All language subtitles for The Story Of Us With Morgan Freeman.S01E05.The Power Of Us

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MORGAN: Don't tell me you
haven't imagined doing this.

Sitting behind this
desk, occupying the most
powerful seat in the world.

I've done it.

-Cut.

-And even when you're playing
the role of the President
of the United States,

you get a sense of
the awesome power we
entrust to one person.

The fate of our
nation, sometimes that
of the entire world,

rests on that
person's shoulders.

-Amen!

-But sometimes we disagree
with the person at the top.

-If we had real democracy
we wouldn't have to protest!

-We want more control
of our own destinies.

Does society work best when
organized around a strong leader

or is there another,
better way?

What makes a good leader?

-Now he's the
Chief of the community.

-You had to convince
people who may disagree
to go along with you.

MORGAN: How do we
escape from bad leaders?

MORGAN: Or the
tyranny of the mob?

DIMITRIY: I was
beaten on the street.

OLEG: It was like first
time I completely understood
who you really are if you're

a gay in Russia.

MORGAN: And
is democracy really the
best way to run society?

JACK: Washington doesn't
like to say this,
lobbying its bribery.

EVAN: Everyone's biased
so everybody actually
having a vote to make laws

would be pretty crazy.

(explosion)

(theme music plays)

MORGAN: This is my journey.

To discover the ties that
bind us and the common
humanity inside us.

This is The Story of Us.

Society is made up of
individuals like you and me.

Each one of us living
our lives, chasing our
own hopes and dreams,

but it's not everyone
for themselves.

We turn to leaders to
help us work together,
enforce the rule of law

and protect us from harm.

We give up some of our
individual freedom for the
sake of the common good.

It's a social contract
we've been making for
thousands of years.

I'm heading into the jungle
to Panama to witness this
social contract in the making.

Today an indigenous people
known as the Embera will hold
their traditional ceremony to

select a new chief.

-You can see they like to
play soccer or football, yes.

-Football.

MORGAN: Nelson,
who learned English at
a school in Panama City,

is taking me to the Embera's
equivalent of Capitol Hill.

-This is the local house.

We use this for
meeting or for dance.

-What we would call a lodge.
-Yes.
-Yeah.

Once every four years,
dozens of villagers gather
in this lodge to choose

their new leader.

(thunder)

-Today we are looking
for another person to be,
what we call, El Noco.

-El Noco?

-El Noco is the Chief
of the community, okay.

-Uh-huh, uh-huh.

-So right now we have
two people in front.

Those two persons
are the candidates.

-It's like the nominee?

-Yes.

MORGAN: The only requirements
to run for office
are that you have to be

over 30 and have
a calm demeanor.

-You see?

All the people are
gonna make a line.

The longer lines
is the winner.

-Ah okay.

-So we're gonna see right
now who's gonna be El Noco.

-That's pretty
straightforward.

There's no secrecy.

-No, no secrets.

-Who votes for who
and who you want.

-Yeah.

(speaking in native language).

-The winner is him.

Now he's the Chief of
the community, El Noco.

(applause).

-Okay.

The election is simple
and transparent.

There's no mud slinging,
no hard feelings
on the losing side.

In fact, the runner up serves
as a kind of Vice President.

MORGAN: And everyone joins
the victory celebration.

Now, what do you
have to do as Chief?

(speaking native language).

-The person that's gonna
be the Chief has to
be very responsible and,

I don't know how to
say it, paciencia?

Patience.

-Oh si.

Patience.

The feeling for the village?

-Yes.

They vote for him.

They can see that he's a smart
man and of course he's my...

-Got it.
-Yeah.

-This is incredible to
see something like this,
true democracy in action.

Of course the Embera need
to work together to survive.

So it's necessary for one
person to coordinate the
group to get things done.

That's why they entrust
power to the Chief.

This kind of cooperation
has helped human societies
flourish all around the world.

It's a reminder
of what's at the core of
our own political system,

just how simple it could be.

Most modern societies
are exponentially larger
than the Embera village.

Leaders are now expected
to protect millions of
people in the nation state.

PRESIDENT KENNEDY: Now it is
time to take longer strides.

CHURCHILL: Let us then
move forward together.

