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A Modest Proposal for Transforming Europe: Yanis Varoufakis at TEDxAcademy

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    When Gandhi was asked once
    to comment on European civilization,
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    his quip was,
    "It would be a very good idea."
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    When asked today about
    our views on the European Union,
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    I think we can be excused
    to reply in a similar fashion.
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    What a splendid idea it would be
    if we could only pull it off.
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    United only in name,
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    the European Union is, I'm afraid,
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    in a process of disintegration
    as we speak.
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    With the commitment and determination
    of a termite colony,
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    which is eating into the foundations,
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    very soon there will be nothing left
    but an empty shell,
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    to remind us of the lofty ideal,
    that used to be the European Union.
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    In Agatha Christie novels
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    when the reader comes across
    in the prologue a group of characters,
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    upper class characters usually
    that are congregating some chateau,
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    the reader knows what to expect,
    a series of murders.
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    Similarly, today when we hear that our
    European politicians are gathering today
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    or together we know what to expect,
    a comedy of errors
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    which will be wrapped up
    in triumphant rhetoric,
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    but which very soon will prove
    to be nothing more
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    than dangerous harmful waffle.
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    To err is human.
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    But to mess up spectacularly
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    we need an elite
    made up of prime ministers,
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    presidents, ministers,
    apparatchiks, opinion makers
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    who are determined not to face up
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    to a systemic crisis systematically.
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    Alas, at least now we have enough evidence
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    that renders all such denial inexcusable.
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    Humanity has not surprised itself
    very often
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    but it has done so twice in the past.
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    Οnce in 1929 and yet again
    more recently in 2008.
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    1929 ought to have taught us
    a very simple binary twin lesson.
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    First that the first victim of such
    a crisis is the common currency.
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    It was the gold standard in 1929,
    it is the Euro today.
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    The second victim
    is of course truth and civility.
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    One such terrible crisis hits the world.
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    A Hobbesian war of all against all
    is unleashed on an unsuspecting humanity
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    and the first victim is our capacity
    to recognize the systemic crisis
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    we are in, as a systemic crisis.
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    And therefore it renders us incapable
    of accepting our responsibility
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    for at least a portion of that crisis.
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    Thrillers begin with
    some cunning detective who is unmasking
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    one shady character after the other.
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    But good thrillers,
    I submit to you,
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    do not end with
    the unveiling of the perpetrator.
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    Τhey go one step further.
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    Τhey reach the momentus moment
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    when the cunning detective
    inadvertently unmasks himself.
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    Bewildered he is staring
    at his own image in the mirror.
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    This crisis is having
    a similar effect on all of us.
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    Our masks are falling.
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    Unscrupulous bankers, inane politicians,
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    conniving entrepreneurs,
    cynical academics,
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    uncritical citizens,
    who are all being unmasked
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    but as their masks keep falling
    the dejection is becoming generalized.
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    Meanwhile the human costs
    are mounting up
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    and the only way of making sense of them
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    and measuring them sensibly
    is by means of counting lost generations.
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    It is time to transform Europe
    and to be transformed in the process.
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    Now, the medical profession
    only very recently
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    managed to save
    more people than it killed.
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    Up until the 1920s or so
    the disease was preferable to the cure.
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    Similarly with the Εuro crisis now
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    our European leaders are enacting,
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    what I call a poisonous medicine.
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    Toxic bailouts, inane austerity.
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    We created, in order to salvage
    a Εuro system, a currency union
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    which was never meant,
    never designed to sustain
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    the catastrophe of 2008,
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    the shockwaves of that great earthquake.
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    What we have done is we created a scaffold
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    which is, instead of helping
    the edifice from collapsing
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    it is putting more pressure on it.
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    We've created
    this European Financial Stability
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    or Instability Facility
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    and we modeled it.
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    We created it in the image
    of Lehman Brothers' infamous derivatives.
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    It was as if we took two stones
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    and we tied them together
    by means of a string,
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    hoping they will float more readily.
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    The result of course
    is the uncontrolled disintegration
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    that we are experiencing.
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    Now, by now most people
    are realizing this.
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    So what we have here is
    a new Jerusalem that is being canvased.
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    It comes in the form
    of the so called "Federal Option."
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    Well-meaning Europeans
    and some friends from federal field
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    recite this litany of federal concepts,
    ideas, suggestions.
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    I'll just give you some.
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    We hear of the importance of forging
    a Fiscal or a Transfer Union in Europe,
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    of having a Federal Treasury,
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    of giving a new Leviathan,
    a new Economic Czar
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    the power to rule over all of us
    with an armed fist and keep us in awe.
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    What we hear about is Centralized
    Disposal of National Assets,
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    particularly of the Greek kind.
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    The laws of National Sovereignty
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    as a price we have
    to pay for this Fiscal Union
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    and of course the dreaded treaty changes
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    that have to go through
    27 parliaments and/or electorates.
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    I submit to you that this is both
    unworkable and undesirable.
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    Why is it unworkable?
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    Because
    - and this is a message to federalists -
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    the worst enemy of federalism
    at the moment is itself.
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    And the reason why
    I'm saying this is because
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    if we move in the federals' direction
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    the crisis is certain to outpace us.
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    It would run faster than we do.
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    And when the treaty changes take longer
    than the collapse of the Euro,
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    all we will be left with
    is the smouldering mess
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    in which there will be
    nothing left to federate.
