How to revive your belief in democracy
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0:01 - 0:02I bring you greetings
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0:02 - 0:05from the 52nd-freest nation on earth.
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0:06 - 0:11As an American, it irritates me
that my nation keeps sinking -
0:11 - 0:14in the annual rankings
published by Freedom House. -
0:14 - 0:15I'm the son of immigrants.
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0:15 - 0:19My parents were born in China
during war and revolution, -
0:19 - 0:22went to Taiwan and then came
to the United States, -
0:22 - 0:23which means all my life,
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0:23 - 0:28I've been acutely aware just how fragile
an inheritance freedom truly is. -
0:29 - 0:34That's why I spend my time teaching,
preaching and practicing democracy. -
0:35 - 0:37I have no illusions.
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0:37 - 0:38All around the world now,
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0:38 - 0:41people are doubting
whether democracy can deliver. -
0:41 - 0:44Autocrats and demagogues seem emboldened,
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0:44 - 0:45even cocky.
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0:45 - 0:47The free world feels leaderless.
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0:48 - 0:50And yet, I remain hopeful.
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0:51 - 0:53I don't mean optimistic.
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0:53 - 0:55Optimism is for spectators.
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0:56 - 0:58Hope implies agency.
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0:58 - 1:00It says I have a hand in the outcome.
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1:00 - 1:03Democratic hope requires faith
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1:03 - 1:06not in a strongman or a charismatic savior
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1:06 - 1:08but in each other,
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1:08 - 1:13and it forces us to ask:
How can we become worthy of such faith? -
1:15 - 1:18I believe we are at a moment
of moral awakening, -
1:18 - 1:21the kind that comes
when old certainties collapse. -
1:21 - 1:25At the heart of that awakening
is what I call "civic religion." -
1:26 - 1:30And today, I want to talk about
what civic religion is, -
1:30 - 1:32how we practice it,
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1:32 - 1:34and why it matters now more than ever.
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1:34 - 1:36Let me start with the what.
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1:37 - 1:42I define civic religion as a system
of shared beliefs and collective practices -
1:42 - 1:46by which the members
of a self-governing community -
1:46 - 1:48choose to live like citizens.
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1:49 - 1:52Now, when I say "citizen" here,
I'm not referring to papers or passports. -
1:52 - 1:56I'm talking about a deeper,
broader, ethical conception -
1:56 - 1:59of being a contributor to community,
a member of the body. -
2:00 - 2:04To speak of civic religion as religion
is not poetic license. -
2:05 - 2:06That's because democracy
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2:06 - 2:09is one of the most faith-fueled
human activities there is. -
2:10 - 2:14Democracy works only when enough of us
believe democracy works. -
2:15 - 2:17It is at once a gamble and a miracle.
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2:18 - 2:23Its legitimacy comes not from
the outer frame of constitutional rules, -
2:23 - 2:26but from the inner workings
of civic spirit. -
2:28 - 2:30Civic religion, like any religion,
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2:30 - 2:34contains a sacred creed,
sacred deeds and sacred rituals. -
2:35 - 2:40My creed includes words like
"equal protection of the laws" -
2:40 - 2:42and "we the people."
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2:42 - 2:46My roll call of hallowed deeds
includes abolition, women's suffrage, -
2:46 - 2:48the civil rights movement,
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2:48 - 2:50the Allied landing at Normandy,
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2:50 - 2:52the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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2:53 - 2:56And I have a new civic ritual
that I'll tell you about in a moment. -
2:57 - 2:59Wherever on earth you're from,
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2:59 - 3:04you can find or make
your own set of creed, deed and ritual. -
3:04 - 3:09The practice of civic religion
is not about worship of the state -
3:09 - 3:11or obedience to a ruling party.
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3:11 - 3:13It is about commitment to one another
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3:13 - 3:14and our common ideals.
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3:15 - 3:20And the sacredness of civic religion
is not about divinity or the supernatural. -
3:21 - 3:23It is about a group of unlike people
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3:23 - 3:26speaking into being our alikeness,
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3:26 - 3:28our groupness.
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3:29 - 3:31Perhaps now you're getting
a little worried -
3:31 - 3:33that I'm trying to sell you on a cult.
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3:34 - 3:35Relax, I'm not.
