Hello.
I am Aero and this is my famous passport
(Laughter)
Yes, I had to come here last year
But in Estonia we have these kinds of plastic personal cards
Where I travel by
And I pay for my exams
And I turn my bank transfers
I can review my children’s homework
So it was a big surprise when I was in Munich
at the Air port
It turned out that in order to come to Ukraine
I need 32 pages of neglected paper
So I did not come, sorry.
I worked at the state-owned NO99 theater
It is located anyway
In the same building as the Estonian Ministry of Defense
We have a business project since 2004
Where we are a small regular theater
We do a variety of jobs
But also work for Shakespeare, Olby and Sheikhov .. Etc
When Ladislaw told me from TEDxKyiv I was talking here
“It would be great if I came up with some ideas
Which can keep Ukraine through which “
The bad news is that I have no ideas of this kind
Not even one idea
But the good news was that this did not stop us six years ago
When we founded a fictional political party
And for a very small period
He acquired all the symbols of power there in Estonia
We wanted to do something great
And more importantly, something real
And then we did this
(Video started)
– Who is Tate Ogasu?
Estonia, Estonia, for Estonia
Between fire and water
Together we are strong
Estonia, Estonia, for Estonia
Between fire and water
Estonia, Estonia, for Estonia
Between fire and water
Together we are strong
(End video)
(On the stage) Aero Ebner: Yes, we have created a fictional political party
His name is Estonia Standard
Now if this name is familiar to someone
Because it looks like a united Russia
So be it
Because that’s exactly what we wanted to do
We wanted to create
The most popular and most comprehensive party
And we succeeded in that
(Laughter)
There were only two problems
(clap)
There were only two problems: yes. The general began to love us
Second, they thought this was real
I mean journalists, politicians and voters, they all believed
We are a real party
We have therefore been invited to various talk shows and television programs
We have published daily and weekly newspapers
Of course we did everything we could
So people believe that we are a real party more and more
So we had posters in the streets
In fact, it was not on the streets but on one street only
Because we did not have the money to print more posters
But that was enough because of these pictures
Published in the Estonian press and media for several weeks
And so on for this in the elections
25% of voters said “yes I will vote for them”
I even remember that when my old neighbor came to me around the age of 80
“Come on, men, you have to take power
Must make a change in this mandate “
And so we were
Ten representatives and almost no money
We are expected to protect Estonia
And as TEDxKyiv expects me to protect Ukraine
(Laughter)
Yes you laugh
Maybe one of you will ask what our program was now.
What were our thoughts? And what did we promise?
Well, the answer is: we did not have a program or ideas
And promised us everything
We did not really have anything in our hands
Yet we enjoyed the tremendous support of the people
And why?
We did something simple
We said that we are against the former founding parties
And we are a new force
And that was all that was required
Be against the present and show yourself as the future
Because people love the future
So when he announced that we would hold a party conference
For 12,000 people
Tickets were sold within 48 hours.
In fact the seizure of power is not a difficult thing
If we can do that, you can do it too
And to give you a quick overview
Where you can take notes on how to take power
I would like to stress three things that were an important factor in our success
First: It must be beautiful
I am not joking about that
Because we had big posters for the faces of our representatives
They looked beautiful and that’s why I could not show my picture
(Laughter)
Yes, beautiful people
Because when you show yourself being someone of a new power
It should look modern and vibrant
We did not have any printed texts
No, we have not posted any articles, articles or comments
We only worked on drawings and pictures
And that’s all it takes
Second: Emotions
I read an interview two months ago with former adviser to Vladimir Putin
He said that the main thing to control the masses is emotions
For this reason, it was “generous”, so the Sochi Olympics,
They did not need economic interests or things of this kind
Their attention was symbolic and purely emotional
This is what happens in the democratic state
Emotions, emotions, emotions
And of course people are bored at a moment of emotions
They want to return to their old normal and boring lives
The solution is to give them new offers that excite their feelings
And that’s what we did
We were very passionate
And the third thing is: media of course
It is a very well-known fact
The media plays a big role in building social views
So it is a very simple fact
You must have friends in the media
Please note that people confuse things all the time
Your friend who works in journalism and the media should not write about you
They do not even have to support you
They just have to be your friends
This is the largest news portal in Estonia
Hundreds of thousands visit the site every day
And let me remind you
Estonia has slightly more than one million inhabitants
So this is a gate
In the night we blushed some posters
Yes, we did it ourselves
Our comrades threw some paint on them, so the posters appeared this way
News that our posters had been tarnished had been taken top
In that news portal for eight hours from 8 am to 4 pm
And why?
Because of this person
He is a friend of our director and works in this news portal
Did not support our ideas
Because we did not have ideas as I said before
( Laughter )
He was just supporting us
I believe this is the true meaning of a good friend
And at the end of the project
We were in the conference hall with 12,000 people
And they all expected us
To complete the composition of the party in order to prepare for the elections
They really supported us
The only problem was that we did not want to continue
We wanted to go back to the theater
To represent “Who’s Afraid” for Virginia Woolf again
We did not want to continue to protect our country
We wanted to retreat
And talk about – do not know – Stanislavsky and improvisation
So if you are in this case
Where 12,000 people expect you to say one thing
Twelve people want to say the exact opposite
What will you do?
Well, just say it
Was it difficult? No, it was not really
People shouted for the usual half minute anyway
But the hardest part is to give up power
Loss of power
Even if we do not have any real power anyway
Even if this loss is voluntary
It was very difficult
I remember that I was in the weeks after the conference
I open the newspapers every morning and look for our names
I was really looking for my name
But I could not find him
We no longer mention in the newspapers again
And we were from the past
So I was very sad a bit
And maybe this is also one of the reasons for coming here
( Laughter )
So I can stop here and say, “Yes, it was a great job”
Why did we do it?