MORGAN: I want to know what
the weight of that much
responsibility feels like.

I've come to New York City
to meet someone who was
leader of the Free World

for eight years,
President Bill Clinton.

We, as a society,
have this amazing rule
of law and democracy.

Why do you think it
came out so strong?

-Well I think it came
as a reaction to popular

dissatisfaction with monarchies.

The idea that everybody could
have their say, that people
ought to be, in effect,

self-governing, they ought
to pick representatives,
it really caught hold.

MORGAN: It was this
idea that sparked the
American Revolution,

but representation doesn't
mean slavishly following
the will of the majority.

-Wait, wait, wait,
they've had their say.

MORGAN: The pact between
elected officials and the
people they represent

is much more complex.

-There's 330 million
plus people in this country,
you can't have a referendum

on every decision.

You can represent the will
of your voters by trying to
carry out what you pledged

to do in the election,

but even there you had
to convince other people
who may disagree to go

along with you.

Then you had to deal with
things that were never
discussed in the election.

Both emergencies and things
that you know about that are
gonna have a huge effect five,

ten, 15, 20 years down
the road and so a lot of this
will of the people involved

having the people believe
that you're at least
keeping them informed.

You're telling them what
the deal is and if you do
something that seems today to

be unpopular, you explain why.

-Give me an example of two of
the really roughest decisions
as our leader you had to make.

-I remember when Mexico
was about to go under in 1995

and my Economic Advisor said,

"They've got 24 hours to
live," and then their currency
will come crashing down and

you'll be flooded with...

-Immigrants.

-Immigrants and it was
gonna be a disaster
if we don't help them,

but the American people
were like 80% against doing
anything 'cause they said,

"Oh they got
themselves in trouble."

So I had the executive
authority to do it

and I did it and everybody
said, "Oh this is terrible.

They'll never pay
the money back.

We're gonna be ripped off.

We're being taken advantage of"
all this stuff.

Mexico paid the loan back
three years early with more
than $500 million in interest.

MORGAN: Economic decisions
may impact hundreds
of millions of lives,

but no choice is harder for
a leader to make than sending
their own citizens off to war.

-If you have to use force,
you put the lives of
young Americans at risk.

So you need to be darn sure
you're doing the right thing
before you go round killing

people because there
are consequences of that.

People didn't want
me to send soldiers in to
throw a military dictator

out in Haiti.

Turned out no one was killed.

The majority of the people
were against my trying to
end the slaughter in Bosnia,

but there were 250,000
dead people and two and
a half million refugees.

The risks from inaction
from the world would be
far greater than action.

People didn't want
me to go into Kosovo,

but I didn't want it to
turn into Bosnia and
they're still holding on

to their democracy.

None of those places worked
out what you call perfectly,
but we gave 'em a chance.

The only thing that
really matters is whether
you leave things better

than you started.

-"Uneasy lies the head
that wears the crown."

What Shakespeare wrote
of Kings still applies to
our elected leaders today.

President Clinton decided to
make a risky loan to Mexico.

He put the lives of
American soldiers at risk to
prevent genocide in Kosovo.

These decisions
were not driven by a
desire to be popular,

but for the long-range
common good.

That's what good leaders do.

But around the globe a
wave of populist leaders
is coming to power.

Their quest for popularity
may unleash mob mentality and
persecution of the minority.

-You kill us, we
kill your kind.

-In the late 1960's,
the Castro in San Francisco

became a Mecca for
the gay community.

People came here to
enjoy the social contract

that heterosexuals
took for granted.

Contribute to society,
harm no one and the
government will stay our of

your private affairs.

Well since then, attitudes
and laws have changed,
at least here in America,

but there are still places
around the world where simply
being the person you are,

harming no one, is a crime.

In 2013, Russia passed
a law banning so
called gay propaganda.

Activists say it triggered
a jump in discrimination

and violence against the
LGBT community.

I'm on my way to meet a
Russian immigrant couple,

Oleg Dusaev
and Dmitriy Stepanov.

In Russia, Oleg was
a television host and Dmitriy
was a successful Psychologist.

I want to know why they
left behind their careers
to come to the U.S.

So now you're a
high profile person.

