - 0:49Then, I published it on my website.
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0:49 - 0:54Sent it to my tiny contact list, as a last-ditch attempt.
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0:54 - 0:58Then, something happened and changed my life.
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1:00 - 1:02People grabbed onto it, it matched something they missed.
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1:02 - 1:07For months, I spent my nights trying to reply to them.
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1:07 - 1:11Particularly to those who didn't like me.
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1:11 - 1:14Trying to prove them wrong.
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1:14 - 1:22Little by little, newspapers took on the topic, then TV, radio…
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1:22 - 1:24They visited me at home.
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1:24 - 1:28The site's visit counter turned like a fan!
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1:28 - 1:3240,000 visits per day! 12,000 emails in 2 months.
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1:32 - 1:36Now I realize that it was the eyes
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1:36 - 1:39of others staring at me that changed me.
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1:39 - 1:42Giving me incredible strength!
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1:42 - 1:48First, positive looks expecting me not to let them down.
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1:48 - 1:51Then, those who didn't like me, at all !
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1:51 - 1:55Suspicious. Calling me an impostor, a bum, illegitimate.
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1:55 - 1:57I wanted to prove them wrong.
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1:58 - 2:04All those eyes passed onto me an incredible energy.
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2:04 - 2:07It still propels me today.
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2:07 - 2:14I discovered that this was an old issue. Athenians called it "verecunia".
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2:14 - 2:18A very interesting and essential concept.
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2:18 - 2:24For the Athenians, a good citizen was someone
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2:24 - 2:28sensitive to what others thought about him.
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2:28 - 2:29It pushed them to virtue.
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2:29 - 2:34When others were counting on them, rewarding them by their gaze,
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2:34 - 2:38it gave them the will to be virtuous.
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2:38 - 2:42And, when they sensed a reproving stare,
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2:42 - 2:47it encouraged them to stay within the path of virtue.
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2:47 - 2:49Indeed, it works!
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2:49 - 2:53People who have "verecunia", are more virtuous.
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2:53 - 2:56Conversely, those who don't, are very dangerous.
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2:56 - 2:59To the point… At that brutal age…
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2:59 - 3:02Well, no need to put them to death, but…
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3:02 - 3:05we could avoid giving responsibilities to the dangerous.
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3:05 - 3:09Since 2005, I have striven working hard for… For what?
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3:10 - 3:14First, I've tried to understand the cause of social injustices.
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3:14 - 3:17I've tried to find out the main cause.
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3:17 - 3:23Then, I've discovered, with wonder, the brilliant ideas that founded the Athenian democracy.
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3:23 - 3:25A real democracy.
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3:25 - 3:28I've analyzed many important words and turned them right side up,
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3:28 - 3:32They've been turned upside down for at least 200 years.
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3:32 - 3:37Finally, I've tried to imagine this work in progress.
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3:37 - 3:39I don't own the truth.
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3:39 - 3:44I'm polishing, building up and strenghening an idea.
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3:44 - 3:49I try to think of institutions, good ones,
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3:49 - 3:53which would protect us all from abuses of power.
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3:53 - 3:57I rely on good institutions to push ourselves to virtue.
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3:57 - 3:59I don't count on virtuous citizens.
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3:59 - 4:02We all have good and bad halves.
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4:02 - 4:06But, good institutions could lead us to virtue.
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4:06 - 4:09The same way they can pull us
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4:09 - 4:14away from the general interest and the common good, like today.
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4:15 - 4:22To do so, I use a great method, recommended by an old doctor:
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4:22 - 4:25Herodotus (NT: Hippocrates, mistake).
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4:25 - 4:27Who was seeking the cause of causes.
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4:27 - 4:30I use this all the time.
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4:30 - 4:32Why? He said:
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4:33 - 4:35For a problem, an illness,
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4:35 - 4:38don't fight its effects! Obviously.
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4:38 - 4:40You won't fix anything.
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4:40 - 4:42Neither its causes!
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4:42 - 4:45Too many factors. It's not that!
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4:45 - 4:49Among all causes: seek the main cause.
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4:49 - 4:54At least a decisive one, one that determines the other causes.
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4:54 - 4:56It's the one we need!
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4:56 - 4:58The one I'm looking for.
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4:58 - 5:00So.
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5:00 - 5:05All my activist friends, that I've met in politics,
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5:05 - 5:12with whom I've shared battles (of course), are endlessly struggling.
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5:12 - 5:20I drew a tree showing the range of topics on which people resist.
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5:20 - 5:27I'm surprised to see all these fighters focusing on… very important things...
