{"id":4955,"date":"2017-01-31T14:34:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T19:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2017-02-01T07:00:06","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T12:00:06","slug":"democracy-despotism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2017\/01\/31\/democracy-despotism\/","title":{"rendered":"Democracy &#038; Despotism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I ran across these two videos, created by Encyclopedia Britannica back in the 1940s, and I can&#8217;t share them enough as they seem perfectly (and terrifyingly) appropriate for today&#8217;s political and social climate:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In 1945 and 1946, immediately following the end of World War II, Encyclopedia Britannica\u2019s films division produced two educational short films, one on democracy and one on despotism, exploring how societies and nations rank on the spectrum from democracy to despotism by measuring the degree to which power is concentrated and respect for individuals restricted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eLlLEtWEY4Y?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A community is low on a respect scale if common courtesy is withheld from large groups of people on account of their political attitudes, if people are rude to others because they think their wealth and position gives them that right, or because they don\u2019t like a man\u2019s race or his religion. Equal opportunity for all citizens to develop equal skills is one basis for rating a community on a respect scale.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qhiwswf4Jlg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>I highly recommend watching both of these videos &#8211; being from the era they are, I think they know better than we do what they&#8217;re talking about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to tell if your community or country is sliding towards despotism &#8211; a useful guide both then and now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[412,424,423,385,38],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society","tag-america","tag-democracy","tag-despotism","tag-politics","tag-video","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-1hV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4952,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2017\/01\/31\/the-march-to-tyranny\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":0},"title":"The March to Tyranny","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"How quickly a country can fall...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/07\/04\/happy-independence-day-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":1},"title":"Happy Independence Day!","author":"Keith Survell","date":"July 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Independence Day! If you're not in the US, well, happy 4th of July... for whatever reason you like! In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Life&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Life","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":291,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/29\/school-bars-declaration-of-independence\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":2},"title":"School Bars Declaration Of Independence","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 29, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"This is just silly. And I don't mean in the \"funny\" sense of the word, either. Seperation of church & state is one thing (a good thing, certainly)... but... c'mon, it's the freaking DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4556,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2014\/08\/14\/necessity-free-flow-information\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":3},"title":"The Necessity of the Free Flow of Information","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. ... [A] free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Although this quote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;society&quot;","block_context":{"text":"society","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/society\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2006\/02\/13\/digital-rights-mismanagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":4},"title":"Digital Rights (Mis)Management","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Hmmm... this person may be onto something here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Rants&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4368,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2013\/06\/09\/not-ready-to-be-a-surveillance-state\/","url_meta":{"origin":4955,"position":5},"title":"We&#8217;re Not Ready to be a Surveillance State","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Recent news has revealed what many already suspected - we have become a de-facto surveillance state. The problem is: we are not at all ready to be a surveillance state.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;My Opinion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"My Opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"1984 was not supposed to be an instruction manual for a surveillance state","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2008\/05\/1984-was-not-supposed-to-be-an-instruction-manual-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}