What happens when the whole world votes? | Simon Anholt | TEDxFrankfurt
-
0:02 - 0:07As many of you know, the results of
the recent election were as follows: -
0:07 - 0:12Hillary Clinton, Democratic Candidate
went a lenghts loud victory, -
0:12 - 0:15with 52% of the overall vote.
-
0:15 - 0:20Jill Stein, the Green Candidate,
came a distant second with 19%. -
0:20 - 0:26Donald J. Trump, the Republican Candidate
was caught up on our hills with 14%. -
0:26 - 0:31And their remainder of the vote was shared
between abstainers and Gary Jonhson, -
0:31 - 0:33the Libertarian Candidate.
-
0:34 - 0:39(Astonishing silence and then
laughters in the audience) -
0:39 - 0:42What parallel Universe
do you suppose I'm living? -
0:43 - 0:47I don't live in a parallel
Universe, I live in the world. -
0:47 - 0:49And that is outer world verdict.
-
0:50 - 0:53Let me take you back and
explain what I mean by that. -
0:53 - 0:57In June this year, I loaned
something called 'The Global Vote.' -
0:57 - 1:01And the Global Vote, does
exactly what it says on the tin. -
1:01 - 1:06For the first time in history, elects
anybody, anywhere in the world -
1:06 - 1:09vote in the elections of
other people's countries. -
1:10 - 1:11Why would you do that?
-
1:11 - 1:13What's the point?
-
1:13 - 1:15Let me show you what it looks like.
-
1:16 - 1:24You go to a website, rated beautiful
website and then you select an election -
1:24 - 1:26here's a bunch of what
we've already covered, -
1:26 - 1:30we do about it one a month or there about
-
1:30 - 1:33so you can see by gallery
the United States of America, -
1:33 - 1:35Secretary General of the United Nations,
-
1:35 - 1:38the Brexit Referendum at the end head.
-
1:38 - 1:44You select the election that you're
interested in and you pick the candidate. -
1:44 - 1:47These are the candidates for the recent
Presidential elections in the tiny -
1:47 - 1:53Island Nation in São Tomé and Prìncipe,
under 99 of thousand inhabitants, -
1:53 - 1:54off the coast of West Africa.
-
1:54 - 2:00And then you can look at the brief
summary of each of those candidates, -
2:00 - 2:04which I dearly hope it's very neutral,
very informative and very succinct. -
2:05 - 2:07And when you find the
one you like, you vote. -
2:08 - 2:13These were the candidates in the
recent Islandic Presidential election. -
2:13 - 2:15And that's the way it goes.
-
2:16 - 2:21Why not would you do want to vote
in another country's election? -
2:22 - 2:26The reason you wouldn't want
to do it, let me reassure you, -
2:26 - 2:29is in order to interfere in the
democratic process of another country. -
2:29 - 2:31That's not the purpose at all.
-
2:31 - 2:36Infact you can't, because usually
what I do is I release the results after -
2:36 - 2:39the elector in each individual
country has already voted, -
2:39 - 2:42so there's not way that we
can interfere in that process. -
2:42 - 2:45But more importantly, I'm
not particularly interested -
2:45 - 2:47in the domestic issues
of individual countries, -
2:47 - 2:49that's not what we are voting on.
-
2:49 - 2:53What Donald J. Trump or Hillary Clinton
propose to do for the Americans, -
2:53 - 2:55it's frankly none of our business.
-
2:55 - 2:59That's something that only
the Americans can vote on. -
2:59 - 3:02Now, In the Global Vote you are
only considering one aspect of it -
3:02 - 3:05which is: "What of those leaders
are going to do for the rest of us?" -
3:06 - 3:07And that's so very important,
-
3:07 - 3:11because we live, as nonart of
your seeker people tell you, -
3:11 - 3:16in a globalized, hyperconnected,
massively interdependent world, -
3:16 - 3:19where the political decisions
of people in other countries -
3:19 - 3:21can unwill have an impact on our lives,
-
3:21 - 3:25no matter who we are,
no matter where we live. -
3:25 - 3:29Like the wings of the butterfly,
beating on one side of the Pacific, -
3:29 - 3:33that can apparently create
a hurricane on the other side, -
3:33 - 3:35so it is with the world
we are living today. -
3:35 - 3:37And the world of politics.
-
3:37 - 3:42There is no longer a dividing line between
domestic and international effect. -
3:42 - 3:47Any country, no matter how small,
even if it's São Tomé and Prìncipe, -
3:47 - 3:51could produce the next Nelson
Mandela, or the next Stalin. -
3:52 - 3:56They could pollute the atmosphere in
the oceans which belong to all of us. -
3:56 - 4:00Or they could be responsible
and they can help all of us. -
4:00 - 4:05And yet, the system is so strange
because the system hasn't caught up -
4:05 - 4:07with this globalized reality.
