Al Gore speech

 FTR: Al Gore

CH: 

Al Gore isn't known for mincing words, especially about the environment. Inconvenient truths are his brand. But the former U.S. vice-president was particularly unapologetic in a speech at San Francisco's Climate Week on Monday. In his keynote address, Mr. Gore slammed the Trump administration for hindering climate progress, citing the president's resistance to renewables, in particular. But his criticisms addressed the political climate, too -- culminating in a comparison he acknowledged one is typically better off avoiding. Here's part of Al Gore's speech, For The Record.

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AL GORE: 

"We've already seen, by the way, how populist authoritarian leaders have used migrants as scapegoats and have fanned the fires of xenophobia to fuel their own rise to power. And power-seeking is what this is all about. Our constitution, written by our founders, is intended to protect us against a threat identical to Donald Trump, someone who seeks power at all costs to get more power. I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler's Third Reich to any other movement. It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it. But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil. And here is one that I regard as essential, in the immediate aftermath of World War II, a small group of philosophers who had escaped Hitler's murderous regime returned to Germany and performed a kind of moral autopsy on the Third Reich. The most famous of the so-called Frankfurt School of Philosophers was a man named Jurgen Habermas, best known I would say, but it was Habermase's mentor, Theodore Adorno, who wrote that the first step in that nation's descent into hell was, and I quote, the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power. He described how the Nazis, and I quote again, attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false, end quote. The Trump administration is insisting on trying to create their own preferred version of reality"

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Herodotus on the corrosive nature of autocratic power.  cbcradio/ideas April 25,2024

How to become a tyrant in 5 steps

In the 5th century BCE Herodotus travelled his ancient world gathering stories. One of his many prescient observations was how given the right circumstances a political strongman can emerge and seize control. It turns out the playbook on authoritarianism remains pretty much the same after nearly 3,000 years

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What it takes to become a ruthless tyrant

53 mins

April 25, 2025

Looking back about 3,000 years, the playbook on authoritarianism remains pretty much the same as it is today. Back in the 5th century BCE, when Herodotus travelled the ancient world gathering stories, he became an expert in would-be tyrants. His groundbreaking tome, simply called The History, shared vivid descriptions of autocratic and tyrannical rulers. Herodotus was a rule breaker himself. He ignored Greek literary tradition and captured history as accurately as possible from a wide range of sources. One of his many prescient observations was how, given the right circumstances, a political strongman can emerge and seize control — a forewarning for us today. 

This episode originally aired on Sept. 9, 2024.