Democracy means government by the poor, for the poor.

I got a message from a viewer I guess
I'll call him John his name his name's actually John he says quote unrelated to this video but I always wanted to ask you something I've heard you say on multiple occasions that you're not a socialist and not a communist this is true quote I feel as though you've not even put yourself on the left wing not that it matters very much so close quote I'll come back as marriage it depends on where I'm living so if we move to Texas I think I'm left wing in Texas quote despite this I could imagine you'd be critical of an american-style system which creates the incredible net melt of inequality that it does pause wait his point is can you speak to how you to improve upon this american-style free-market system without creating a Cuban or venezuelan style system this is question one question two also do you generally agree that inequity is the enemy of democracy um so the second the second question is the fastest to answer so Melissa and I have been reading the ancient Greek she's doing her own video so I'm not gonna attribute I'm not gonna speak for Melissa but the the issue of equality is huge in Athenian democracy it's huge and fundamental and the world would be a better place if people had a better education in the ancient Greeks you know there was a very simple line from pseudo Xenophon talking about the the constitution of athens and you know he says bluntly in passing a democracy is a country ruled by the poorest democracy is a system that puts governments in government in the hands of the poorest right that's something totally different from equality right and that's my concern I want government for the poor of the poor by the poor and this was seen as as both the advantage and the disadvantage of Athens was that decisions were being made in the interests of the poor by and for the poor and of course interestingly a figure like Cicero he's very much reacting against that he's really an anti-democratic philosopher although you know he plays his cards carefully so he doesn't seem like too much of a fascist and you know Plato and many of these other people the people who actually lived through the execution of Socrates probably because they saw the death of Socrates there was so chakra that a lot of them really became critics of democracy or somewhat anteed but many of the most the most eloquent philosophers we have that let us see the virtues of Athenian democracy were themselves harsh critics of Athenian mockery and they were not comfortable at all with rule by the poor and they pointed out again even pseudo Xenophon himself they say well he says well if you let the poor control government they build these bath houses you can pick your bath houses in beside boys then they spend the government budget on the Olympic Games and festivals and you know crowd pleasing sports stadiums and [ __ ] it's true you know Port Angeles to say this is this this is actually my concern is not equality now of course with that Ivan said obviously when one political power is in the hands of the poor or it's functioning for the poor when government is for and about the forests it's gonna meliorate the conditions of the poor I don't think it creates equality per se but it creates for example access to education and health care and roads and all kinds of benefits for you know so yeah but this is a different conceptual design and also again this reflects my fundamental nihilistic ethic which is that I say no for me ethics is about doing the best you can this is very different from starting with a kind of geometric concept of equality alright so the other half of this so sir he's asking do you generally agree that inequality is the enemy of democracy and my answer is no the enemy of democracy is aristocracy the enemy of democracy is oligarchy the enemy of democracy is monarchy throw it hand although today it's not as much of a threat if you are ruled by an oligarchy which is in my opinion what Canada is ruled by people once we have a system of polite oligarchy then democracy takes that unequal triangle and turns it upside down but it's still an unequal triangle and you know sure it will probably better for the poor hard to see how it'd be worse if you I mean just think about it sorry Canadian Parliament has so many hundred seats I don't know the number NORs how many of them are occupied by poor people how many of the market by by the poorest to use superfoods I mean really poor you only know Obama people thought people don't know about me was a professor of law at MIT people thought that Obama is being bored was poor compared to Mitt Romney Mitt Romney was a motivator you know Donald Trump is a multi-millionaire so so compared to these people people that go balls for I'm not talking of host law professors I'm talking about really poor people how often do poor people even speak in Parliament never but you know my point is know this is taking that triangle and turning it upside down it's not turning the triangle into a square okay mixed metaphor no does that make sense [Music]