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5:27 - 5:31But things that are only consequences.
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5:31 - 5:35I don't think anyone is trying to understand the cause of all of this!
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5:35 - 5:38I think I found… I could be wrong.
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5:39 - 5:45I think I found a common cause to all that impotence, and injustice
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5:45 - 5:49...where social injustice starts…
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5:49 - 5:53I think it's the lack of control over the political power,
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5:53 - 5:57that produces the impotence in the people.
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5:57 - 6:01Social injustices are there because "normal" people,
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6:01 - 6:04don't have the power to resist.
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6:04 - 6:07All the strikers I know, these activists,
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6:07 - 6:10spend their entire lives struggling…
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6:10 - 6:13They don't change a thing!
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6:13 - 6:14How come?
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6:14 - 6:19Because their political impotence prevents them from taking action.
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6:19 - 6:22Where does this impotence come from?
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6:22 - 6:27My analysis is that it comes from the constitution.
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6:27 - 6:30The text that makes elected officials
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6:30 - 6:33not liable to annulment nor accountable.
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6:33 - 6:36We can't choose our candidates.
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6:36 - 6:39There are no referendum based on popular initiative.
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6:39 - 6:42We can't decide anything through personal initiative.
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6:43 - 6:46We let money become privatized because the constitution
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6:46 - 6:49doesn't require it to be public.
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6:49 - 6:51Etc... No time for a detailed list.
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6:51 - 6:55But, in the constitution, all our impotences are planned out.
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6:55 - 6:57It didn't happen by magic ! It's written.
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6:57 - 7:00Keep considering the root…
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7:00 - 7:06Why do all constitutions anticipate people's impotence? Worldwide.
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7:06 - 7:08It isn't a conspiracy, it can't be,
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7:08 - 7:12not every time, in every country, it's not that!
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7:12 - 7:17A universal process must have a universal cause.
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7:17 - 7:21It seems to me that what makes bad constitutions,
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7:21 - 7:24since they plan our powerlessness, instead of our power.
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7:24 - 7:29Since they do not protect us against abuse of power, it prophesizes our impotence.
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7:29 - 7:33I think it's because those who write the constitutions,
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7:33 - 7:34the authors,
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7:34 - 7:40they have a self-interest in not coming up with a good constitution.
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7:40 - 7:43Not mentioning the people's power.
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7:43 - 7:47They are judge and defendant, they are professional politicians.
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7:47 - 7:50This gets closer to the cause of causes.
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7:50 - 7:52It's not their fault, they aren't crooked.
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7:52 - 7:54It's us who let them write it !
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7:54 - 7:57To measure the importance of this mistake,
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7:57 - 8:00let's remember what a constitution stands for.
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8:00 - 8:05People, us, for about 2500 years,
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8:05 - 8:09have needed to put representatives above us.
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8:09 - 8:13In order to produce and enforce the law,
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8:13 - 8:18that protects us from the arbitrary rule of the powerful.
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8:18 - 8:22So, these people are very useful, of course !
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8:22 - 8:25They establish the laws that bring peace to society.
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8:25 - 8:28But, they are also very dangerous !
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8:28 - 8:32If they start to abuse their power, serving the interests of a selected few,
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8:32 - 8:34instead of the common interest…
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8:34 - 8:37If they abuse power by going mad,
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8:37 - 8:40power drives them mad, systematically.
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8:40 - 8:45Uh, yes, we have known that for 2500 years ! Power drives people mad.
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8:45 - 8:51All powers tend towards abuse.
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8:51 - 8:53Always ! (said Montesquieu).
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8:53 - 8:56Like laws of physics, implacable.
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8:56 - 9:00And, there is a brilliant idea to protect us from it:
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9:00 - 9:02the constitution.
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9:02 - 9:06So, what is it ? It's a text, standing above powers.
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9:06 - 9:11Not to organize powers, no need for that, at all !
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9:11 - 9:16Any citizen should know that its purpose is to weaken the powers.
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9:16 - 9:19To worry the powers.
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9:19 - 9:24In order to protect us ! Against abuse of power.
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9:25 - 9:28Wait…
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9:28 - 9:32If representatives must fear the constitution…
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9:32 - 9:35They mustn't write it themselves !
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9:35 - 9:40If they do, they will establish their power and our powerlessness.
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9:40 - 9:42A child understands that.
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9:42 - 9:45The main and essential idea is:
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9:45 - 9:48men of power mustn't write the rules of power.
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9:48 - 9:53Don't wait for them to renounce their power, they won't, never.
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9:53 - 9:55The solution won't come from them, but from us.
