0:00 Democracy is never more than one generation away from extinction.
0:04 Now, these are the wise words of former President Ronald Reagan.
0:08 Now, when President Reagan said these words,
0:09 he wasn't talking about a democracy falling apart in one night
0:12 or in one election,
0:14 but simply over time
0:15 when young people started to not understand to protect
0:18 or preserve preserve it.
0:19 Now, you see a lot of older folks like sitting in the audience today,
0:23 they look at young people and they say, "You are the future of democracy.
0:27 It is your job to protect it."
0:29 But, that really sparks the question
0:30 that I have to talk about today is how can we protect
0:33 and preserve something we were never truly taught to understand?
0:37 You see, I think human nature is pretty simple.
0:39 We care about what affects us, right?
0:42 Let me give you a quick example. 2 years ago at Oaks Christian School,
0:45 something of the banning of skirts happened, right?
0:47 Me and my friends sitting in the back, none of us cared, right?
0:50 It didn't affect our daily lives at all.
0:52 But, the young lady lions could not say the same thing.
0:55 They were very frustrated.
0:57 They were very upset.
0:58 And why?
0:59 Because it impacted their everyday lives.
1:01 It impacted them so much that they actually started petitions.
1:04 They garnished hundreds of signatures and they tried to make change.
1:07 In the same way
1:08 that when I go to Chipotle
1:09 and my $12 bowl is all of a sudden $18,
1:12 it's ridiculous, right?
1:13 And for me, this does impact my everyday life
1:15 because I go to Chipotle about every single day.
1:19 Now, in the same way that this makes me upset,
1:21 it makes a lot of people upset
1:23 because the truth about human nature is
1:25 that we care about what affects us.
1:27 Now, I think it's important to understand that democracy is the same way.
1:31 Now, Ronald Reagan was not the first person to have concerns about how to
1:34 strengthen,
1:35 protect, and preserve democracy.
1:37 And I'm certainly not the last and neither of us are the first.
1:40 So, let's go and look at some history to ground this talk in today
1:43 of some other philosophers from ancient Greece
1:45 that also had ideas of how to protect
1:47 and to preserve democracy.
1:50 So, first let's start with Socrates.
1:52 Now, Socrates was a pretty simple man, but a brilliant one.
1:54 I'm sure that we have all been in school
1:56 or just heard online about Socrates
1:58 and some of his philosophy.
1:59 You see Socrates believed that voting was not an innate right,
2:02 but that voting was a skill.
2:04 Now, I don't stand here in front of you
2:05 and tell you that voting is not an innate right
2:07 because I do believe it is,
2:09 but it definitely is a skill.
2:10 You see Socrates gave an example and a metaphor and it went like this.
2:14 Imagine you were stranded in the open sea.
2:17 You had two options for who was going to take you back to shore.
2:20 Option A was a trained salesman,
2:22 a trained captain of a boat who had practice and experienced all his life.
2:25 And option B was a man that worked in a candy shop,
2:28 a man that had no experience
2:29 and who had never even been in the ocean before.
2:32 Now, what option would we choose?
2:33 The experienced person or the inexperienced person?
2:36 Right, we all sought out experienced person.
2:39 This is because it's pretty simple.
2:40 They're educated, they're practiced, they're licensed,
2:42 and they have the best chance of getting us back safely.
2:45 Now, Socrates believed that it was important to connect this back to everyday life
2:49 and so this is what we come up with,
2:50 right?
2:51 We have this idea that democracy is a ship.
2:53 It is a vessel.
2:54 It is our means of transportation.
2:56 And a government for the people by the people,
2:59 we are the captains of our ship.
3:00 And if we want to be good captains,
3:03 good people guiding our democracy in the right way,
3:05 it's also important we are educated.
3:07 Just like in the metaphor,
3:08 we would choose an educated person to drive the ship,
3:11 we should also have an educated person
3:12 and choose to be educated people
3:14 when it comes to our democracy.
3:16 Now, let's jump to Plato
3:18 because I read a book by Plato called The Republic
3:20 that went all over his philosophy
3:22 and I took away one key thing
3:24 and it was this.
3:25 People often choose what sounds good over what is good.
3:29 It's very simple that a lot of the time in human history
3:32 and throughout history,
3:32 we have seen that a lot of the time people choose what sounds good
3:36 in theory,
3:36 but isn't always good in reality.
3:39 What makes us sound What makes it sound good doesn't always make it good
3:42 and we see this a lot play out through history.
