WEBVTT - Democracy in the Age of Riots 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:12.160 That's my getting absolutely screwed over by the medical establishment voice. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.160 People thought it was another Sheep podcast. They were briefly 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:24.599 extremely excited. Nope, the Sheep, the Sheep podcast. Will I 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.600 make no promises about the Sheep podcast. What we're going 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.880 to tell them about the Lost Sheep episode? No, yeah, okay, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.159 we'll try. Will just leave that one. Yeah, this is this, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:39.000 this is it could happen here, the podcast where you 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.479 would think that the medical issue is a trans thing 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:44.519 and it's absolutely not. And it's amazing and I love it. 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:47.640 Uh yeah, it's it's a podcast for I complain about 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:52.240 medical issues and talk about other stuff with me as James. Yeah, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.880 I'm a person who complains about medical issues and sometimes 0:00:54.960 --> 0:01:00.640 goes to Mexico to buy drugs yeay, legal drugs, drugs 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:09.520 while we're being recorded. This The thing that is making 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.440 me think of is I was in oh god, I 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.000 don't remember where in Mexico I was. Um, I was 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:19.520 not very old, but so we took up, we took 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.160 off Fairy and it was I got like so C sick. 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:23.520 It was like the most C sick I've ever been. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:29.039 So we had to like go back and um, so 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.759 I this my Spanish is not great. At this time, 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:34.560 my Spanish was much worse than it is now. Um, 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.240 and we have to we go to this drug store 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:38.240 and we're trying to find something that's like an anti 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.760 C sickness drug, and we buy this drug called vomisin 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:46.800 and we're looking same. When we're looking through that the thing, 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:48.840 we find the part where it's says side effects, and 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:50.560 I remember and I look at this and I and 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.600 I read it and it says said, I'm like, oh no, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.480 it's like, oh god, it wound up. Actually it was 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.360 completely yeah, yeah, I did not vomit over the rails again, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.000 I mean hydrant on the ferry right back. I have 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:09.720 a good I have a good inadvertent medicine hallucinogen story, 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:11.280 and then we can we can actually do the podcast. 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.240 And I was when I was a bit younger. I 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:19.240 was climbing a mountain Morocco and became extremely altitude sick, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.720 like my fucking nose was just like unleashing my blood. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.200 Like it was a real momentum. Yeah, I bad, look great, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.119 and so I tried to get some medicine. We went 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.280 somewhere and like you, I speak French, but most of 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.200 people spoke Berber and it wasn't a language that I 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.360 speak at all. Anyway, I received some medicine which I 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.679 took in the form of I think like a powder 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:45.520 that I'm mixed with honey, and I was like, okay, 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.240 this is unique and different whatever fuck me, did I 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:52.400 have some incredible dreams. I just kept taking it because zone, well, 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.160 it was definitely opium was the thing I was taking. 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.680 Was like, I bought it down and was like, I 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.040 this stuff just really helped us my altitude sickness. One 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:08.359 of the adults I with with was like, ah, yeah, 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:13.880 dow drugs kids speaking of not doing drugs. Okay, So 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.680 what we are here today talk about democracy, the opm 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.840 of the masses. Yeah. So this this script was originally 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:24.160 written in a period where I had spent an enormous 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.240 amount of time being forced to watch documentaries about what 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.880 democracy was. And my conclusion from all of this is 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.720 that the history of democracy begins with a mistranslation. Okay, 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.360 So okay, what does that mean? The answer is that, Okay, 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:44.160 the whatever someone starts talking about democracy, the first thing 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.000 they do is they go like, I'm gonna start, I'm 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.000 gonna I'm gonna start by translating the word democracy. Now, 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.640 the most common translation that you'll see this like like everywhere, 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:59.440 from like Astra Taylor's like documentary what is Democracy to 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.080 just like the thing that's on Wikipedia holds that democracy 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.320 is derived from two Greek words. Right, you have demos, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.840 meaning the people, and cradhouse meaning rule. So you put 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.240 these two together, you get demos cradouse, you get democracy. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.039 My Greek, my camp announce great, fair well, it's fine whatever. 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.760 It's an ancient Greek. Yeah, but you know this means 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.719 rule by the people, so okay. This translation has simphal 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.800 advantages right foremost among them, it is simple enough to 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.320 be taught to a school to school children, and catchy 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.200 enough that is a non zero chance that like the 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.640 most pedantic of them will remember it after the day 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.760 after the test, which presumably is the explanation for why 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:40.839 this is. This is the translation of democracy. It opens 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:48.599 every single fucking thing people right about democracy. Unfortunately, appreciunately 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.719 for beleaguered grade school teachers and and sort of those 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.359 are the broader populace as a whole. This translation is 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.119 so blatantly wrong that I have been forced to start 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.360 a thing about democracy and also about rioting yelling about 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:05.880 ancient Greek So great, Okay, so what what what? What 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.520 is the actual issue here? The actual problem is the 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:17.080 mistranslation of Kretos in particular is incredibly important both conceptually 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.760 and ideologically, and the actual sort of proper translation and 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.719 the implications of this are worth examining in some detail. 