You got a TV show going on.

-Yeah.

-When did you
publicly come out?

-It was in 2013, yeah.

I came out on Facebook.

I can show you the post.

"Today for me it's
a time to be brave.

Openly and honestly I want
to tell you that I am gay.

Orientation is not
a determining factor in my
attitude to life and people."

-Well said.

-World changed because I
was on my work, I posted on
Facebook and I just went to

the hallway and
you know, people just
you know was like...

-Stepped away.

-Yeah and people
didn't say hello to
me, didn't smile to me.

I was like invisible
person and so after that
it was like two weeks.

My contract just
was not renewed.

-Not renewed?

-Yeah and I felt
how dangerous is it.

-We have threats.

-It was nightmare you know.

Many messages, Facebook, texts
with that story, this story.

-We were overwhelmed.

It was dangerous.

I know we cannot hide
our body language and maybe
sometimes my body expressed who

am I and I was
beaten on the street.

-It was terrible experience
because police did nothing.

So I went to the hospital
because you know my love in
the hospital and they just

asked me, "Who are you?

You can't be here."

-"What are you doing here?"

-"Are you family or what?"

And I just needed to
lie, something like I am
his boss or something.

It was like first time
I completely understood who
you really are if you are

a gay in Russia.

MORGAN: Oleg and
Dmitriy didn't feel
safe at home anymore.

(speaking in native language).

So they went to New York
to let the storm from
Oleg's post blow over.

-Actually we seated for
seven days just in the
apartment in New York.

-Yeah we just need some time
to get away from everything.

-Yeah.

MORGAN: Oleg and Dmitriy
eventually went out
and explored the city.

The openness and tolerance
they discovered inspired them.

Seeing how life could be, they
refused to accept their loss
of rights in Russian society;

instead they asserted them by
getting married in the U.S.

-After our marriage, after
our ceremony somebody stole
our pictures from Facebook and

published these pictures
in the newspaper.

-The article say,
"To be gay is a shame.

He's abnormal.

We need to kill them,"
so they need to kill us.

-It was really terrifying.

That was the reason
why we stayed here.

-Yeah.

-You only have each
other to hold on to here.

-It was a difficult choice.

-We had a careers in Russia.

We had all our friends
and families there.

-Yeah but here we can
you know, to go...

-Walking.

-To walk yeah.

-And hold hands.

-It's okay, it's normal.

I can tell people,
yeah he's my husband.

-So now you're happy
and you feel safe.

-Yes.

-Here in the U.S, once
the shift started,
change came rapidly.

What do you think it
would take for Russia
to be more relaxed?

-About 100 years, 200 years?

Unfortunately the
situation is getting worse.

-There is a lot of
stereotypes in Russia.

Russia has a different
history and different
human rights movement.

They need more strength
to overcome these barriers
towards tolerance.

-Well I wish you both
long life, happiness.

-Thank you.

-More than two centuries ago,
the United States constitution
gave it's people certain

rights and among them was
freedom of expression.

America would be a new
type of society, one where
people would be free to be

who they really are.

The LGBT community had
to fight for those same
freedoms until recently.

Now, Oleg and Dmitriy
have engaged in a struggle to
move Russian society forward.

I hope they succeed
because in the end,

any society that stops people
from being who they truly are,

is bound to fall.

There will always be
divisions in a society.

Disagreements between
political, religious
and cultural groups.

When leaders exploit these
divisions, they can steal
power from the people and

keep it all for themselves.

In 1971, General Idi Amin
took control of Uganda
with a military coup

-I must make sure
that every Ugandan gets
the fruit of independence.

MORGAN: He inherited a
country hungry for a strong
native born leader after

decades of subjugation under
British rule.

Amin was initially greeted
with cheers, but his
regime soon became one of

torture and murder.

He earned the nickname,
"The Butcher of Uganda."

To try to
understand how power can
descend into tyranny,

I have come to Africa
to meet with someone
who spent years in

Amin's inner circle.

Uganda's former Minister
of Health, Henry Kyemba.

Idi Amin had eight years.

In those eight years of murders,
killings, eliminations,

how many people?

HENRY: It was a difficult
figure to come by.

150,000?