3:44 I think the most famous example of what Plato was talking about was let's
3:48 look at Nazi Germany in 1939.
3:51 I think it's very important to understand what was happening in Nazi Germany prior
3:55 to what happened in World War II.
3:57 I think it's important to understand, number one, that Nazi Germany was a democracy.
4:01 And I think that's one thing
4:02 that a lot of people don't understand
4:04 and they mess up.
4:05 Hitler was a democratically appointed leader,
4:08 and I think that is the first major thing to understand.
4:11 Now, I think the second major thing to understand is
4:13 that what was actually happening in Germany in this time of 1939.
4:18 The first thing is that they were coming off World War I, right?
4:20 They were poor.
4:21 They were in a great depression.
4:22 They were a laughing stock.
4:24 Now, a man like Adolf Hitler rose up in a democracy,
4:27 and he was very persuasive.
4:28 He charged his speeches with emotions and with passion,
4:31 and it really convinced people under the ideas of fascism and supernaturalism, right?
4:35 And people bought into this.
4:36 But why?
4:37 This is because it sounded so good.
4:39 Plato believed that humans innately emotion could really strive people to make things sound
4:43 good when they really weren't.
4:45 And so, what do we see?
4:46 We see Adolf Hitler rise to power, become the dictator,
4:50 and turn this democracy into an autocracy.
4:53 Now, what are the consequences of times in history where we see uneducated people,
4:57 people vulnerable to manipulation in a democracy?
5:00 Well, we see exactly what this.
5:02 What are the real-world consequences of a time
5:04 when democracy fails because people become uneducated?
5:07 Well, the problem is and the consequences are, if for myself personally,
5:11 is my great-great-grandmother was shot in the back of the head on the way
5:15 to a concentration camp in 1939 during World War II.
5:18 Along with 6 million other Jews and other members that were killed.
5:22 And like my grandma would say, who's sitting in the back today,
5:24 we must never forget.
5:26 Now, these atrocities are horrible
5:27 and are really what happens
5:29 when a democracy becomes uneducated
5:30 and vulnerable to manipulation.
5:33 Now, I think it's important to see in this situation
5:35 that we see throughout history time
5:37 and time again of these things happening.
5:39 And we also see what happens we see the real-world consequences
5:42 that happened to everybody,
5:43 but also what happened to Germany.
5:45 Cuz Germany lost another World War, became even poorer, even more of a laughingstock,
5:50 and overall what sounded really,
5:52 really good turned out to be one of the most catastrophic things to happen
5:55 in human history.
5:57 Now, let's move on.
5:58 This is John Adams, the second president of the United States.
6:02 Now, John Adams, similarly to me and probably similarly to you,
6:05 believed that young people needed to be educated.
6:08 And so, what happened?
6:09 He created the school system we have today.
6:12 But that is the key word in that phrase, that we have today.
6:17 Let's look an example of what I mean by that, right?
6:19 What is that?
6:20 That is the question
6:21 that I asked 5 years ago
6:23 when I was at the at the mall with my brother
6:25 and my dad.
6:25 I was at a Foot Locker, and I was like, "Dad,
6:28 what is that on that wall?"
6:29 Like, there was a there was a yellow shoe
6:31 and this thing was next to it.
6:32 He was like, "What the heck is that?"
6:33 And apparently, this is how people used to listen to music 20 years ago,
6:37 right?
6:38 Now, this is how we listen to music today, Apple Music and Spotify, right?
6:42 Where instantly we click and it's there, right?
6:44 That's just one example.
6:45 Let's look at another one.
6:46 This is how actually, when I say this,
6:48 I mean this is how people used to listen to music 150,
6:52 I mean 20 years ago, right?
6:53 It just looks so old.
6:54 I'm sorry, Dad.
6:55 I'm sorry.
6:55 I'm sorry.
6:56 All right, now let's move on, right?
6:58 This is how people used to travel 150 years ago, by horseback.
7:02 This is how people travel today, by cars, modern technology, and advancements.
7:06 This is what a school looked like 150 years ago.
7:10 And this is what a school looks like today.
7:12 The exact same.
7:14 We see advancements in music, in iPhones, in cars,
7:17 but fundamentally the school system is the exact same.
7:21 And it's interesting because when I go to school,
7:23 I take an English class
7:24 and I learn how to write CEWs
7:26 and I learn different fallacies,
7:27 anaphoras, and epizeuxis, and all those different things.