-
4:07 - 4:10Only a small number of people are
allowed to vote for those leaders, -
4:10 - 4:14even though their impact is
gigantic and almost universal. -
4:14 - 4:19What number was it? A hundred and
forty million of Americans voted for the -
4:19 - 4:21next President of The United States
-
4:21 - 4:24and yet, as all of us know,
in a few weeks time, -
4:24 - 4:28somebody is going handle over the
Nuclear Launch Code to Donald J. Trump. -
4:28 - 4:31Now if that isn't having a
potential impact on all of us, -
4:31 - 4:33I don't know what it is.
-
4:33 - 4:39Similarly the election for the
Referendum on the Brexit Vote -
4:39 - 4:43a small number of millions of
British people voted on that -
4:43 - 4:46but the outcome of the vote,
which every way it went -
4:46 - 4:48would define a significant impact
-
4:48 - 4:52on the lives of tens, hundreds of
millions people around the world -
4:52 - 4:54and that the only tiny
number that could vote. -
4:54 - 4:59What kind of democracy is that?
Huge decisions that affects all of us, -
4:59 - 5:03being decided by relatively
very small numbers of people -
5:03 - 5:07and I don't know about you, but
I don't think that sounds very democratic. -
5:07 - 5:09So I'm trying to clear it up.
-
5:09 - 5:11But as I say, we don't ask
about domestic questions. -
5:12 - 5:15Infact, I have only ever asked two
questions of all of the candidates. -
5:15 - 5:17I'm sending the same two
questions every single time. -
5:17 - 5:22I say: 1. If you got elected, what are
you going to do for the rest of us, -
5:22 - 5:25for the remainder of the 7
billion who live on this planet? -
5:25 - 5:31Second question: What is your vision
for your country's future in the world? -
5:31 - 5:33What role do you see it playing?
-
5:33 - 5:37Every candidate, I send the most
questions and all of that answers, -
5:37 - 5:40don't get me wrong, I reckon
if you're standing to become -
5:41 - 5:43the next President of the United States,
-
5:43 - 5:45you' re probably pretty
tied up most of the time, -
5:45 - 5:48so I'm not altogether surprised that
they don't answer us, but many do. -
5:49 - 5:52More every time. And some of
them do much more than answer. -
5:52 - 5:54Some of them answer
in the most enthusiastic -
5:54 - 5:56and most exciting way you could imagine,
-
5:56 - 5:59I just wanna say a word of
it for Saviour Chishimba, -
5:59 - 6:03which was one of the Candidates in the
recent Zambian Presidential election. -
6:03 - 6:07His answers to those two questions
were basically an 18 page dissertation -
6:07 - 6:11on his view of Zambia's
potential role in the world -
6:11 - 6:13and in the International Community.
-
6:13 - 6:16I posted it on the website
so anybody could read it. -
6:16 - 6:21Now Saviour, won the global vote,
but he didn't win the Zambian election. -
6:21 - 6:23So I found myself wondering,
-
6:23 - 6:26what am I going to do with this
extraordinary group of people, -
6:26 - 6:29I brought some wonderful people
here who want the global vote, -
6:29 - 6:31we always are getting wrong, by the way.
-
6:31 - 6:33The one that we elect is never the person
-
6:33 - 6:36who is elected by the
domestic electorate -
6:36 - 6:39- maybe Palin because we
went to see to go for a women - -
6:39 - 6:44but I think it may also be a sign
that the domestic electors -
6:44 - 6:48are still thinking very nationally,
they're still thinking very inwardly, -
6:48 - 6:51they're still asking themselves:
"what's in it for me?" -
6:51 - 6:56instead of what they should be asking
today, which is: "what's in it for we?" -
6:56 - 7:01But there you go, so suggestions please,
not right now but send me an e-mail -
7:01 - 7:05if you got an idea about we can do with
this amazing team of glorious losers. -
7:06 - 7:09We've got Saviour Chishimba
who I mentioned before, -
7:09 - 7:11we got up at Tómasdóttir
who was running up -
7:11 - 7:14in the Islandic Presidential elections,
many of you may have seen her in -
7:14 - 7:17an amazing talk at TED women
just a few weeks ago, -
7:17 - 7:20where she spoke by the need for
more women to get into politics. -
7:20 - 7:23We got Maria das Neves
from São Tomé and Prìncipe. -
7:23 - 7:28We got Hillary Clinton,
I don't know if she's available. -
7:28 - 7:33We got Jill Stein, and we
covered also the election -
7:33 - 7:36for the next General Secretary
of the United Nations -
7:36 - 7:38and we called the ex
Prime Minister of New Zealand -
7:38 - 7:40who'll be a wonderful member of the team.
