The truth of the matter is you are not qualified to be able to decide on the nuclear foreign policy of your country.

Let the smart people do it.

I may not be, but I can choose someone who will be and I certainly know who is it, is it Boris johnson, It may not be, but it's certainly not you Hi, welcome to Nasa debate today, we will talk about democracy.

What type of government works best?

Is it a democratic government or is there something better than democracy on my left debating pro democracy, I've got Alex, Wek mm hmm.

Hi everyone, my name is Alex and I'm gonna tell you why democracy is the best option out there to help the most people, thank you Alex and on my right I have no desire, who is voting against democracy?

Hello, everybody today, I would like to argue for the unpopular and I would like to say that democracy is not the best form of government today.

Before we start, let me explain to you how this debate is going to work.

Our lovely audience has voted pro or against democracy at the moment it is 66% pro democracy.

But at the end of the debate they will vote again and let's see who is more convincing, will it be Alex or will it be desire?

Now, let the debate begin Alex, I have a question for you, do you think my t shirt is pretty, Some people say yes, some people say my t shirt is ugly now, imagine if everybody in the world was forced to wear my T shirt that would be terrible, People have different tastes, we all agree the diversity of thought and diversity of governance is important, but for some reason when it comes to democracy, the West, which is where you come from, thinks that it's one size fits all, this is why we need a better form of democracy for more people around the world.

So no sire is easy to say that me, myself is from the United Kingdom and we have democracy, but actually my family came from outside the West all the way to the West to take part in democracy because they realize like many, many other people listening that democracy has so many good things about it that democracy provides safety, it provides comfort and it provides you with choice, that is why democracy has shown over time, that is the best form of government out there.

Great, great point Alex, you said democracy provides you with safety.

Senegal has democracy, kenya has democracy.

The south side of Chicago in America has has democracy.

In fact it is the most democratic government in the world yet there is no safety in the south side of Chicago, there is no safety at compton, there's no safety in some parts in the slums in kenya.

So the, the idea that democracy provides you with safety and opportunity and only democracy does that is wrong.

So safety is not just about security on the streets.

Safety also is the ability to choose your leader and decide who makes the laws and who decides the direction of the country, right?

Some people say, oh it's the person with the PhD, but that doesn't mean they're going to make good decisions.

And at the end of the day it's subjective, right, Who is right, who is wrong?

So if it's subjective, I want to be able to have a say in who may make the best decision and that is something that democracy provides, that others do not.

And this is exactly why I have a problem with democracy Alex, you work in a corporation in the big big decisions at Nasa Academy.

Do you let the software engineer take the decisions?

Do you let the designers take the decisions or do you as chief business officer take the decisions for others.

The idea of democracy is that one vote equals one say is flawed because even if everybody deserves a voice, not every voice is equal in value.

So there's a big difference between a corporation and a country.

When I worked at a company, I have the choice to leave the company, but in the world today, if I live in a country, I don't always have a choice to leave that country.

My passport may not allow me, I may be stuck there and so I want to be able to have a say over my leaders and the leader.

If it's not me, then it's going to be subjective who is the right person to decide who my leader is?

Well, I think I'm the best Not you or not anyone else.

Do you think a uneducated person on the street should have a say of the nuclear policy of the United States or the UK?

I don't think they should have a say.

History has shown that in other countries where there isn't democracy, the person who to rules the country doesn't know more about nuclear policies.

There is no evidence that has shown that that person is better in a better position to make a decision.

I'm glad you bring that.

I'm glad you bring that point because you're implying that democracy works Yet.

We've exported democracy to 30 countries around the world, Kenya, Senegal Pakistan Bangladesh, are they richer?

Are they Sweden right now?

Has democracy truly lifted the citizens that are watching right now or has it only generated conflict over conflict over conflict?

Not everybody can live by the standards of your country.

Not every democracy is perfect.

But the beauty of democracy is that every four or five years we can change the leader in every country you mentioned, we have the ability to choose a different leader if it's not working out in in a situation a country that doesn't have democracy, we are stuck and by the way, there are many countries that don't have democracy that are just as badly run as countries with democracies that don't quite work.

great.

You mentioned the beautiful thing about democracy is that it changes leaders every four years.

That's actually the terrible thing about democracy.

The biggest problems in your country, the sewer system in your country, the infrastructure in your country, the nuclear arsenal, the army in your country needs more than four years to fix, it needs 10 years to fix 15 years to fix what's happening in America or in democratic countries every four years there's a zigzag, there's a new policy heck you work at a startup to build a small startup.

You need five years.

So that's what's great about democracy that have been over time is that they've established ways To have elected leaders change every four years but have a system under it that lasts much longer.

So the people in a good democracy, what you have is you have a civil service people who run the day to day of fixing the sewer or fixing the roads and then the overarching policies are decided by the people who change.

So that means you can have both.

You can have your cake and eat it as well.

Okay, great.

So what he, what he is saying that democracy works because we infuse a little bit of dictatorship in it.

That's all you're saying because some part of the government does not change and people cannot vote to you're saying.

That's good, all I'm saying is let's make that the whole government.

Let's make the smartest 2000 people in the country Choose the direction of the country.

Democracy only works when the population is sufficiently educated and that's not the case in 90% of them.

So sorry, this is where you're wrong, you think or the way you're talking is that there's only one way for a country to move forward and that's only decided by the smartest people.

But in reality, the way the country moves away, a country moves forward is a choice.

If the decision is going to be wrong, if there's gonna be mistakes made along the way, I would much rather have a role to play in those decisions than to let someone make mistakes without me having any say, no country has a binary choice.