7:30 I go to math class
7:31 and I learn the I learn uh cosine
7:33 and tangent and the unit circle
7:34 and precalc and all those different things.
7:37 And I go to science class
7:38 and chemistry and I learn about the periodic table
7:40 and molar masses and all those different things.
7:43 And those things are important.
7:44 Don't get me wrong.
7:44 I'm not saying they aren't.
7:46 But what is the one thing
7:47 that we never truly really get to take the time to question,
7:50 to understand, to challenge, and really connect to?
7:53 It's our government.
7:54 It's our democracy.
7:55 The core pillar of what we have in America is our democracy,
7:58 is our government, and yet at max students only spend one year ever understanding
8:03 it.
8:04 And I think the one thing
8:05 that really is missed
8:06 when we are learning about our government is this.
8:09 Is that everything around us in our everyday life connects the directly back to
8:14 democracy and our government.
8:15 But a lot of us don't see that.
8:17 A lot of young people don't understand that.
8:19 And I'm going to get to that in just a moment.
8:22 But let's move on.
8:22 Don't just take my word for it.
8:23 We see some historical examples, but let's look at some stats.
8:27 In 2022, an Annenberg survey found
8:29 that less than half of Americans can name all three branches of government.
8:33 One out of every two people could not name the three branches of government.
8:37 At that, they found
8:37 that 25% of people could not name a single one of the three branches
8:41 of government.
8:43 They also found in another study done by ACTA
8:45 that only 32% of students correctly could identify Congress
8:49 as the branch with the power to declare war.
8:51 Now, what is the issue with this?
8:52 The issue is this is that these young people that are in high school,
8:55 they interviewed 3,000 students.
8:57 These 3,000 students are going to grow up one day to be the politicians,
9:01 the doctors, the teachers, and all those different things.
9:03 They are the next generation.
9:05 But what type of world
9:06 and democracy are we living in
9:07 when these young people don't even know who has the power to declare war.
9:11 When any person could step into office, any position of power,
9:14 and declare war if they choose so,
9:15 and nobody would question it
9:17 because they wouldn't know who really has the power to do
9:19 so.
9:20 It's also true if we look at more of a local level.
9:22 In the state of California,
9:23 young adults ages 18 to 34 make up 30% of California's population.
9:28 But only 21% of likely voters.
9:31 Through these two stats, we see two major things.
9:33 One, young people are not educated.
9:35 And two, because they are not educated, we see drops in participation.
9:39 Lower than any other age group,
9:40 young people consistently aren't showing up and turning out in voting.
9:46 Now, let me tell you a quick story.
9:47 My friend had just ate turned 18 in the last election,
9:50 and he went to the ballot box, and he was super super excited.
9:53 I'm 18, I'm ready to vote, I know who my president's going to be,
9:55 we're going to rock the world, all of the jazz, right?
9:59 He gets in the ballot box, and this is what he sees, right?
10:01 He sees this first column, he sees who his president's going to be,
10:03 and he checks it off.
10:05 And then his jaw drops to the floor.
10:07 He has never seen a single thing on this ballot ever before in his
10:10 life.
10:11 And out of his obligation to be an American citizen who has to vote,
10:15 he just starts checking off boxes and checking off boxes.
10:19 Now, what is the consequence of when something like this happens?
10:22 Well, I'm not sure how many of us remember, but back in 2016,
10:26 there was um a bill, Proposition number 67, that was on the ballot.
10:30 No pun intended.
10:31 It was number 67.
10:32 Now, on this ballot in Proposition number 67,
10:35 it was something that went like this.
10:37 It was about the the banning of 10 cents per plastic bag in the
10:40 state of California.
10:41 Now, many people went to the ballot box, just like my friend,
10:44 and didn't know anything, and just started checking off boxes.
10:47 But, what we see comes of that is something like Proposition 67.
10:50 Something that hurts every day everybody's everyday life, right?
10:52 10 cents per plastic bag is ridiculous.
10:55 It's crazy.
10:55 Now, this isn't something that is life or death,
10:58 but this is just an example of something that can happen, right?
11:00 Because what did happen in the situation?
11:03 Well, the politicians used very tricky wording, very manipulative wording,
11:07 that made people that didn't know anything about this proposition not understand it.
11:11 When they voted yes to the bill,
11:12 they thought they were voting no against it, and when they were voting no,
11:15 they thought they were voting yes for it.
11:17 Many people came out afterwards and were very upset.
11:19 They felt tricked, bamboozled.
