How Switzerland Changed the World

[Music] foreign [Music] Switzerland a tiny landlocked country in the middle of Europe is underappreciated for its contributions to all of our histories mine and probably yours included it's an incredible place with an extraordinary history and it can teach us a lot strangely about ourselves there is no place like it its variety of languages German French Italian romance it's mix of democratic institutions its melting pots of cultures its unique geography one historian has claimed that it's the oldest continuous true constitutional democracy I want to look at how Swiss history and politics made it different and how it exported its ideas liberal Democratic romantic cultural through its most famous prodigal son to the rest of the world people have been calling themselves Swiss here since at least the 15th century and that loose Confederation of what the Swiss called cantons would soon become one of Europe's Most enduring longest most interesting Cooperative Ventures one of the things that I find fascinating about Switzerland is that despite all of this and unlike most countries it's not really the product of natural borders that's because it's a very human creation I don't know if you can see but it's incomprehensible to me how people live up there like toys stacked precariously on the top shelf thanks fall down at any moment [Music] so I want to look at the long history that made the Swiss lovers of Liberty and look at the thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau a man who could quite reasonably be the most influential man to have ever lived Russo was the major influence on the French Revolution the Romantic Revolution on Democracy on every philosopher that came after him on thinking about the individual and Society on literature on autobiography even he is I think the most fascinating figure of the Enlightenment the historian Robert Berkey described Russo as the linchpin of the political consciousness of the entire modern period and I'd say that more than politics is the very basis of how we think of ourselves psychologically today and he came from here Geneva historian Helena rosenblatt calls Geneva the key to his thought he signed his Works citizen of Geneva author Gaspar valat called the spirit and accent of his thought genevan and much of his work as a brochure to Geneva one philosopher J.S has said that Geneva created Rousseau it created the essence of his character all of this raises a big question how can a place influence a thinker that in turn changes the world changing the very way we think about ourselves let's find out in the Middle Ages the area we now refer to as Switzerland was a loose conglomerate of different political bodies Lords cities monasteries Cathedrals peasant communities guilds all with a complex and shifting constellation of different rights and privileges it was part of the Holy Roman Empire but mostly left to its own devices by the 13th century the great dynastic houses of Central Europe were failing to maintain order the upkeep of things like roads Bridges and local politics fell in many places to the locals to Abbeys to city ordinances and to local Lords many Village communities here in the Alps managed to retain their independence organizing politically amongst themselves a rare level of autonomy for Europe at the time these peasant and herder communities were known as strong Warriors who maintained local solidarity which many historians refer to in Clive church and Randolph headswords as the backbone of Swiss autonomy Steinberg says that everything was discussed openly at political assemblies in the 19th century as we'll get to the romantics idealized Swiss history as Democratic Wild and Free but how much of that was myth and how much of it was reality church and had write that even where most arms-bearing males could attend public assemblies a few Clans typically monopolized offices and controlled most decisions but despite this the Swiss idea of freedom was very real it would expand in something more powerful as Switzerland took shape in the form of a Modern Nation historian Jonathan Steinberg writes that the Alpine herdsmen lived an archaic independent quasi-aristocratic form of life they were free of feudal servitudes and as a sign of their Liberty these Mountain peasants bore arms and demanded honor even from Nobles many of their ideas words and phrases like honor came from the Roman occupation almost a millennium before and you can see this in the ramanch language which is probably the closest living language to Latin combine that with unique mounting conditions that required the maintenance of common pastures and important mountain passes terrain that made it difficult for enemies to invade and occupy and a strong Warrior culture on a high cow protein dairy diet and you get the potent recipe for freedom in the 13th century fear of the dominant German House of Habsburg who were beginning to dominate much of the rest of Central and Eastern Europe pushed the much smaller Swiss regions towards cooperation in 1291 three cantons URI schwitz and untervolden signed a historic founding Charter which was only discovered 600 years later in the 18th century it read in order to preserve themselves and their possessions in common Council have with one voice sworn agreed and determined that in the above named valleys we shall accept no judge nor recognize him in any way if he exercised his office for any reward or for money or if he is not one of our own and an inhabitant of the valleys they called themselves ingenosum translation comrades of the oath [Music] this type of Allegiance existed nowhere else in Europe and it worked in 1315 they fended off an attack from the Habs books the founding act spawned stories songs and mythologies of Freedom the beginning of an imagined Community a Swiss Nation [Music] the Swiss They Call It The Saga of Liberation and many medieval myths and stories would be drawn upon as ammunition in the fight against oppressors a mythology and a history of Swiss Liberty peasant rebellions in 1489 and 1515 Drew on the stories of The Saga of Liberation during the peasant war of 1653 peasants organized themselves into local assemblies drawing on the history of the 1291 comrades of the oath a story of William Tell a Swiss Robin Hood emerged tell was a legendary Marksman