Half a million?

We'll never know.

-Do you know why Amin
did these things?

-As time went on, power
was getting sweeter
and sweeter by the day.

-It always will won't it?

-And he thought
he could carry on.

-It seems that the
longer he was in power,
the more violent he got.

-Amin knew that he came
into power by the gun and
he used to tell his soldiers

"That the
gun is your sister,

is your mother, use it
to get whatever you want."

Many innocent
people were killed.

We are thrown in the lake.

In the Lake Victoria
and they ended up going
up onto the River Nile and

you'd find dead bodies
floating on the river.

-Well it sounds like
there was just no law.

-They were using prisoners to
beat their fellow prisoners
to death not knowing

that the others would
come and do the same to
them, which is the kind of

brutality you can't explain.

-They used detainees to
commit these atrocities?

-Yes.

I was advised in fact
that my own brother was
also killed in that way.

-What was your reaction
to your brother's death?

-It's not something
nice to talk about.

MORGAN: The social
contract between a country's
leader and its citizens

is based on trust.

MANDELA: The solution
must be determined by
the people themselves.

MORGAN: The leader protects
the citizens in exchange for
the power to make decisions

that affect everyone; but a
dictator betrays this trust

and is only out for himself.

Idi Amin robbed hundreds
of thousands of Ugandans of
their lives in his mad quest

to hold on to power.

-The government of
Africa is strengthening.

Thank you very much.

MORGAN: When Amin
began targeting members
of his own government,

Henry Kyemba started
to fear for his life.

-What will you do to them?

-You will see.

-After the murder of two
Cabinet Ministers who
were friends of mine,

someone sent me a note.

-UVS three, three,
five slash six.

What is that?

-Those are the numbers of
security cars used by Idi Amin

in his execution missions.

Someone left a note saying
that he had heard some
security boys in that car

talking about me being the
next victim for execution.

I felt it was time to go.

MORGAN: Kyemba managed
to resist the temptation
to flee immediately.

He waited for an official
government trip to the
UN in Geneva and from there,

found asylum in London.

You went to work after that
to spread the word about him.

-I decided to fight Amin
in the way that he could
never fight me with a gun.

I said I would use a pen.

I gave interviews to senior
journalists about what Amin
was doing to the country.

I also worked on the
book, A State of Blood
for them to know what was

happening in our country.

MORGAN: Henry's writing
was crucial in spreading
word of Idi Amin's tyranny

around the world.

Amin's ever increasing lust
for power led him to invade
neighboring Tanzania.

Foreign powers began
to take action.

Amin's iron clad
grip began to loosen.

-What is actually
happening in Uganda now?

-Troops are deserting the
army and Amin is in hiding.

MORGAN: On April 11, 1979 Idi
Amin was overthrown by Ugandan
rebels and Tanzanian forces.

-We have won, we have
won, we have won!

-What do you think kept
him in power for so long?

-Amin was very unpredictable.

He would do things that
you'd think were absolutely
normal and yet the next minute,

he's doing the exact
opposite and that kept him
in power beyond what one

would have expected.

Brutality and
unpredictability go together.

-The English Historian,
Lord Acton famously said,

"Power tends to corrupt,
absolute power corrupts
absolutely."

Few leaders have
lived out that phrase more
vividly than Idi Amin.

Once he seized power,
there was no moral line he
wouldn't cross to keep power.

The specter of Amin
is still with us.

Around the globe, strong
men still covet power; will
do anything to get it and

anything to keep it.

We must be ever
vigilant against leaders who
want power for themselves,

not for us, the people.

When people are robbed of
their power, when they lack
a voice in their own fate,

they face a choice,
accept it or fight back.

But in the rural lowlands
of Northern Kenya, one
group has found a third way.

They are walking away and
building a new society.

Political Science Professor,
Faith Ogeto Orwa is traveling
from the capital

Nairobi to learn more.

(singing in native language).

-Welcome.
-Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure to be here.

(singing in native language).

MORGAN: The village
is called Umoja and its
founder is Rebecca Lolosoli.

She and the other
women here have created
a society without men.

-Hi Rebecca.

Tell me a little bit about
the village and about
the women that live here.

