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>>George Papandreou: Democracy was an ancient innovation to, amongst other things, control
the hubris of those who concentrated too much power in their hands. And the Occupy movement
realizes this very much so. The Occupy Democracy movement.
Many economists and Nobel laureates have pointed to this question and linked it to the issue
of inequality, whether it's Krugman, Stiglitz, Galbraith, Jeffrey Sachs, or Bob Rice, inequality
is one of the main causes of this global crisis. At a time, as a matter of fact, when humanity
has such amazing potential, our democracies cannot seem capable to deal with the fact
that they can only make decisions within national borders in a global economy.
Not only a country like Greece, not only Europe, but the world, the G20.
You know we have the technological capacity. It's there. I was speaking to Peter Diamandis
yesterday about the abundance of capacity we have. We can make poverty history. We can
deal with illiteracy, climate change, migration, pandemics, unemployment, financial crisis.
Yes, we can. Yes, we can. But we aren't. If we don't democratize our potential, whether
it is wealth, knowledge, or technology, to create societies suited for the human dimension,
this would be hubris. Blasphemy to the gods, as Aristotle would have us say.
And doing so, companies such as yours, Google, could have a major contribution in creating
a more participatory democracy. Crowdsourcing, using the commonwealth of knowledge, and much
more. Otherwise, the backlash towards globalization
will be more populism, racism, even neo-Fascism in our societies.
If we do not democratize and humanize globalization, people will see our democratic institutions
as weak, not living up to expectations or their potential. And this is one of the many
reasons why I thought a referendum would be necessary in Greece, so that the Greek people
owned the program one way or another. Owned their own fate.
So as I have traveled on this odyssey, I look beyond and see a major challenge to our democracies
in this globalizing world. This is where Europe steps in. Why is Europe
today so important? It seems weak, teetering, complex, slow to react, a labyrinth. Should
we press "delete"? My view is we need more Europe, rather than
less.