-
7:40 - 7:43I think maybe those
people, the glorious losers, -
7:43 - 7:46would like to travel around the
world, wherever there's an election, -
7:46 - 7:49and remind people of the
necessity in our modern age, -
7:49 - 7:51of thinking a little bit outwards
-
7:51 - 7:54and thinking of the
international consequences. -
7:54 - 7:57What comes next to the global vote?
-
7:58 - 8:03Obviously the Donald and Hillary show
is a bit of a difficult one to follow, -
8:03 - 8:06but there's another really important
election that's coming up. -
8:06 - 8:09Infact they seemed to be multiplied,
there's something going on, -
8:09 - 8:11I'm sure you've noticed in the world
-
8:11 - 8:15and the next roll of elections
are all critically important. -
8:15 - 8:20And just a few days time we got the reveal
of the Australian Presidential election -
8:20 - 8:25with the prospect of nobody offer
becoming commonly described -
8:25 - 8:28as the fast far right outer station
europe since the Second Worlds War. -
8:28 - 8:34Next year we got Germany, we got France,
we got Presidential election in Iran, -
8:34 - 8:35and a dozen of others.
-
8:35 - 8:40It doesn't get less important.
It gets more and more important. -
8:40 - 8:45Clearly, the global vote is
not a stand alone project. -
8:45 - 8:47It's not just there on its own.
-
8:47 - 8:53It has some background. It's part of the
project which I've launched back in 2014 -
8:53 - 8:54which I called 'The Good Country.'
-
8:54 - 8:57The idea as a good country
is basically very simple. -
8:58 - 9:02It's my simple diagnosis of
what it's wrong with the world -
9:02 - 9:04and how we can fix it.
-
9:04 - 9:07What's wrong with the world
I've already went into that. -
9:07 - 9:11Basically we face an enourmous
and growing number of gigantic -
9:11 - 9:15existential global challenges: climate
change, human rights abuses, -
9:15 - 9:20mass migration, terrorism, economic
chaos, weapons proliferation, -
9:20 - 9:23all of these problems is
threatened to wipe us out -
9:23 - 9:26all by the very nature
of globalized problems -
9:26 - 9:31no individual country has the
capability of tackling them on its own. -
9:31 - 9:36And so very obviously, we have to
cooperate and we have to collaborate -
9:36 - 9:38as nations if we're going
to solve these problems. -
9:39 - 9:41It's so obvious.
-
9:41 - 9:42And yet we don't-
-
9:42 - 9:45We don't do it nearly after enough.
-
9:45 - 9:49Most of the time countries
still persist in behaving -
9:49 - 9:52as they were worring selfish tribes.
-
9:52 - 9:54Battling against each other,
-
9:54 - 9:57much as they have done since the Nation
State was invented hundred of years ago. -
9:57 - 10:02And this is got to change. This is
not a change in political systems -
10:02 - 10:05or a change in ideology.
This is a change in culture. -
10:05 - 10:08We, all of us, have to understand,
-
10:08 - 10:12that thinking inwoods is not the
solution to the world's problems -
10:12 - 10:16we have to learn how to cooperate
and collaborate a great deal more -
10:16 - 10:19and compete just a tiny bit less.
-
10:19 - 10:22Otherwise things we are
carrying on are getting bad, -
10:22 - 10:26and are going to get much worse
much sooner that we anticipate. -
10:26 - 10:32This change will only happen if we,
ordinary people, tell our politicians -
10:32 - 10:35of things to change. We have to tell
them that the culture is changed. -
10:35 - 10:38We have to tell them
they got a new mandate. -
10:38 - 10:41The old mandate was
very simple and very single. -
10:41 - 10:44If you're in a position of power
or authority you're responsible -
10:44 - 10:47for your own people and your
tiny slice of territory, and that's it. -
10:48 - 10:50And if, in order to do the best
thing for your own people, -
10:50 - 10:53you screw over everybody else
on the planet, that's even better, -
10:53 - 10:55that's considered to be a big macho.
-
10:55 - 10:59Today, I think everybody in a
position of power and responsibility -
10:59 - 11:00has got a dual mandate,
-
11:00 - 11:04which says if you are in a position
of power and responsibility, -
11:04 - 11:06you're responsible for your own people and
-
11:06 - 11:09for every single man, woman,
child and animal on the planet. -
11:10 - 11:13You're responsible for your
own slice of territory and -
11:13 - 11:17for every single square of mile of the
outer service and the atmosphere above it -
11:17 - 11:20and if you don't like that responsibility,
you should not be in power. -
11:20 - 11:23That for me, is the rule of the modern age
-
11:23 - 11:26and that's the message that we're going
to get across through our politicians -
11:26 - 11:30and show them that that's the
way things are done these days -
11:30 - 11:32otherwise, we're all screwed.