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9:56 - 9:58We must forbid them to write it.
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9:58 - 10:02I think this is the essential idea that we lack.
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10:02 - 10:06So, in the scuffle between normal people and
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10:06 - 10:09those who wield power at the moment. There are…
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10:09 - 10:12Oh, there is a timer there, good !
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10:13 - 10:15There are… words turned upside down.
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10:15 - 10:18First, I'm not a citizen.
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10:18 - 10:23A citizen is autonomous, voting his own laws.
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10:23 - 10:27I am just a voter, I'm heteronomous.
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10:27 - 10:31I'm under laws written by someone else.
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10:31 - 10:34"Citizens": it's taking us in with fine words.
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10:34 - 10:38We brag about it but we are nothing !
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10:38 - 10:42What do we have in this so-called "democracy" ?
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10:42 - 10:44What rights ?
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10:44 - 10:49Take your pick of political masters who decide everything for us.
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10:49 - 10:53Selected from people we didn't even choose, the richest choose them.
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10:53 - 10:57And, when they eventually betray us to the marrow,
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10:57 - 10:59there is no way to resist !
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10:59 - 11:02Well, we have freedom of speech, right.
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11:02 - 11:05But absolutely no power of constraint.
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11:05 - 11:09We can jabber, if it has no effect, it's allowed.
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11:09 - 11:12If it changes anything, it's a massacre.
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11:12 - 11:15We call this democracy !? It's our fault !
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11:15 - 11:19We should boycott these trojan words,
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11:19 - 11:24refuse to call democracy what is in fact its strict opposite.
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11:24 - 11:28We feed our political impotence by allowing ourselves to call
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11:28 - 11:33democracy something that is the very negation of our rights.
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11:33 - 11:39When we call it democracy, we can't even express the solution.
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11:39 - 11:42We need democracy, but we can't express it.
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11:42 - 11:45Since the word is taken hostage by its opposite.
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11:45 - 11:48Reversing the words is genius ! Big Brother, absolutely !
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11:48 - 11:51It didn't happen by accident.
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11:51 - 11:54It was not good, at first, in 1789.
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11:54 - 11:57And didn't deteriorate later. Not at all!
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11:57 - 12:00Sieyès, a great thinker of the French Revolution,
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12:00 - 12:06a top dog, not a minion (NT: similar to Madison in USA), in 1789:
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12:06 - 12:14"Citizens who choose to have representatives
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12:19 - 12:21[...]
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12:21 - 12:23must give up making the law themselves.
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12:23 - 12:26They don't have any particular desire to impose.
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12:26 - 12:28If they were dictating wills,
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12:28 - 12:32France wouldn't be this representative state, it would be democratic.
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12:32 - 12:35The people, I repeat (Sieyès speaking),
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12:35 - 12:41in a non-democratic country (and France cannot be), cannot speak,
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12:41 - 12:43can only act through their representatives".
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12:43 - 12:45He wasn't a democrat !
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12:45 - 12:49He knew very well what a democracy was. I'll show you.
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12:49 - 12:52Everyone knew, before 1789, Montesquieu, Aristote,
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12:52 - 12:57that the election is aristocratic, thus, oligarchic.
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12:57 - 13:00Aristotle said it explicitly, I'll skip the quote.
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13:00 - 13:03Montesquieu as well, I'll skip it too.
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13:03 - 13:05Look up online, I must save time.
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13:05 - 13:09Let me stress out the two most important things:
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13:09 - 13:12for 200 years of random appointment* in Athens…
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13:12 - 13:15*(NT: citizens drawn from the society for responsibility)
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13:15 - 13:17During which there were rich and poor.
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13:17 - 13:20OK, I know they set aside slaves and women.
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13:20 - 13:22That's not my point.
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13:22 - 13:25I'm talking about the citizens ! The citizens of that time.
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13:25 - 13:29For 200 years of random appointment, the poor governed, always.
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13:29 - 13:31Always !
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13:31 - 13:36Then, another historical example, no opinions, facts !
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13:36 - 13:39200 years of random appointment: the poor governed.
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13:39 - 13:43There were rich people. But they didn't govern.
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13:43 - 13:48And in a "supposedly representative government" regime,
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13:48 - 13:53not a democracy, for 200 years, it's always the rich who have governed.
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13:53 - 13:55Always !
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13:55 - 14:00Since random appointment gives power to the poor, to the 99%.
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14:00 - 14:04Since the election empowers the 1%, the ultra rich,
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14:04 - 14:09how long will the poor, the 99%, defend the election!?
