What Is Democracy? | movie | 2018 | Official Trailer | dG1fWU9ycEZDS0xaMFk
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Do you live in a democracy?
00:06Yes, absolutely.
00:07Do you vote?
00:08No.
00:09No, I do not.
00:10If there's one issue you think is undermining our democracy, what is it?
00:13Great question.
00:15Everywhere you look, democracy is in trouble.
00:18How do you make democracy out of an undemocratic people?
00:21That's our problem today.
00:24Democracy, it doesn't feel like this in my head.
00:26It doesn't feel like being scared for my life.
00:28I'm from Aleppo.
00:29Aleppo is my home.
00:30I grew up in Syria.
00:31I don't know anything about it.
00:35Plato's Republic provides the most powerful indictment of not just democratic practices,
00:41but the possibility of democracy.
00:44Plato says in the Republic, in Book 8, that rich people want to become richer.
00:50And wealthy oligarchs know that they cannot hold on to power in truly democratic elections.
00:59It's been so abused and so misapplied compared to its original meaning, which means the power
01:07of the people.
01:09So many of the problems we're confronting are a direct consequence of the fact that
01:18slavery was never fully abolished.
01:22If we are going to struggle to make a better world, a more democratic world, we all first
01:26must agree that all lives has equal value.
01:29So we're still wrestling with Plato's challenge.
01:31Plato's challenge will never go away.
01:34Will never go away.