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.560 So the other problem just David graeberds to we have 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:33.520 mentioned a lot on this show wrote in his regrettably 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.159 very poorly read essay There Never Was a West. He 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:42.680 describes Credos thus quote in this in turn, might help 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:46.240 explain the term democracy itself, which appears to have been 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.760 coined as something of a slur by its elitist opponents. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.680 It literally means the force or even violence of the 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:57.520 people Kratos, not arcos, the ancient Greek word for ruler, 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:04.120 also the root of anarchism or without arcos. So yeah, 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.320 so what he's saying there wasn't Cretos a dude? Like 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:13.560 he's dude, day I undas sold him an immortal dude. Yeah, 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.080 he's Also he's the main character of the god of 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.640 war games. Okay, that is the thing I did not know. 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.520 And hilariously that that is like him him being the 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:24.280 main character of the god of war games. That is 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.920 actually a better way to understand what credos is than 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.160 the rule by thing that everyone usually translates. This app 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:35.040 because like, like ancient Greek has a perfectly good word 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.040 for like rule by right, it's arcos. It's the root 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.560 of anarchisms, like an an archos, it's but it's the word. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.479 It's like the normal thing where you have a Greek 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.919 derived word where you want to say rule by is 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:52.000 that is arcos? Right, yeah, but democracy is not that, right, yeah, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:53.760 like all gark is like that, but like democracy is 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:59.440 specifically credos. And this is because what democracy literally means 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.120 is ruled by the violence of the people. Fast. Yeah. 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.960 Well and this, you know, okay, so like this, this, this, this, 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.200 like this sounds like I am essentially pearl clutching about translations, 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.400 but the context you is actually important rights, as Grammar 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.040 points out, the sort of you know, Athens, which is 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.400 the example or society, society against which the original antidemocratic 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.440 philosopher is rail By the way, this is like Plato 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.040 hates democracy. Most of the people who you read from 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:31.200 sort of classical Greek, like, yeah, philosophy despised democracy even 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:35.280 so they live in them a huge you know, not 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.240 not not not to like whitewash Athenian society, but like 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.800 these people are like Sparta apologists, and it's like, yes, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:44.440 we haven't really care. It's funny that people have definitely 0:07:44.440 --> 0:07:46.600 I don't know if they've actually recovered Plato or red 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.400 Plato or they just get mad when Donald Trump doesn't 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.840 win elections. But like this whole, like this whole like 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.640 benevolent philosopher king ship has definitely definitely made a comeback 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.240 in recent years, and it's troubling. Yeah, And I think 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:02.800 I think part of this, this is this is another 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.400 complaint that I've had about sort of like the way 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:09.080 that like the sort of like great authors thing is 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.920 taught in in in universities, is they deliberately like there 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.080 was like an in in what in what specific readings 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.080 they assigned, there was like an incredible intellectual effort that 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.640 goes into making sure you never see the absolutely deranged 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.520 shit that these people believe. Like Plato, Plato literally worships 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:30.440 angular momentum. Yeah, like that is his god is angular 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:35.040 momentum um. Like he he he's like he hates democracy. 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:40.360 He loves like spurred in like oligarchy basically, like all 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:41.960 of this stuff is like that's like something like you 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.080 don't read and know when you get assigned Plato, it's like, yeah, 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.160 there's a huge like um, as someone who's taught like 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.479 a ton of universities, that's that's this huge fucking impediment 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.839 to you assigning that stuff. Like I've specifically tried to 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.240 assign different stuff in these like writing courses, which which 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.000 ended up being like great white dudes of history, right Like, um, 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.400 like if you kind of signed different things, but like 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:10.400 the cost of assigning those and that that cost isn't 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.520 born by you or the university, right, it's born by 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.920 your students is massive. Like even if like for a 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.280 while there, like we would just like a lot of texts, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.120 you know, if you take the time as a professor 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.000 to label out the text, you can take it to 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:25.839 a print shop, get them to photocopy it, and it 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.199 almost evigbly you need to find someone who's willing to 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.480 kind of play fast and news with copyright. But still 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.640 it will end up costing your students so much more 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.320 than the texts which are in the book that you 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.280 can fucking autogenerate the quizzes because the book also has 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:43.559 a website and you still get paid like you're doing 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:48.199 a job when you're not. So yeah yeah and bad yeah. 