-Yeah, we have 48
women in this village.

We have new women coming.

The women, you see, the
women are making the houses.

MORGAN: The women who
have come here belong to
Kenya's Samburu tribe,

a society where men
hold all the power.

In Samburu culture, most
women can't own property.

They themselves are considered
the property of men.

-In our community,
women have no right.

We are not educated,
they don't go to school,
they don't have jobs,

they don't own livestock so
they have nothing to live on.

You know, the Samburu people,
we are polygamist and maybe
you start disliking the first

wife and start beating you
until you start kicking
you out of that home.

If you don't also
give children, then
you are useless.

You will be isolated.

Nobody wants you.

-So all the women that
have come here really have
very difficult stories.

-They have been beaten,
they have been threatened to
be killed, they've been raped.

MORGAN: Rebecca
herself was abused and
evicted from her home.

That's when she
left to found Umoja.

-We started Umoja in 1990.

Decided to build the
village so that we can stay
together and live together.

When the men started
seeing our success, now
they wanted to kill me.

They said if we kill her,
then everything will go down.

The men come and
beat the women.

They robbed the women.

They wanted to kick
us out of this land.

Even my own mum told
me stop and I was telling
her I'm not going to stop.

-How did you
protect yourselves?

-We didn't have
any protection.

At night when we see them,
we wake up, we start running,
but we refuse to go out

of this land completely.

Once we have already
built and we stayed here,

we live here;
it was hard for them to
get us out of this land.

MORGAN: The women of
Umoja endured the attacks
and the raids on their

village finally stopped.

Umoja has now become
a thriving community.

The women generate income
by making bead jewelry and
selling them to tourists.

They raise livestock and
are experimenting with
growing their own crops,

but Umoja's crown
jewel is its school.

-One, two, three.

-One, two, three.

MORGAN: This is where
the women are creating
a new society.

Different from the one in
which they were raised.

They hope the boys growing
up here will learn to treat
women as equals and take that

attitude with them when they
leave the village as adults.

-E for egg.
-E for egg.

-We have seen education
is the key for everything.

-C cat.
-C cat.

-This village is like
a training center.

We teach our boys to
respect the rights of women.

We are proud of our sons.

MORGAN: If Rebecca has
her way, Umoja is just the
beginning of a new broader

culture where
women have a say.

-You always move forward.

-I'm always moving forward.

Whether they say they are
killing me, I'm not scared.

I'm always going forward.

So our life is
always improving.

-Women of Umoja were born
into a society where they
had absolutely no power,

where the men treated
them like cattle.

So they built a new society.

They are re-writing the
social contract, giving women
a voice in the new order and

imbuing their sons with the
belief in gender equality.

Theirs is a young culture,
but the future looks bright.

New societies begin with the
hope of solving old problems.

-Ethics and corruption
concerns at the center of a
Federal bribery investigation.

MORGAN: But human nature
means that certain challenges
arise again and again like the

influence of money.

Can it be stopped
from eroding the very
foundation of democracy?

-Today's hearing is
about more than greed.

It's simply a
tale of betrayal.

MORGAN: In a democracy,

power is ultimately
supposed to rest in
the hands of the people,

but it doesn't
always work that way.

Lobbying, greed
and corruption strip
voters of their power,

selling influence to
the highest bidder.

No one knows
this better than former
lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Morning.

-Great to see you.

Thank you so much.

-And you, thank you.
-We got a table back here.
-Okay.

-From our first hearing,
Mr. Abramoff's insatiable
greed came to the fore.

MORGAN: One of K Street's
most successful lobbyists,
Jack became infamous when

he was convicted of taking
illegal kickbacks, wire fraud,
tax evasion and bribery.

He spent nearly four years
in jail for his crimes.

-Some races were impacted
by lawmakers connections
to disgraced lobbyist,

Jack Abramoff, part of
what Democrats labeled
a culture of corruption.

-Okay.

People go to Washington
and the first thing they
start saying when they are

campaigning is
I can't be bought.

I'm there to represent you.

-Right.

-And it doesn't
last that long?

-No.

I think almost everyone
shows up like that,
but over time and sometimes

it's only a
few hours and sometimes
it takes a few years,

eventually the lure of
the political money which

they need to get re-elected,
becomes so strong that
in fact they get affected.