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14:09 - 14:11As if it were a sacred cow !
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14:11 - 14:16It's untenable, the poor defending the election process,
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14:16 - 14:20while random appointment would give them power back…
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14:21 - 14:25Why do we value so much the election ?
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14:25 - 14:28It's not due to reason,
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14:28 - 14:31the facts show that it's not in our interest.
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14:31 - 14:33But, we have myths.
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14:33 - 14:35The "Republican" school has taugt us, since we are toddlers:
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14:36 - 14:38elections = democracy = election, etc...
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14:38 - 14:40Since the outset we have all believed it.
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14:40 - 14:44We need to rehab from the lies of these robbers of power.
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14:44 - 14:46Turn words the right side up.
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14:46 - 14:49We are not in a democracy,
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14:49 - 14:52we need a random drawing system
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14:52 - 14:55To change things, we can't rely on those who are now in power.
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14:55 - 15:00To change things, we can't rely on those who have the power right now.
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15:00 - 15:03The solution won't come from them.
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15:03 - 15:06It will come from normal people, simple people.
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15:06 - 15:08People who don't want power.
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15:08 - 15:11You must know this thought of Alain.
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15:11 - 15:14A great thinker, I recommend him, who said:
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15:14 - 15:18"The most visible sign of the righteous man,
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15:18 - 15:22is that he doesn't want to govern others, at all.
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15:22 - 15:25He seeks to govern only himself.
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15:25 - 15:31This seals everything. In other words, the worst will govern."
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15:31 - 15:34If righteous people don't want to govern,
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15:35 - 15:38and if we give power, as in representative government,
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15:38 - 15:41to those who want it, the worst will govern.
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15:42 - 15:46This despairing representative trap - Alain is right -
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15:46 - 15:51might also makes us overlook righteous men.
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15:51 - 15:53We won't have them.
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15:53 - 15:58But, we can escape from this trap, these pincers, I think.
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15:58 - 16:00With a real democracy!
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16:00 - 16:05By vesting power to anyone, the best of us are among "anyone",
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16:05 - 16:07those who don't want power.
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16:07 - 16:09Democracy we need !
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16:09 - 16:11But we must want it.
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16:11 - 16:13Don't wait for our elected officials to want it.
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16:13 - 16:15They will never want it !
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16:15 - 16:18True democracy would make them redondant.
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16:18 - 16:22Random selection in Athens meant giving away a little bit of power,
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16:22 - 16:25but not for long, and never twice in a row.
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16:25 - 16:27With many controls, but no time to explain.
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16:28 - 16:32Athenians were giving up a little bit of power,
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16:32 - 16:34to keep the power to themselves !
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16:34 - 16:37Randomly selected people weren't voting on the bills.
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16:37 - 16:41They were police, justice, and enforced the law.
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16:41 - 16:44They prepared the bills, because the Athenians,
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16:44 - 16:47couldn't prepare them in the assembly.
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16:47 - 16:52Representatives were weakened by random selection…
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16:52 - 16:53Weakened !
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16:53 - 16:58Thus, citizens were guaranteed to remain sovereign.
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16:58 - 17:01Don't fear random selection, we would,
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17:01 - 17:04all of us, be greatly empowered through random selection.
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17:04 - 17:08Random selection implies that our representatives remain our servants,
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17:08 - 17:11and can't become our masters.
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17:13 - 17:16One last word…
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17:18 - 17:22One word…
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17:22 - 17:27Visit le-message.org, which was created by one of you.
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17:27 - 17:31I think we should… Like viruses, as a grassroots movement…
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17:31 - 17:35- don't expect anything from the media or the powerful -
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17:35 - 17:39Let's spread the word among one another, on this principle:
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17:39 - 17:43"don't elect the constituent assembly, select it randomly".
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17:43 - 17:45Everything will follow from this.
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17:45 - 17:49I think this idea is valid for the entire world.
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17:49 - 17:53Thank you for listening.
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17:53 - 17:56Translation: Camille Harang & Tomasz Bethell & Kévin Marceau
- Title:
- Etienne Chouard - Looking for the mother of all causes - TEDxRepubliquesquare - Mars 2012
- Description:
-
In 2005, before the European referundum, while teaching economics and law, Etienne Chouard looked closely to the draft version of the European Constitution. What he discovered changed him forever. He woke up, policatilly. Since then, and independently from any political organizations, he warns us against our apathy, denounces our responsibility and wants to restore the true meaning of democracy. His motto : a Constitution written by citizens and representatives selected by sortition.
- Video Language:
- French
- Duration:
- 17:57
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