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.160 And this stuff has had you know, like this has 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.840 had sort of profound ideological influences, has had you know, 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:55.920 it's it's has sort of profound it's a profound influences 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.199 on like the I mean just sort of the way 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:03.120 that like ancient Greece and Rome or conceptualized and and 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.280 and I think this also really has uh you know, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.200 it hasn't It makes it very hard to see what 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.320 was sort of actually going on in a place like Athens. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:15.880 And you know, a great grapar sort of points this 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.480 out right, like Athens is a sort of like exemplar 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.679 I like, you know sort of it's as sort of 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.640 an examplar, like it is literally like the place for 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.840 which like like most descriptions of sort of democracy are 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.760 are are sort of originally about and Athens. You know, 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.559 we are trained to think of Athens as like, oh, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.280 it's like, well Athens, this is like the first democracy 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:40.679 or whatever. This is like actually this is actually like 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.079 a very normal sort of society and it's not this 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:47.360 is a this is an extremely weird society. And what 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:49.280 what what Grapar sort of points out about this, right 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.280 is you know the thing that that is you know, okay, 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.520 so like there have been lots of societies over sort 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:57.720 of the course of human like the you know, hundreds 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.200 of thousands of years in the sort of like course 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.160 of human history that I've had collaborative decision making systems. 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.440 What is very, very weird and almost unique about Athens 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.640 is it has two things put together. It has a 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:16.000 decision making apparatus where people have equal say, and it 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.480 also has a violent enforcement mechanism to impose the will 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:21.960 of the people on other people and as you know, 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.840 as we'll get to you in a second, also impose 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.200 the will of those people on other people. Most society, Yeah, 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.040 that that that that turns out to be a very 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:32.920 important part of sort of vening empire, et cetera. Exaction 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:37.960 like who the people are? Yeah, this is people. Yeah, 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:41.120 well we'll get to that in a second too. But 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:44.200 so so most societies, grape or argues either have one 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.480 or the other of you know, having a having like 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.400 a decision making apparatus people of equal say, and a 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.360 violent enforcement mechanism right, You have a lot of societies 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.600 with collective decision making apparatus is that involve the entire community. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.760 But the thing is, these these processes in varyably sort 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:05.679 of like develop some kind of consensus process as a 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.040 sort of expedient to keep the community from just tearing 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.920 itself apart through costs of conflict, right, because like, okay, 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:15.200 like if you can't actually without the threat of force, right, 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.720 you can't actually have society where you constantly have really 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.959 really controversial decisions being made by like fifty one forty 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.000 nine splits where both sides absolutely hate each other and 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:28.000 one side as imposed over the other. Right, And in 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:30.240 order to sort of like keep your like, you know, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:33.400 your like city or your state together, right, you have 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.600 to actually create political solutions that you know, people people, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.720 not not that they necessarily like fully agree with, but 0:12:40.760 --> 0:12:42.600 that they're willing to live with. And then you know, 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.160 this generates sort of like various so increasingly elaborate, sometimes 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.520 not very elabab but you know, various sort of forms 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.000 of consensus processes. On the other hand, you have societies 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.760 with extremely violent enforcement mechanisms, but these societies are almost 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.560 always incredibly hierarchical and they're ruled either by to monarchs 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.200 or oligarchs who just simply do not care about the 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.280 notion that like people should rule themselves or that you know, 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.120 other like other other people who are not like the 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.840 king or the body of oligarchs, should have like anything 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.160 even remotely to do with making decisions. And that that's 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.960 what makes Athens really weird, right is Athens has both 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.839 of these things. It has a sort of it has 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.680 like a violent it has a way of like imposing 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:32.440 decisions on people through violence. And also it has this 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:34.880 principle that like people should be able to make decisions 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.280 for themselves collectively by you know, like through through through 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.120 a sort of process that doesn't involve them all being 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:46.040 ruled by just like some guy. And you know what 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:47.959 makes Athens or the other and the other sort of 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.560 Greek democracies, because there are there are other democracies in 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.200 Greece over the sort of period that this goes on. 