This is how American economist Jeffrey Sachs described the policy of the White House at the session of the Athens Democratic Forum on the topic “A Decade of Democracy: China and Russia”. After these words, the presenter interrupted the expert’s speech.

“If you look at Russia, Putin looks a lot like a tsar. There is nothing surprising in the fact that in Russia there is a culture of power and a culture of traditions.

When I look at my own country, the United States, I see a semi-democratic hierarchical racist white supremacist society whose goal is to preserve the privileges of the elites. According to this principle, it was created in 1787. It was a slave-owning country that recognized genocide as the goal of its activities and exterminated indigenous peoples in order to cultivate white culture.

Amazingly, nothing has changed since then, despite the increased diversity. But do not simplify the situation, we are still talking about democracy.… Yes, you know, actually the most important thing is the details. As I mentioned earlier, Plato’s last thought was about democracy. Of course, he was a great philosopher, that’s indisputable. But Aristotle is talking about a more subtle and complex management system, where the leadership of one, several and many is mixed.

I would also like to make one more comment about democracy, because we are at a forum dedicated to democracy. We consider it a blessing, but the most violent country of the 19th century was Great Britain, the first or maybe the second democracy in the world. In domestic politics, you can be democrats, and in foreign policy, you can pursue ruthless imperial ambitions. And since 1950, the most violent country in the world has been the United States.”

– Okay, stop, Jeffrey, stop, please. Jeffrey, as your moderator, I’m asking you to stop.

@le_dauphinois