-So what happened with you?

You were obviously
very good at it.

-Well I was deep in the game.

I opened up a couple of
restaurants where I let them
eat like it was a cafeteria.

When they wanted to go play
golf, I would put 'em on my
airplane and fly them to

St. Andrews to play the
Old Course and ultimately
what happened was an article

got written in
The Washington Post about

my lobbying
practice on the front page
and I became the great

villain of Washington.

I at first didn't
think I did anything wrong,
but I decided to go back and

re-read the million emails
that I had sent in the course

of being lobbyist and
I started re-thinking myself

and started thinking,
you know what, I cooperated,

I pled guilty and away I went.

At the end of it I
realized it was wrong, this
system where people paid

to play in Washington.

MORGAN: Paying to
influence government is all
too common for the powerful

cooperation's that
can afford it.

It's estimated
that they spend over
$9 billion lobbying our

elected officials every year.

So you have about 535 people
between House and the senate.

How many of 'em are clean?

-Well clean in the sense
of not allowing people to
give them money, very few.

Maybe a dozen
from both House...

-Maybe a dozen.

-Maybe, maybe, but most of
them unfortunately do and they
excuse it by saying this is

the system we live in and
this is how things are done.

-This is not the way a
democracy should work.

-No and it wasn't the way this
country was supposed to work.

-What should we be doing
to make things a little
easier, a little better?

-If the money were removed, it
would have an immense effect,
not only in the system in

terms of our political
system, but on the
individual congressmen.

There are other things also.

For example, term limits.

I was against term limits.

When I was a lobbyist I
wanted every congressman to
die in office when they're

150 years old.

It's the same way when
you have a car right.

You have a car,
you run out of gas, you
don't go get a new car.

You go to the gas station
to put some gas in right?

-Yeah.

-So if you bought
a congressman and
you're a lobbyist,

you don't wanna have to
go buy a new congressman.

You just wanna put a little
more gas in the tank and
people when they get there at

the beginning, they're not
really corrupt, they're
not part of the system.

Get 'em out of there
before they become corrupt.

-And I'm gonna
tell you something.

I'm glad you went
to prison because you had
time to think and now you're

on a great crusade.

You're on the high road.

-Thank you.

MORGAN: Money is power.

So many people in this country
feel they don't have a voice,
that the government isn't

listening to them, that
their vote doesn't count
and that's the truth.

As Jack knows all too well,
you have to pay to play in
our American political system.

I believe if we're going
to make our democracy work,
if we're going to make

it truly representational,
we're gonna have to take money
out of the equation and

put people back in.

But a seismic shift in
the balance of power
is already underway.

The explosion of social
media means everyone can
express their will, 24/7.

Will technology make leaders
more accountable or will
it make leaders obsolete?

MORGAN: Corruption, repression
and tyranny all rob people
of their rights in society,

but the Internet has given
them a new way to be heard.

When leaders monopolize
power, can technology
help people take it back?

To find out I'm headed
to San Francisco.

I'm here to meet
one of the founders of
Twitter, Evan Williams.

He's moved on from Twitter
now and created a new
Internet start up, Medium.

I'm always curious
about, if you'll pardon the
expression, people like you.

Where do you come from?

Who are you?

How did you get into this?

EVAN: I grew up on
a farm in Nebraska,

rural Nebraska literally in
the middle of the cornfields.

I was pretty isolated growing
up and this was pre-internet.

I had a computer,

I learned programming
when I was in high school
and when the Internet started

emerging in the late 90s,
what I believed at the
time was once everybody

had a voice, we would all
be smarter because good ideas
would rise to the top and

truth would rise to the top
and we'd be able to say well
that's wrong, this is good,

let's talk about it.

-I'm thinking about my
father was a barber and the
barber's shop was town hall.

So everybody even heard
it on the radio or they
read the paper and they came

to the barber's shop
and discussed it.

Is Twitter the
extension of that?

-Yeah, we've used
that analogy before of
the global town hall.

Turned out it was more
complicated than that.

