💡 SPOTLIGHT
Democracy v. technocracy? What Plato, Orwell and TikTok say about our future
The advent of digital technologies has made us increasingly lonely and isolated. In the virtual world, none of us participate in decision-making, but we all receive one-sided messages that influence our behavior, including our political beliefs. If this is the case, what will the democracy of tomorrow look like? asks Alfonso Celotto in Italian daily La Stampa.
Democracy has always been slow, complex, confusing. It is no coincidence that Plato criticized it fiercely with the metaphor of bad cupbearers in The Republic: "When a democracy that is thirsting for freedom has evil cupbearers presiding over the feast, and has drunk too deeply of the strong wine of freedom, then, unless her rulers are very amenable and give a plentiful draught, she calls them to account and punishes them, and says that they are cursed oligarchs," the philosopher wrote. "Thus democracy dies: by abusing itself." This was 370 B.C.
Despite everything, we still think that democracy is the best model of government, or at least the least worst we have invented, as Churchill put it. And, yet, we continue to complain that our democracy functions poorly, that it is the fault of the parties that represent us, of the electoral law, of the lack of affection of us voters, who are basically by now quite satisfied with the level of affluence we have attained and indifferent to now monotonous political messages.
We are in post-democracy, as English sociologist and political scientist Colin Crouch put it.
We hardly think about it, but our democracy has been profoundly transformed, due to a much more mundane and everyday cause: the advent of digital technologies.
Traditional democracy was founded on the confrontation of ideas. On great speeches by Pericles, Demosthenes, Cicero. It is a model we sustained until a few years ago.
The confrontations in the public square or the political forums on TV, with the would-be leaders developing complex, theoretical, quote-rich arguments. Speeches for everyone, so that everyone could face the same ideas and projects. The pluralism of democracy, that is. In large city squares, with hour-long speeches, big ideas, big ideals.
Just think back to when one of the first debates between presidential candidates was organized in 1854, it was determined that Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Stephen Douglas would each have three hours. Yes, you read that correctly: three hours!
But today the political message passes on a TikTok video or a tweet: 50 seconds at most. It is impressive that even a not-so-young politician like the late Silvio Berlusconi decided to start a TikTok profile that reached 350,000 followers and 4 million views in a few hours.
We had dreamed that digital technologies could bring us direct democracy in real time. In 1996, French philosopher Pierre Lévy had hypothesized that the internet could transform democracy into a huge agora — the name given to the marketplace in Athens, used for assemblies — where each of us could decide and evaluate, in continual participation. An open, free democracy based on everyone's immediate participation.
Instead, the digital world has made us increasingly lonely and isolated. In the virtual community each of us does not participate in decision-making, but receives one-sided messages that influence our behavior, including political behavior. [...]
— Read the full article by Alfonso Celotto for La Stampa, translated into English by Worldcrunch.
🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW
• *Developing* Top Putin critic Alexei Navalny is dead: High-profile Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died, according to reports from Russian media citing the prison service where he was imprisoned, about 40 miles north of Arctic Circle. Navalny, 47, a lawyer and the leading opponent of Vladimir Putin over the past decade, was serving long sentences for extremism and fraud that international observers believed were trumped-up charges. The Associated Press reported a statement from the prison agency: “that Navalny felt unwell after a walk on Friday and lost consciousness. An ambulance arrived to try to rehabilitate him, but he died. There was no immediate confirmation of Navalny’s death from his team.” In Kyiv, Navalny was far less esteemed than he was in the West after his 2014 support for the annexation of Crimea. Read more here from Ukrainian writer Anna Akage.
• Zelensky seeks Western help against Russia’s threats: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tours between Berlin and Paris to seek Western support for his embattled troops ahead of the second anniversary of the war. He vowed to do everything to “save as many Ukrainian lives as possible” now that Russian troops have made gains in Avdiivka, the gateway to nearby Donetsk.
• Severed electricity, cut of oxygen supplies in Gaza hospital: Israel’s incursion into Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, reportedly to retrieve hostages as well as bodies of slain hostages, has led to the deaths of at least four patients after electricity was severed and oxygen supplies cut. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” while the number of deaths in Gaza nears 29,000.
• Senegal court rules presidential election delay is illegal: Senegal's Constitutional Council canceled the decree signed by President Macky Sall that postponed the election. Parliament backed Sall's suspension of the election until December 15, but only after security forces stormed the building and removed some opposition lawmakers who opposed the bill. It’s unclear if an earlier election day will be set.