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3:35 - 3:37I don't need to sell you.
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3:37 - 3:41As a human, you are always
in the market for a cult, -
3:41 - 3:44for some variety of religious experience.
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3:44 - 3:47We are wired to seek
cosmological explanations, -
3:47 - 3:51to sacralize beliefs
that unite us in transcendent purpose. -
3:52 - 3:55Humans make religion
because humans make groups. -
3:55 - 3:59The only choice we have is whether
to activate that groupness for good. -
4:00 - 4:03If you are a devout person, you know this.
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4:03 - 4:05If you are not,
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4:05 - 4:07if you no longer go to prayer services
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4:07 - 4:08or never did,
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4:09 - 4:12then perhaps you'll say
that yoga is your religion, -
4:12 - 4:15or Premier League football,
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4:15 - 4:18or knitting, or coding or TED Talks.
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4:19 - 4:23But whether you believe in a God
or in the absence of gods, -
4:23 - 4:27civic religion does not require you
to renounce your beliefs. -
4:27 - 4:30It requires you only
to show up as a citizen. -
4:32 - 4:34And that brings me to my second topic:
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4:34 - 4:37how we can practice
civic religion productively. -
4:38 - 4:41Let me tell you now
about that new civic ritual. -
4:41 - 4:43It's called "Civic Saturday,"
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4:43 - 4:46and it follows the arc
of a faith gathering. -
4:46 - 4:47We sing together,
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4:47 - 4:51we turn to the strangers next to us
to discuss a common question, -
4:52 - 4:54we hear poetry and scripture,
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4:54 - 4:57there's a sermon that ties those texts
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4:57 - 5:00to the ethical choices
and controversies of our time, -
5:01 - 5:03but the song and scripture and the sermon
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5:03 - 5:06are not from church
or synagogue or mosque. -
5:06 - 5:07They are civic,
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5:07 - 5:10drawn from our shared civic ideals
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5:10 - 5:14and a shared history of claiming
and contesting those ideals. -
5:15 - 5:21Afterwards, we form up in circles
to organize rallies, register voters, -
5:21 - 5:23join new clubs, make new friends.
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5:24 - 5:27My colleagues and I
started organizing Civic Saturdays -
5:27 - 5:29in Seattle in 2016.
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5:29 - 5:32Since then, they have spread
across the continent. -
5:32 - 5:36Sometimes hundreds attend,
sometimes dozens. -
5:36 - 5:38They happen in libraries
and community centers -
5:38 - 5:40and coworking spaces,
-
5:40 - 5:42under festive tents
and inside great halls. -
5:43 - 5:47There's nothing high-tech
about this social technology. -
5:47 - 5:51It speaks to a basic human yearning
for face-to-face fellowship. -
5:52 - 5:56It draws young and old, left and right,
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5:56 - 5:59poor and rich, churched and unchurched,
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5:59 - 6:00of all races.
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6:01 - 6:06When you come to a Civic Saturday
and are invited to discuss a question -
6:06 - 6:08like "Who are you responsible for?"
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6:08 - 6:14or "What are you willing to risk
or to give up for your community?" -
6:15 - 6:17When that happens, something moves.
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6:17 - 6:19You are moved.
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6:19 - 6:21You start telling your story.
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6:21 - 6:24We start actually seeing one another.
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6:24 - 6:28You realize that homelessness,
gun violence, gentrification, -
6:28 - 6:32terrible traffic, mistrust
of newcomers, fake news -- -
6:32 - 6:34these things
aren't someone else's problem, -
6:34 - 6:38they are the aggregation
of your own habits and omissions. -
6:38 - 6:41Society becomes how you behave.
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6:43 - 6:48We are never asked to reflect
on the content of our citizenship. -
6:49 - 6:55Most of us are never invited
to do more or to be more, -
6:55 - 6:59and most of us have no idea
how much we crave that invitation. -
7:01 - 7:03We've since created a civic seminary
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7:03 - 7:07to start training people from all over
to lead Civic Saturday gatherings -
7:07 - 7:09on their own, in their own towns.
