In 2005, met het Europese referendum op komst, ging Etienne Chouard, docent economie en recht, zich verdiepen in de conceptversie van de Europese Grondwet. Wat hij ontdekte, veranderde hem voorgoed. Het was zijn politieke ontwaken. Sindsdien waarschuwt hij ons tegen onze eigen apathie, en wil hij de ware betekenis aan het woord democratie teruggeven. Zijn motto: 'een Grondwet geschreven door gelote burgers.'
Uit de video:
'We feed our political impotence by allowing ourselves to call democracy that which is the very negation of our rights. When we call it democracy, we can't even express the solution. We need democracy, but we cannot say it: the word is hijacked by its opposite.' / 'Nous participons à notre impuissance politique en acceptant d'appeler démocratie ce qui est la négation même de nos droits. Quand on accepte d'appeler ça démocratie, on n'arrive même pas à formuler la solution. On a besoin de la démocratie, mais on n'arrive pas à le dire. Puisque le mot est pris par son contraire.'
'Why do we value elections so much? It's not due to reason, because the facts show that it's not in our interest. But we have myths. The so-called 'Republican school' has been teaching us since we were toddlers: elections = democracy = elections, etc. We believed it since childhood. We need a detoxification from the lies of these robbers of power. Turn the words the right side up. We are not a democracy. We need one with designation by sortition, one that would free us from power-seekers.'
'As long as we give power to those who seek it, the righteous ones, who don't seek power, will not be included.'
'Like viruses, as a grassroots movement — don't expect anything from the media or the powerful — let's spread the word, based on this principle: "our constitutional assembly should not be elected, but selected randomly" '
(18 minuten, juni 2012)
Ondertiteling beschikbaar in vijftien talen, waaronder het Engels, Frans, Duits, Spaans, Portugees en Russisch.
Zie ook:
- le-message.org | Engels | Spaans | Italiaans | Russisch
'Because it is not the role of the people in power to write the rules of their own power, we want a democratic Constitutional Assembly, therefore randomly drawn.' - Loting in Frankrijk