Because we were dissatisfied
On how democracy is being manipulated in Estonia
Or as told by Ladislaw of TEDxKyiv
“Please come here and tell us that this nonsense is happening everywhere
Not only in Ukraine “
What do we want to achieve?
Well, we wanted to educate people in order to reflect that on society and so on
Have we succeeded? We will never know.
And why theater?
Well, I believe theater is the best way when someone cares about topics
Such as “How can I handle the mess today?”
Yes, it was a great job and I’m proud of it
But Treki has a song called “Hell Around the Corner”
Our project was 6 years ago
We had parliamentary elections in Estonia two years ago
There were two parties doing the same things that we did almost
All they said about themselves was
That they are against the establishment of parties and that they are a new force.
They won 17% of the vote
In addition, they are not wonderful
One very rightist, of the new fascism I think
And the other for hippies and jazz lovers
So they themselves did not have any idea
About what ideas they should have
And thus understand opportunists
Then I began to think
Because I had a feeling that they are in Parliament now
At least partly thanks to us
We believe that we are a good force in our theater
We support gay rights, welcome refugees
We donate for whales, dolphins and so on.
We used the populist theory for power
And what turned out to us or turned out to me at least
It’s still me
Even though I used an abhorrent method of populist theory
It did not seem strange or alien to me
It was an essential part of me
So populism is really a part of me and lying was not difficult.
I was really lying to you today
Do you know this young man?
Not a friend of our director
This is just a random picture I downloaded from the internet a week ago
I searched for “trustworthy face” and found this picture
We did not have 12,000 people in our conference room, they were only 10,000
Or 7500 to be accurate.
So sorry about that but it was necessary
To show you that populism is not just a tool used by bad guys.
No, we all use this medium.
Consequently, the result is
There are no good or evil forces in democracy
There are no longer conflicts
There are neither conservatives nor liberals because everyone can be both
Those who support economic freedom can certainly be against the rights of homosexuals
And those who say they will stop corruption
They can stop important reforms
If they are connected with a lot of lobbyists
So, yes, there are no good and evil forces in democracy
There is no indication of which direction we should go.
All I would say is that democracy is not like “Star Wars”
Where space knights are fighting against Darth Vader.
Democracy is very much like pornographic films, where everyone participates at the same time.
(Laughter)
(clap)
So the real issue is – I think that even in Ukraine today –
Not how to get to good people who have power.
It is not a question of how to concentrate power
In the hands of a few good people
Rather, vice versa: how can we distribute power?
How can we distribute power?
I do not want to be Batty Smith anymore
But the issue is actually:
How do we get to people who have power?
Because convergence is the essence of power
And people love it
I love that
Because it gives me freedom
Not to participate and take responsibility
But I think the real task today is not to know voters
How to take the so-called right decision in the elections
No, our mission is to get to
Where he or she sees himself or herself as politicians
He or she is making politics.
There is this main expectation
In all modern Western societies the world changes in one day.
That’s also why people are eagerly waiting for New Year’s Eve
Because they think that everything will change that day
And therefore they make promises
They promise to stop smoking and start loving their wives again
To be better prime ministers and so on.
This is also a major predictor of democracies
Wait for something that can instantly change everything in just seconds
New parties, new politics, new faces.
But I would like to say that we must turn these expectations upside down
It’s not about New Year’s Eve in democracies.
It is very easy to be a star on New Year’s Eve
All you have to do is look beautiful and sing well and promise a lot of gifts.
But it is actually January 1
The moment you stand alone in an empty ballroom at 4 am
The balloons and around you empty empty champagne glasses
This is in fact the decisive moment in democracy.
There is also a fundamental paradox in Western democracies
That all decisions during the so-called revolutions
I was taken emotionally and greatly exaggerated
I think this is a good thing because feelings unite people.
But at the same time
The same feelings also frustrate people when the young days are over
It is as in nature
All neighborhoods feel sad when sex ends.
So I think I do not have a solution
Unified Estonia also has no solution
But because we were also very emotional and very obliging
I suppose it seems that this does not work in real life
Well, it works for a short time,
But we must really distribute power over the long term
We or the people must stop dropping all their expectations
Ministers, presidents and politicians.
Democracy is not a decision made by good people
Who make the right decisions at the time.
Democracy is about us, where we make a lot of decisions every day.
Some of these decisions are good and others are bad.
But the world certainly does not change in one day
But it changes every day.
And now, how do we get to that point? I do not know.
But remember that I told you about my neighbor
That old man is about 80 years old
I did not lie about it.
I thought, “What would make him take responsibility?”
The answer is regrettable.
This requires courage.
To be a citizen: This requires boldness.
But how to be bold in democracy?
It is very easy to be brave in a dictatorial regime.
I remember my father during the Soviet era
When he hits his finger with a hammer
He always says in a loud voice: God damn the Soviet power
So I think he was a bold man and he was.
I have to say that he was a little clumsy in using the hammer
So I heard a lot of this cheering.
But what do you shout when you have democracy?
And hit your finger with a hammer?
In a democracy where everything looks fine, it seems stable,
It looks almost perfect
I really do not know but I’m sure it is executable.
As a first step I would recommend that you always carry a passport with you
Because it reminds you
You are not just human but also citizen.
thank you.
(clap)
”
Be First to Comment