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.880 What makes them unique is that, like the people quote 0:13:56.920 --> 0:14:01.200 unquote is composed largely of soldiers, as Grabory puts it, 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.360 in other words, if a man is armed, then one 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:07.560 pretty much has to take his opinion into account. One 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.199 can see how this works and its starkist and Xenophon's 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:12.920 anabasis I have been I have now been told by 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:14.960 several dictionary sites that this is, in fact how you 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:17.280 pronounced it. I don't know. Annabassis sounds terrible to me, 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:22.440 but such as the will of of I don't know dictionaries, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.200 which tells the story of a Greek army of mercenaries 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.040 who suddenly find themselves leaderless and lost in the middle 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.480 of Persia. They elect new officers and then hold a 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.560 collective vote to decide what to do next. In a 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.080 case like this, even if the vote was actually sixty forty, 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:42.560 everyone could see the balance of forces in what would 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.120 happen if things actually came to blows. Every vote was 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.280 in a real sense a conquest. So what we're dealing 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.840 with here right in this is this is sort of 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.960 what democracy is is very rawest form. Is you are 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.440 dealing with a group of very heavily armed men who 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.640 need to find a way to convince slightly more than 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.280 half of the group to agree to help them impose 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.000 their rule on everyone else. Do you know what I 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.960 will get you? Do you do? You? Do you know 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.320 who will fail to pay your mercenary contract? Leaving you 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.240 stranded in the middle of a Persian civil war which 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:20.320 you have backed the wrong side. Vladimir Putin. Yeah, don't 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:34.320 take mercenary contracts in Vladimir Putin. And we're back. So, 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.480 you know, as I was sort of saying, well, what 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.360 we're dealing with here, right, we have a group of 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.120 very heavily armed men and they they need they need 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.040 to find a way to make you know, they need 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.160 to find a way to make like half of like 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.600 slightly more than half of the group agree with them 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.520 to impose their sort of rule on everyone else. So 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.440 it's slightly more technical terms, right, Athenian, you know, Athenian 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.840 democracy or democracy in the Athenian sense, it's composed of 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:04.000 two code determining elements fused together. There is a decision 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:08.360 making apparatus and an enforcement mechanism. The two are code 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.600 determining because the structure of the enforcement mechanism, which is 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.240 fifty one blokes with sticks beating forty nine blokes with 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.840 sticks over the head, also determines the structure of the 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.800 decision making apparatus, which no longer needs to concern itself 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.840 with the opinion of everyone in the group, as they 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:26.840 would in a society without the ability to sort of 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.240 employ violence to enforce decisions as long as they have 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.880 enough people to sort of militarily defeat a minority of 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.200 the group. Right, you know, you could you could see 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.320 how the structure, how the enforcement mechanism is is the 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.360 thing that is structuring what the decision making process has 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.120 to look like. Right. It's the thing that sort of 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.400 sets its limits. And this something that it turns out, 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.680 is very very sort of important in what a democracy is. 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:57.000 The enforcement mechanism, too, is also determined by the sort 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.560 of decision making apparatus. Because the people here are soldiers. 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.480 So the fifty one percent that becomes the sort of 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.560 like basis of the democratic majority rule. You know, it 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:13.240 literally composes the enforcement mechanism itself. And this sort of 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.000 double code determination is the origin of majority rule democracy. Right, 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:22.000 the institution that you know, in various forms, and we 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.640 will get into this like this has gotten increasingly less 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:30.840 and less quote unquote democratic over time, but this specific 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:32.920 form is the thing that has come to sort of 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:37.720 define what democracy is. If we look at what democracy 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.280 is as a political project, though, right, what we see 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.040 is that the essence of democracy itself is to transform 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.040 the majority from a simple count of military strength into 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.320 into a signal of morality. Right, The citizens of democracies, 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.000 and even even a lot of people who are either 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.920 not citizens of a democracy and live in it or 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.639 who don't live in a democracy, simply believe that is 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:01.600 the more or all right for a majority of people 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.440 to be able to impose the will in a minority. 