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    But there is a second reason
    why this Federal Option needs to be shunt
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    and it is that if the United States
    of Europe is a good idea,
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    it is not an idea that should be
    wasted and subsumed
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    in the context of trying
    to solve the current crisis.
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    Let me put it very simply.
    The Federal Option will only be possible
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    once the crisis is over,
    not as an antidote to the crisis.
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    We will only be capable
    and worthy of federation,
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    when as European we can imagine the future
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    in which Greeks and Germans
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    will be voting in Greek and German
    politicians to represent us.
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    We will only be able to affect
    a decent Federal Europe
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    when we can imagine a situation
    where our national armies
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    are dissolved and are merged
    into a common European Defense force.
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    We are only going to be able
    to put together a decent Federation
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    if we can imagine a situation
    where our views are assessed
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    within Europe on the basis
    of their merits and the merits alone,
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    what the ancient Athenians
    used to refer as "Isigoria."
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    As opposed to judging what somebody says
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    on the basis of the who they are,
    what accent they speak in
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    which country they come from,
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    and finally at a symbolic,
    but a very important level,
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    let me say this, we are only going
    to be capable of a proper federation
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    when we can decide as Europeans
    what to print on our euro notes.
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    Instead of these abstract bridges
    and gates that symbolize one thing,
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    our incapacity to agree on common symbols.
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    So if I'm right that the new Jerusalem
    is not really a new Jerusalem,
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    and that it is putting forward
    an unworkable and undesirable idea,
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    which will also lead
    to uncontrolled disintegration,
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    then what is the alternative?
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    Well, let me suggest to you
    that before we agree in an alternative,
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    perhaps we should agree
    on some shared principles
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    that should govern our future.
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    Τhese future principles
    may seem contradictory
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    but they can be rendered harmoniously
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    and if they can't then we have no future.
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    Let me give you examples.
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    One principle is that I think we should
    end the perfectly partitioned Europe
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    that we created in Maastricht
    in order to create the Euro,
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    while at the same time however,
    strengthening National Sovereignty
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    and empowering National Responsibility
    within that model.
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    Another set.
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    End the soothest solidarity
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    which is being imposed upon
    the Dutch and the Germans
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    in order to give bailouts, pretend
    bailouts to the Greeks and to the Irish.
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    Stop inane austerity which is only
    making the debt crisis worse.
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    Ignore all the calls for debt buybacks
    which will not work,
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    but at the same time integrate investment
    and management of our problems
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    like existing debt and banking losses.
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    This is what I refer to
    as decentralized europeanization
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    so allow me an acronym.
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    Decent Europe.
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    Europeanize what?
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    Free realms.
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    We need a management
    of existing debt at a European level.
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    We need management of the banking sector
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    which is collapsing all over us,
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    and we need a europeanized
    investment policy in aggregate.
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    How do we do this
    without treaty changes and federation?
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    We already have existing
    institutions in Europe
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    and each one of them
    can be assigned one of these tasks.
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    I'm not going to go into this.
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    This is not the place or the time.
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    You can see more
    of this proposal elsewhere.
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    All I want to do now
    is to give you a flavor
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    of what the whole purpose of this is.
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    Decentralized europeanization
    creates circumstances
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    for national sovereignty
    and national responsibility
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    to be strengthened.
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    Because if we integrate
    these three spheres in Europe
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    of existing debt, of banks
    and investment flows,
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    then at the national level
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    each member state
    can run a balanced budget,
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    and can learn to live within its means,
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    and also to be empowered
    within these limits
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    to exercise a full national sovereignty.
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    So I present
    this Decent Europe proposal to you
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    as if you want a forger
    of a future Federation's prerequisite,
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    which I already mentioned
    and I won't mention again.
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    Let me finish by reminding you of a myth,
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    according which Sibyl of Cumae
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    offered Tarquinius Superbus,
    the king of Rome at the time,
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    the nine books of wisdom at a price that
    Tarquinius considered to be exorbitant
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    and therefore he said no to the offer.
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    Sibyl as you all know started burning
    one of these volumes after the other
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    until Tarquinius relented agreeing
    to pay the original high price
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    for the remaining three volumes.
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    Let me suggest that the European crisis
    is following Sibyl's strategy.
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    The problem is that our European leaders
    keep saying no
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    and therefore threatening
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    to allow our common heritage
    to burn in its entirety.
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    Decentralized europeanization
    offers Europe a chance
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    to save its last three books
    of wisdom or the equivalent.
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    It offers us a chance
    to usher in a new era
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    in which Europeans,
    Northern and Southern,
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    Western and Eastern,
    can stare into each others eyes
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    and see and recognize a partner.
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    If we miss this chance,
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    then Europe is going
    to be dragging the whole planet
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    into a despicable mire
    for a third time in a century.
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    It is our duty and over overarching
    obligation to prevent this.
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
Title:
A Modest Proposal for Transforming Europe: Yanis Varoufakis at TEDxAcademy
Description:

Professor Varoufakis proposes a decentralized system for europe in order to transform it before the crisis of the system crashes Europe. He studies all the different possibilities of actions that can be taken and explains why his proposal is the best option.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
13:22
  • Hi Chryssa, thank you for completing this transcript. Just a note: don't forget to edit the title and description!

  • Oh... I did actually, I'm pretty sure I did. I guess it got lost when it didn't save and I had to downlad a backup. It probably didn't take the title/description edits.

  • Thanks for the quick approval :)

  • 9:50 - 9:52 End the soothest solidarity

    soothest - > pseudo

    Corrected upon request.

English subtitles

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