-
11:32 - 11:37I don't have a problem actually with
Donald Trump's credo of America first. -
11:37 - 11:41It seems to me that this it's a pretty
banale statement of what politicians -
11:41 - 11:43have always done and
probably should always do. -
11:43 - 11:46Of course, they're elected to represent
interests of their own people, -
11:46 - 11:50but what I find so boring
and so old-fashioned, -
11:50 - 11:53and so unimaginative
about his take on that, -
11:53 - 11:56is that America first
means everyone else last. -
11:56 - 12:01The making America great again means
making everybody else small again. -
12:01 - 12:03And it's just not true.
-
12:03 - 12:06Images of all the policy advisor
of the last twenty years or so, -
12:06 - 12:11I've seen so many hundreds of
examples of policies that harmonize -
12:11 - 12:13the international and the domestic needs.
-
12:13 - 12:18And they make better policy. I'm
not asking nations to be altruistic -
12:18 - 12:20or self-sacrificing. That
would be ridiculous! -
12:20 - 12:22No nation would ever do that.
-
12:22 - 12:27I'm asking to wake up and understand
that we need a new form of Government -
12:27 - 12:30which is possible and which
harmonize those two needs -
12:30 - 12:34those good for our own people
and those good for everybody else. -
12:34 - 12:37Since the US elections and since Brexit,
-
12:37 - 12:40it's become more obvious to
me that those old distinctions -
12:40 - 12:43of left wing and right wing
no longer make sense anymore, -
12:43 - 12:45they really don't fit the pattern.
-
12:45 - 12:51What does seem to matter, today, is very
simple, whatever your view of the world -
12:51 - 12:55is if that you take comfort from
looking inwoods and backwards -
12:55 - 13:00or rather, like me, you find hope
in looking forwards and outwards. -
13:00 - 13:05That's the new politics. That's the new
division that is splitting the world -
13:05 - 13:07right down the middle.
-
13:07 - 13:10That may sound judgmental
but it's not meant to be. -
13:10 - 13:14I don't a tall misunderstanding
why so many people -
13:14 - 13:17find the comfort in looking
inwoods and backwards. -
13:17 - 13:19When times are difficult,
when you are short of money, -
13:19 - 13:22when you are feeling
insecure and vulnerable, -
13:22 - 13:26it's almost a natural human tendency to
turn inwoods to think of your own needs -
13:26 - 13:28and to discard everybody else's.
-
13:28 - 13:33And perhaps to start to imagine that the
past was somehow better than the present -
13:33 - 13:35or the future could ever be.
-
13:35 - 13:38But I happen to believe
that that's a dead end. -
13:38 - 13:40History shows us that is a dead end.
-
13:40 - 13:44When people turn inwoods and turn
backwoods human progress becomes reverse -
13:44 - 13:48and things get worse for
everybody very quickly indeed. -
13:48 - 13:53If you align me, and you
believe in forwards and outwards -
13:53 - 13:58and you believe that the best
thing about humanity is its diversity, -
13:58 - 14:04and the best thing about globalization is
the way that it starts up that diversity, -
14:04 - 14:08that culture will mix up, to make
something more creative, more exciting, -
14:08 - 14:11more productive as ever been
before in human history. -
14:11 - 14:14Then, my friends, we've
got a job in our hands -
14:14 - 14:20because the inwoods and backwoods
regained are uniting as never before -
14:20 - 14:22and that creed of inwoods and backwoods
-
14:22 - 14:27that fear, that anxiety plained
on the simplest instincts -
14:27 - 14:30is sweeping across the world.
-
14:30 - 14:35Those of us who believe, as
I believe in forwards and outwards -
14:35 - 14:43we have to get ourselves organized because
time is running out very, very quickly. -
14:43 - 14:44Thank you.
-
14:44 - 14:47(Applause)
- Title:
- What happens when the whole world votes? | Simon Anholt | TEDxFrankfurt
- Description:
-
For more information on Simon Anholt, please visit our website www.tedxfrankfurt.de
“The only remaining superpower is international public opinion,” says Simon Anholt, an independent policy advisor who has helped more than 50 countries engage more productively with the rest of the world. He believes that public opinion cannot be shifted on the surface, but only moves when a government makes real changes in its values and behavior by rolling out enlightened policies, developing dynamic exchanges with other nations and committing to global betterment.
Twitter: @SimonAnholt
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 14:49
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