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7:10 - 7:12In the community of Athens, Tennessee,
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7:12 - 7:15a feisty leader named Whitney Kimball Coe
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7:15 - 7:17leads hers in an art and framing shop
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7:17 - 7:20with a youth choir
and lots of little flags. -
7:20 - 7:22A young activist named Berto Aguayo
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7:22 - 7:25led his Civic Saturday on a street corner
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7:25 - 7:28in the Back of the Yards
neighborhood of Chicago. -
7:28 - 7:30Berto was once involved with gangs.
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7:30 - 7:33Now, he's keeping the peace
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7:33 - 7:35and organizing political campaigns.
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7:36 - 7:39In Honolulu, Rafael Bergstrom,
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7:39 - 7:43a former pro baseball player
turned photographer and conservationist, -
7:43 - 7:46leads his under the banner
"Civics IS Sexy." -
7:47 - 7:48It is.
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7:48 - 7:51(Laughter)
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7:51 - 7:53Sometimes I'm asked,
even by our seminarians: -
7:53 - 7:56"Isn't it dangerous
to use religious language? -
7:56 - 8:00Won't that just make our politics
even more dogmatic and self-righteous?" -
8:00 - 8:04But this view assumes that all religion
is fanatical fundamentalism. -
8:05 - 8:06It is not.
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8:07 - 8:11Religion is also moral discernment,
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8:11 - 8:13an embrace of doubt,
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8:13 - 8:16a commitment to detach from self
and serve others, -
8:16 - 8:18a challenge to repair the world.
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8:19 - 8:23In this sense, politics could stand
to be a little more like religion, -
8:23 - 8:25not less.
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8:26 - 8:28Thus, my final topic today:
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8:28 - 8:30why civic religion matters now.
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8:32 - 8:33I want to offer two reasons.
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8:33 - 8:37One is to counter the culture
of hyperindividualism. -
8:38 - 8:41Every message we get
from every screen and surface -
8:41 - 8:43of the modern marketplace
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8:43 - 8:45is that each of us is on our own,
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8:45 - 8:47a free agent,
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8:47 - 8:49free to manage our own brands,
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8:49 - 8:50free to live under bridges,
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8:51 - 8:53free to have side hustles,
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8:53 - 8:55free to die alone without insurance.
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8:56 - 9:00Market liberalism tells us
we are masters beholden to none, -
9:00 - 9:03but then it enslaves us
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9:03 - 9:07in the awful isolation
of consumerism and status anxiety. -
9:07 - 9:08(Audience) Yeah!
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9:08 - 9:11Millions of us are on to the con now.
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9:11 - 9:14We are realizing now
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9:14 - 9:18that a free-for-all is not the same
as freedom for all. -
9:18 - 9:24(Applause)
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9:24 - 9:26What truly makes us free
is being bound to others -
9:26 - 9:29in mutual aid and obligation,
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9:29 - 9:33having to work things out the best we can
in our neighborhoods and towns, -
9:33 - 9:35as if our fates were entwined --
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9:35 - 9:36because they are --
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9:36 - 9:39as if we could not secede
from one another, -
9:39 - 9:41because, in the end, we cannot.
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9:42 - 9:45Binding ourselves this way
actually liberates us. -
9:46 - 9:49It reveals that we are equal in dignity.
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9:49 - 9:52It reminds us that rights
come with responsibilities. -
9:53 - 9:55It reminds us, in fact,
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9:55 - 9:59that rights properly understood
are responsibilities. -
10:00 - 10:03The second reason
why civic religion matters now -
10:03 - 10:08is that it offers the healthiest
possible story of us and them. -
10:09 - 10:15We talk about identity politics today
as if it were something new, -
10:15 - 10:17but it's not.
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10:17 - 10:19All politics is identity politics,
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10:19 - 10:23a never-ending struggle
to define who truly belongs. -
10:23 - 10:29Instead of noxious myths of blood and soil
that mark some as forever outsiders, -
10:29 - 10:33civic religion offers everyone
a path to belonging -
10:33 - 10:37based only a universal creed
of contribution, participation, -
10:37 - 10:38inclusion.
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10:39 - 10:44In civic religion, the "us"
is those who wish to serve, -
10:44 - 10:48volunteer, vote, listen, learn,
empathize, argue better, -
10:48 - 10:51circulate power rather than hoard it.
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10:51 - 10:53The "them" is those who don't.