11:21 They felt like a fool,
11:22 because they voted for something that hurt their everyday life.
11:25 Now, this is a micro level situation, right?
11:27 10 cents per plastic bag for most people isn't life or death.
11:31 But, what happens when this type of situation is escalated to a macro level
11:35 situation where we have examples of time
11:37 and time again through history where we have a Nazi Germany
11:40 or we have an Athens fall
11:41 or a Greek democracy fall,
11:42 right?
11:43 We see these different things.
11:44 This is a small level of what can happen
11:46 but just on a much larger scale.
11:49 Now, we see a problem.
11:51 We see people warning us about an issue.
11:53 We see the issue in the stats.
11:54 We see the issue through Proposition number 67.
11:58 So, what is the solution?
11:59 Because I think the main issue is is
12:01 that young people don't understand how the government
12:04 and how democracy and how civics connects to everyday life,
12:07 right?
12:08 All of these things up on this board right here.
12:10 Unemployment rates, taxes, gas prices, college tuition.
12:13 How many of us right now
12:14 when we go to fill up our car at the gas stations we're really
12:16 feeling in our pockets?
12:17 I know my dad is with me
12:19 and my brother driving
12:19 and him paying for our gas.
12:20 I'm sure that he is feeling that, right?
12:22 How many of us are feeling these college tuition prices?
12:25 Some of us in this room are going to be going off to college
12:27 next year.
12:27 Some of us are going to be going in two or three years.
12:29 And we're going to see just how big those numbers are
12:31 and our parents are definitely going to see
12:33 that,
12:33 too.
12:34 Now, I think the main thing to understand is
12:36 that when you look at these things you might see,
12:39 "Oh, unemployment rates, gas prices, college tuition."
12:41 And you might think, "Yes, those things connect to the government."
12:44 But most young people don't.
12:45 They never see or understand
12:47 that all of these things
12:48 that contribute to every single day of every single life are all affected by
12:53 the government,
12:53 by what's going on foreign, by what's going on with our own politics,
12:56 by how our politicians are acting.
12:58 Now, I think the major thing is
13:00 that if they understood how these things impacted their lives,
13:03 they would begin to care.
13:05 I was very fortunate enough to have a person and somebody like Mrs.
13:08 Ahn who sits in this room today
13:09 that was able to take I was able to take a debate class
13:12 and I was able to learn all about the different things on this board
13:14 and how they connect to my life
13:15 and how democracy is the fundamental core of our life.
13:20 But not everybody is as fortunate enough as me to have somebody like Mrs.
13:23 Ahn.
13:24 But I think that everybody should.
13:26 I think that everyone should have someone, whether it's a teacher,
13:28 whether it's a parent, whether it's a coach, whether it's a mentor,
13:31 whoever it is.
13:32 Someone should be able to teach them
13:33 that all of these things in everyday life connect directly back to democracy,
13:37 back to our government.
13:38 Because just like I was once uneducated and I didn't care about these things,
13:42 once I learned how they connected to my life, instantly it changed.
13:46 Instantly I wanted to know more.
13:47 Instantly I wanted to learn about the government
13:49 and I was on YouTube watching videos
13:50 and it has changed my whole perspective into one day wanting to be a
13:53 politician.
13:54 I think that is the key thing to understand is
13:56 that if young people were taught how these things connected to their life,
14:00 they would begin to care.
14:01 Now, my dad once shared with me a quote by Albert Einstein.
14:05 The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
14:08 and over and over again
14:09 and expecting a different result.
14:12 You see, we can't sit back
14:13 and just do the same thing over
14:14 and over again.
14:15 We see the numbers.
14:16 We can't just sit back and think one day the numbers will flip.
14:19 Young people will begin to become educated one day
14:21 and care about democracy
14:23 because that's not the case.
14:24 It would actually fit under the definition of insanity.
14:27 We need to take action.
14:28 We need to understand there is a problem
14:30 and there are real world threats
14:32 and consequences we have seen throughout history
14:34 when we don't take the problem serious
14:36 and we don't educate our young people in the future of our democracy,
14:40 bad things happen.
14:41 Real consequences come from it.
14:43 And it is time that we do something.
14:46 Because if we do believe that when Ronald Reagan once said,
14:49 "Democracy is only one generation away from extinction."
14:53 Then it is also true the opposite.
14:55 If democracy is one generation away from extinction,
14:58 democracy is also one generation away from renewal.
15:02 Thank you very much.
15:02 >>