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.000 This is this is just this you know, this this this, 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:07.600 this is what. This is what forms a kind of 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:10.520 democratic common sense. Right. It is the thing that everyone 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.520 believes that is sort of the basis of everything about 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.520 how a democracy functions. Right, And you know, democracy is 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:22.359 almost never framed this way explicitly except by you know, 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:23.920 every once in a while you'll get someone who makes 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.399 his argument who is like I don't know, they're a 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:30.680 billionaire or they're like, you know, what's his name? I yeah, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.280 high em will like like if you press him, or 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.439 like Milton Freeman to also well like if you press him, 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.520 will make this argument, right, which is like no one 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.560 actually wants to live in a democracy, because you know, 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:43.399 like if you you know, if if we actually live 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.440 in a democracy, everyone will just like increase our tax 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:51.640 rate or like marginalized groups will like these are critiques 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.560 made of the United States as well. Yeah. The earliest inception, right, yeah, 0:18:55.600 --> 0:18:56.680 you know, I know, what's his name, I think it was, 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.040 I think was John Adams. So some of the early founders, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.320 like very explicitly is their argument against, like maye various 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.920 was the anti democratic arguments against giving anyone who didn't 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:06.960 have property the vote, which was, like, I think that 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:09.080 the exact line was, if you give people the vote, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.920 the first thing they will do is erase the debts 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:15.480 and redistribute the land. Yeah, which was all ast rebellion 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.080 about this, right, yeah, yeah, I wish would have been 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.440 based a good program usually kind of kind of messed 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.080 up in the US where you have to ask where 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:27.520 that land comes from. But you know, yeah, but like, well, 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:29.600 this is this is an argument you really only ever 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:32.639 hear from people who have like the only minority that 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:34.680 makes this argument are people who have a ship ton 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.920 of property, who are like, oh god, and you know, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:39.840 and their their thing here is, well, okay, we need 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:41.720 to make the system blessed democratics so that people can't 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:45.920 take our property away, yeah, or give property rights. Yeah yeah. 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.280 But on the other hand, the reason for sort of 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.720 pointing out that this is what democracy is in theory 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:57.159 is really sort of cynical and like reactionary. But the 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:00.680 thing that the reason this argument works quote quote works 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.719 with sort of like you know, with with sort of libertarians, 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.560 is that this equation of of sort of numerical superiority 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.399 with the more right to exercise power is like the 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.639 key underlying assumption of democracy. It is the idea without 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:17.000 which democracy simply seizes the function. Right. But but this 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.399 is something that you know, people don't talk about democracy 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:25.040 like this, right. The sort of trick of the democratic 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.560 system is to make is to push the enforcement mechanism 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.920 into the background. Right when when when you talk about 0:20:30.000 --> 0:20:32.240 democracy with like regular people, the thing that they walk 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.480 and they normally they think about voting, right, But you know, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.800 and any any kind of thing that is like a 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:41.240 collective like decision making process, right, a regular person is 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:45.360 going to call democracy. And you know, there if that's 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.760 kind of true. But but you know, but if if 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.440 if you want to sort of get like technical about it, 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.960 it's not. And there's an there's an incredibly large ideological 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.320 apparatus that's specifically built up around making sure that people 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.800 don't look at the way that the that the enforcement 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:06.720 mechanism is as much, if not more so, a sort 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.239 of key element of what of what democracy is than 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:11.840 the part where you know, where everyone comes together and 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:13.760 make it makes a decision that everyone talks about all 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:16.280 the time. I was watching an interview with Gray But 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:18.760 the other day such other things I do in my 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:23.240 free time, and he was talking about like democratic confederalism 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.840 in Northeast Syria, right, and he talked about it as 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.879 like democracy without the state, which I think it's interesting, 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:35.920 like it's him using that vernacular yeah definition, So okay, 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:38.719 So I think I'm taking a lot of the arguments 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.240 from self grabber wrote, but he backs away from the 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.720 implications of his own argument, right yeah, and goes back 0:21:44.760 --> 0:21:49.159 to albeit like caveating there were and I guess it's 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.959 worth noting that there are a ton of like hugely 0:21:52.040 --> 0:21:56.080 divergent like we're not like prisoners of etymology, right, like 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.920 like yeah them meaning like I think it's Rosa Luxem 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:04.320 who said government is uh politics into people's interests or 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:09.000 something that it's kind of bullshit tanky interpretation of that. 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.200 Most people would see it as there are these broad definitions, 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:13.920 you know, And I think this is something that like 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:16.960 like Asher Taylor's documentary, right, like you know the part 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.359 about that's good. Right, it's like there's I forget who 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.359 says that there's this like kind of famous political line 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.040 that's like I if if if if if there if 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.240 there is a thing that everyone agrees is good, no 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:31.240 one will agree on what it is, right, Like, you know, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:33.520 this is something that like you know, like I think 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:35.919 I think it's it speaks to the power I think 0:22:35.960 --> 0:22:37.800 it sas specifically to the power of the sort of 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.880