So when we built Twitter it
was with the ethos of we want
to connect as many people as

possible and let information
flow as freely as possible
and with an assumption of most

people are gonna use that in
a good way, which is true, but
the degree to which people who

are the bad actors can spoil
it for other people, we didn't
really design in well enough.

And so I compare it to the
real world and saying even if
you believe most people are

good people, you still
may lock your door when
you leave your house.

-So the Internet
is a good thing.

We can all know more
about each other and
perhaps be smarter.

-That's the hope.

-On the other hand,
we have the dark side.

Which side's winning?

-It's really a pretty
equal match right now.

I think what we've found
is that what gets rewarded
on the Internet is attention.

It doesn't reward
quality of attention.

It doesn't reward accuracy
of facts and people have
figured out oh what's the

cheapest way to drive
attention, have a car crash.

And it gets the self
reinforcing cycle, so if
you look at a car crash,

then the Internet thinks
oh you like car crashes,
here's more car crashes.

MORGAN: Even sees
these digital car
crashes, click bait,

trolls and fake news as
threats to the Internet's
promise of giving

power back to the people.

Have you come up with any idea
about how to go about this,
I'm gonna call it, clean up?

-The way that I now think
about the Internet is
it's neither good nor bad.

It's a technology that
makes it easier for people
to get what they want.

It's not that dissimilar
from other technologies.

If you think about
agricultural technology help
people get what they want and

need, nourishment and food
with less effort, but then
the technology kept going and

it feels like it's
probably gone to far.

The fact that we have
access to the cheap calories
at all times and that feels

good in the moment, but
it's way beyond nourishment.

-What are you doing with your
new company to change what
people get from the Internet?

-With Medium, we're
definitely trying to move
things in the right direction.

We're trying to create a
space for nuance and depth.

I think that's the nourishment
that may not be there in the
junk food and we're trying to

make that really work.

MORGAN: If we can get to the
point where Internet forums
and social media truly reward

thoughtful engagement,
a new form of
democracy could emerge.

We could all vote all
the time on every log.

Representatives could
become obsolete, but Evan
believes direct democracy

is fraught with danger.

-What we're seeing today
is the ability for everybody
to at least have a say and

it's in many instances been
phenomenally powerful.

Online activism
has been incredible,
but it goes both ways.

The alt right movement which
was really powered by people
getting together online who

may have fringe ideas in their
local community but they find
someone who agrees with them

and collectively
they get critical mass...

-Jews will not replace us!

-Has been
pretty scary as well.

So the idea of direct
democracy today, ten years
ago I would have said

well that's gonna
be awesome because the
right things will happen.

And now, I don't know.

-So is there hope for direct
democracy in the future?

-I think today's
information environment
underscores the importance

of representative democracy.

Things are so complex
today much more than
they were 200 years ago,

that the idea let's all vote
on the health-care bill and
like the complexity of that,

to understand it we need to
elect people who we trust to
make those decisions for us.

-But if everyone can vote on
the laws themselves, you can't
stop me from voting just by

gerrymandering my district.

-I think what we're unhappy
with is the representatives,
not necessarily the

representative of democracy,
but what I think the Internet
will drive us toward is

demanding more transparency
from the representatives and
being actually responsive to

their constituents needs and
I think it's more possible
to make that happen now.

MORGAN: Evan Williams
believes that the Internet,
like the printing press,

the radio and television
before it, is fundamentally
changing the relationship

between we the people
and our leaders.

It gives us direct and instant
contact with government.

It has the potential to
wrest back power from leaders
who have gone off course,

but it could also
take democracy in a
frightening direction,

steered by hateful
hackers, vengeful trolls.

The task ahead of
us now is learning how

to use our new power wisely.

Since the dawn
of civilization, there's
been a tug of war between

society and its leaders.

Now we need leaders
to get things done, but if
we give up too much power,

tyranny ensues.

People lose their right to
choose their own destinies.

Today, we stand
at a crossroads.

Technology has given
billions of us the power
to make our voices heard

louder and clearer than ever.

Today, we have the
power to shape society
and be accountable for

the world we make.

Now I'm hopeful in spite
of the dangers that lie
ahead because I believe

that ultimately
there is one power that is
greater than any despot.

The power of the human spirit.

I believe that.

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