• UK Tories defeated in two special elections: Britain's Labour Party dealt a crushing blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives, winning contests for two new lawmakers. The double defeat underlined the flagging fortunes of the governing party ahead of national elections later this year.
• Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan picks Omar Ayub as his successor: Jailed cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has named a man in hiding as his pick for Pakistan's prime minister. Omar Ayub Khan, currently wanted by police on criminal charges, will run against the candidate of Imran Khan's rivals.
• Got Back! Paul McCartney recovers long-lost bass guitar:Paul McCartney’s beloved Höfner bass guitar, which had been missing for more than 50 years, has been returned to the Beatle as the result of a global search. The iconic violin-shaped instrument (which McCartney bought in 1961 for £30 and had disappeared at the time of the recording of Beatles’s final Let It Be album) was returned by Ruaidhri Guest, a student who said he had inherited the bass.
🗞️ FRONT PAGE
French sport daily L’Équipe dedicates its cover to soccer star Kylian Mbappé, who announced he will be leaving the Paris Saint-Germain team at the end of the season. The player’s departure follows a previous standoff with PSG last summer, which resulted in an agreement to ensure the club does not suffer losses upon his exit. Mbappé is expected to join Spanish club Real Madrid, although the conditions of his new contract are still being discussed.
📰 STORY OF THE DAY
How honor killings in Iran are protected by culture and fear — and the law
The "eye-for-an-eye" principle does not technically apply to so-called honor killings. Yet fathers and grandfathers are essentially free to kill their daughters or granddaughters if it's perceived to protect the reputation and religious status of the family, reports Firoozeh Nordstrom in Persian-language media Kayhan-London.
🇮🇷 In Iran's southwest province of Khuzestan, a man buries his twin sons alive, but is soon released. In nearby Abadan, a young man who killed his female cousin five years earlier in a so-called "honor killing" on behalf of his clan, is already free. Typically in these cases, the killer does not flee the scene but goes straight to the authorities, showing no remorse for the act. Because, he will explain, the killing happened to safeguard or cleanse the honor of a family, clan or tribe. And then we might discover that the killers are released from jail, often just months later.
❌ Mahnaz T., an Iranian women's rights activist, told Kayhan-London that these honor killings are a reflection on what is taught in Iran's education system, and not even harsh legal penalties would deter such acts. In Iran, a victim's family can and often does consent to pardon a killer or reduce a sentence. In any case, the activist explained, perpetrators of honor killings are not subject to the law of talion or "eye-for-an-eye" (qisas), as a common murderer would be (pursuant to Article 381 of the Islamic Penalties Law).
⚖️ An attorney living in Tehran has told Kayhan-London that the cause of honor killings should be sought in the socio-cultural conditions of those parts of Iran where tribal, clan or religious identifications are strongest. The law however acts as an accomplice, he said, citing several legal articles that specifically absolve a father or grandfather from execution if they kill their child or grandchild, replacing it with prison terms of between three and 10 years.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO
➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED
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#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS
127,000 tons
One of the most significant methane leaks ever recorded, which lasted more than six months starting in June 2023, released an estimated 127,000 tons of the greenhouse gas. The leak occurred at a remote well in Kazakhstan during a drill causing a blowout and continuous fire until December. The environmental impact is comparable to the emissions from over 717,000 petrol cars for a year.
📣 VERBATIM
“People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us.”
— Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Greece becoming the first Christian Orthodox-majority country to legalize same-sex marriage, with a 176-76 vote in parliament. Same-sex couples can now legally adopt children as well. Mitsotakis, despite facing opposition, championed the bill, emphasizing the need to abolish inequality. The Orthodox Church strongly resisted the measure, with supporters holding a protest rally in Athens and the head of the Orthodox Church expressing concern about the impact on social cohesion. Greece now joins 15 European Union members and 35 countries worldwide that have legalized same-sex marriage. For more, check our LGBTQ Plus coverage.
📸 PHOTO DU JOUR
Archive photo showing leading Putin critic Alexei Navalny appearing via video during a sentencing hearing in May 2022. Navalny, 47, has died in a prison in Russia’s far-north where he was serving multiple sentences on charges most international observers believe were bogus. — Photo: Sergei Karpukhin/TASS/ZUMA
👉 MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH
• Palestine As "The Great Arab Cause": What's Changed Since October 7 — DARAJ
• Why Estonia’s Fears Of A Russian Invasion Are All Too Real — FRANCE INTER
• Adieu Long Chairlift Lines! A French Startup Launches The "Waze For Skiing"— LES ECHOS
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