It's not, this road is better.

This road is worse.

It's a zigzag.

And you learn along the way, I want to play a role in my country, zigzag.

Well actually Alex, there are some roads that are wrong.

Democracy, elected.

Hitler.

Hitler came from democracy.

Was that a zigzag?

Did we zigzag out of it?

Yeah.

Through World War Two and 50 million deaths.

So who do we blame World War Two on the rise of Hitler?

And what do we blame the rise of Hitler on the democratic government which enabled populism to exist.

So in the case of World War Two, that was a very low point for democracy, but let's be clear, Democracy did not cause World War Two.

What happened was is that the elected leader changed the system Germany did not become democratically elected leader Germany did not become a democracy anymore.

That was the problem.

And that's down to do.

That's to do with the institutions around the democracy correct.

But in a functioning government where there's smart people that are able to make the decisions they would say no to Hitler they would say no to trump because the average person could tell that there's something wrong with this leader.

We should not allow them to manipulate the rest of the population.

This is why democracy is dangerous.

Every leader comes and promises you a business seat in their plane but they don't know how to fly a plane.

But hang on a second let's take that same period of time in the 20th century.

Not only do we have Hitler with democracy but we had Stalin and Stalin was not a democracy and that led to millions of deaths.

So it's all very well saying that democracy gives you death.

But actually the alternatives give you death as well.

Yes.

Yes that's correct.

That's correct.

Now that we are both on the same page.

Let us actually have some progress.

All I'm saying is that guys the rest of the world let me tell you something that the U.

K.

And the british parliament will never tell you there is a better form of governance that we can explore together.

And it's not dictatorship.

We don't like dictatorship.

You don't like dictatorship, but not the whole world wants to live by the ideals of one country.

So I think, let's be clear, democracy is not just something from one country over periods of time, many, many countries have adopted democracy and adopted the idea of democracy, which is that people have a say, there can be many different forms of people having a say.

But at the end of the day, democracy allows you to have a say in some form, great idea But flawed execution.

Democracy came from 8th Athens Athens is that Britain, by the way?

No, that's that Britain, that's grease and you know, who actually participated in the democracy, only the top 1% of the Greeks was actually rich enough to talk about democracy and introduce democracy to the world.

So actually the average greek citizen was not part of the democracy and that's where it came from.

So are you in favor of that form of government?

That's all I'm saying.

Can we explore that form of governance in which there is democracy, but only at the top, let's take ancient Greece.

Ancient Greece had the perfect system, Sira is ancient Greece alive today noted that system works so well, we'll look, it didn't work because ancient Greece is no longer around, but the democracy that I talked about that everyone gets a vote.

It's still around today is the third Reich around, It's the third Reich around, it had a democracy in 1920 or whatever, that also failed countries come and go, that's the reality of it.

If we don't have a democracy in the way that I describe, who should run countries, the queen, your queen, So the way it could potentially work, there are different forms of governance called technocracy, a pest ocracy, whatever it is.

What if at the point in which you are about to vote, we ask you, we'll give you a simple test.

Do you know what the constitution is?

Do you know what the nuclear weapon is?

Do you know where Russia is on the map?

If you answer these three questions correctly, You get to vote.

How about that?

It's a modified democracy, Sony Sarah, I love that you're thinking in such an idealistic way, but let's just talk about the reality.

The reality is you decide that some people are smarter than others.

If you think that technocrats are the people who should run the country, then you're basically saying that 50, of people who don't have access to that education don't have access or the money to do these things do not have a right to participate in that country.

So you're being elitist, you're saying that that running a country is reserved only for people who have access to money and I don't believe in that.

And I think many people here don't believe in that.

Great.

So Alex let us live your ideals.

Do you let everybody in the company decide on the company.

You don't you don't believe that the collective power is actually smart enough to run the company you're running.

You don't believe that.

So why do you agree with that for the country?

A country and a company is the same.

In fact the number one reason why everybody here is rich or well off is because companies generated the value because they are run very effectively.

The way companies are run is more effective than the way governments and the way you want governments to run.

I'm not saying in a democracy that everyone votes on every decision, a good democracy elects the leader who then appoints the people to make those decisions.

So if I'm a farmer, I can vote for the person who I think can pick the right person to do foreign policy, it doesn't necessarily need to be the farmer.

And if we look at marginalized groups, right.

Well the beauty of democracy is that it gives a seat at the table.

So it's not about making every decision, but it makes sure that minority voices are heard and taken into account decisions.

This sounds great on paper but in execution is different on paper we can all agree on everything.

But if we look at the data in India, if you run under the name Gandhi, the last family named Gandhi, you still get tens of millions of votes.

People in reality vote based on name.

They vote based on feelings they vote based on lack of information.

The truth of the matter is I would love a farmer to participate but the farmer has not done their homework to be able to participate in this fire.

This is why I love democracy because with donald trump americans got to have a vote four years later and look, donald trump is no longer in power.

So the democracy allows you to to have checks and balances to combat decisions that may not be the best for the country.

Does democracy allow the UK to rejoin the european union?

I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon.

Some decisions that are taken by democracy are catastrophic and they lead to death real serious death.

We don't want the crowd and the majority to control the world.

If you talk about minority rights, what is the minority rights?

If I live in a city in which 90% of the people are white and I am black.

There is no way in hell this city will ever get up a black mayor.

So where are the minority rights and democracy so desire.

I think this whole debate has been about democracy is bad, but you're not proposing dictatorship is good.