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10:54 - 10:57It is possible to judge the them harshly,
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10:57 - 10:59but it isn't necessary,
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10:59 - 11:04for at any time, one of them
can become one of us, -
11:04 - 11:07simply by choosing to live like a citizen.
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11:08 - 11:09So let's welcome them in.
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11:10 - 11:14Whitney and Berto and Rafael
are gifted welcomers. -
11:15 - 11:18Each has a distinctive, locally rooted way
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11:18 - 11:21to make faith in democracy
relatable to others. -
11:21 - 11:25Their slang might be Appalachian
or South Side or Hawaiian. -
11:25 - 11:27Their message is the same:
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11:27 - 11:31civic love, civic spirit,
civic responsibility. -
11:33 - 11:35Now you might think
that all this civic religion stuff -
11:35 - 11:39is just for overzealous
second-generation Americans like me. -
11:40 - 11:43But actually, it is for anyone, anywhere,
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11:43 - 11:45who wants to kindle the bonds of trust,
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11:45 - 11:48affection and joint action
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11:48 - 11:50needed to govern ourselves in freedom.
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11:51 - 11:53Now maybe Civic Saturdays aren't for you.
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11:53 - 11:55That's OK.
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11:55 - 11:59Find your own ways to foster
civic habits of the heart. -
12:00 - 12:04Many forms of beloved
civic community are thriving now, -
12:04 - 12:05in this age of awakening.
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12:05 - 12:08Groups like Community Organizing Japan,
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12:08 - 12:11which uses creative performative
rituals of storytelling -
12:11 - 12:13to promote equality for women.
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12:14 - 12:17In Iceland, civil confirmations,
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12:17 - 12:19where young people are led by an elder
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12:19 - 12:22to learn the history
and civic traditions of their society, -
12:22 - 12:25culminating in a rite-of-passage ceremony
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12:25 - 12:27akin to church confirmation.
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12:28 - 12:30Ben Franklin Circles in the United States,
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12:30 - 12:32where friends meet monthly
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12:32 - 12:36to discuss and reflect upon the virtues
that Franklin codified -
12:36 - 12:38in his autobiography,
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12:38 - 12:42like justice and gratitude
and forgiveness. -
12:43 - 12:46I know civic religion is not enough
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12:46 - 12:49to remedy the radical
inequities of our age. -
12:49 - 12:51We need power for that.
-
12:51 - 12:55But power without character
is a cure worse than the disease. -
12:56 - 13:00I know civic religion alone
can't fix corrupt institutions, -
13:01 - 13:06but institutional reforms
without new norms will not last. -
13:06 - 13:08Culture is upstream of law.
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13:09 - 13:11Spirit is upstream of policy.
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13:11 - 13:14The soul is upstream of the state.
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13:14 - 13:19We cannot unpollute our politics
if we clean only downstream. -
13:19 - 13:20We must get to the source.
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13:21 - 13:23The source is our values,
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13:24 - 13:28and on the topic of values,
my advice is simple: have some. -
13:29 - 13:31(Laughter)
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13:31 - 13:36(Applause)
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13:36 - 13:38Make sure those values are prosocial.
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13:38 - 13:40Put them into practice,
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13:40 - 13:42and do so in the company of others,
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13:42 - 13:46with a structure of creed,
deed and joyful ritual -
13:46 - 13:48that'll keep all of you coming back.
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13:49 - 13:53Those of us who believe in democracy
and believe it is still possible, -
13:53 - 13:55we have the burden of proving it.
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13:55 - 13:58But remember, it is no burden at all
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13:58 - 14:02to be in a community
where you are seen as fully human, -
14:02 - 14:04where you have a say
in the things that affect you, -
14:04 - 14:07where you don't need
to be connected to be respected. -
14:08 - 14:09That is called a blessing,
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14:10 - 14:13and it is available to all who believe.
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14:13 - 14:15Thank you.
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14:15 - 14:21(Applause)
- Title:
- How to revive your belief in democracy
- Speaker:
- Eric Liu
- Description:
-
Civic evangelist Eric Liu shares a powerful way to rekindle the spirit of citizenship and the belief that democracy still works. Join him for a trip to "Civic Saturday" and learn more about how making civic engagement a weekly habit can help build communities based on shared values and a path to belonging.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:33
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Oliver Friedman approved English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How to revive your belief in democracy |