who escaped from and led the resistance against a tyrannical Habsburg duke songs poems and stories have been written about him across the centuries slowly the alliance grew was more and more cantons joined and for centuries its foundational principles were simple Mutual Aid internal peace no foreign intervention defense but the medieval region was a mosaic of different cultures and ideas Steinberg writes that the old Confederation was a marvelous Patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions ancient Customs worm eaten Privileges and ceremonies irregularities of custom law weights and measures and the historian Julius Weiser writes that across the Empire dynastic counties ecclesiastical principalities Tiny Castle baronies free cities and free peasant communities were interwoven in a colorful fabric but in Switzerland in particular at least the idea of democratic participation if not repressed by Elites and Aristocrats continued to be strong ultimately this church in head right the privilege of all male citizens of communes to participate in decision making which retained great legitimacy in the Confederacy set the Swiss apart from aristocratic Europe it's just started raining but there's two things I have to show you quickly the size of these cables in the Roar of this River by the time the enlightenment hit Europe in the 17th century Switzerland was a mix of aristocratic and oligarchic systems all with hesitant or Surface level nods to democracy and its history Byrne was an aristocracy Zurich mixed City governance with a guild system dominated by Craftsmen in Geneva a general Council of 200 met each other to elect a small Council which elected four syndics but the system was dominated by a small number of powerful families in short the Swiss political process was mostly dominated by powerful interests controlled monopolized while paying lip service to the idea of Swiss freedom [Music] foreign Geneva was a contradictory Place full of different ideas and certainly not a utopian Republic but the belief that it should be or that it used to be and that males had ancient Privileges and rights to participate in political decisions those stories of The Saga of Liberation were a dominant presence in genevan life whenever its citizens could vote only around 1 500 out of about 18 500 were classed as Citizens with voting rights in the direction of Politics the important decisions were really dominated by a few powerful families one visitor said that it was being run like a little fiefdom or a dynasty and continued that this manner of acting displeases many people and one could even say that everyone is murmuring about it on top of this the growth of capitalism new Industries and banking began to increase inequality across the continent new money poured into Geneva watchmaking cotton spinning banking all developed but in such a close-knit city some were questioning the utility of new ostentatious displays of wealth privilege and luxury it sparked a debate about inequality and morality across the city the church lamented the increasing displays of wealth with one Theologian writing that it wasn't a surprise if having degenerated from the simple and Frugal lifestyles of our fathers we have also degenerated from their virtues many blamed France which it borders just over there the importation of French fashions frenchification luxury was traditionally associated with indolence and vice which the critics of Commerce argued was the opposite of what makes good citizens modesty frugality hard work even a government report declared that everyday impurity worldly vanity and luxury are growing the present generation has completely degenerated from the frugality and piety of our ancestors and there is every indication that the evil is growing many cities and countries even had laws against owning displaying or wearing certain luxury goods bans on certain Fabrics foods and jewelry but hypocritically they were bans for everyone except quote to those of the First Quality as one law literally put it similar laws and exemptions applied across Europe the debate about whether New Commerce luxury and wealth was a blessing or a curse was happening across Europe too on the one side supporters made the claim that new trade and interactions between peoples and nations would lead to an increase in manners and civility new ways of talking to one another and of course an increase in wealth and comfort for everyone too well on the other side of the argument detractors claimed it would lead to self-interest over virtue envy and ambition over traditional Pious religious values the increasingly powerful bourgeoisie were arguing that the government were levying taxes against the people's will restricting Liberty that free trade and its rewards were a benefit for all the genevan government suppressed radical writing like this while the church warned of increasing disorder Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born here in 1712 not going to understate my admiration for Russo he was a brilliant original contradictory and paradoxical figure he was the first critic of modern inequality he laid the foundations for modern psychology for the political idea of sovereignty of the people for Romanticism for Ecology for equality he was even the author of the first modern autobiography he was in short a genius so I don't know if you can see but there's a statue of Rousseau on that island there and I've made some friends [Music] Russo grew up in Geneva at a time when those debates about Commerce and luxury and democracy were spreading through the city much of it was taking place here in the San Chavez District where the russos lived Rousseau's grandfather was a supporter of the new bourgeoisie which were fighting for its rights against the ancient regime and historian Helena rosenblatt writes that no other Block in Geneva housed as many political agitators and demonstrators as this one did Rousseau himself later wrote that from my most tender childhood I had received principles maxims others would say prejudices which have never completely deserted me it's likely that Russo grew up on these stories of The Saga of Liberation and that the Democratic and Republican rights and principles that genevans had had for centuries were being trampled on by its oligarchical rulers Rousseau soon left Geneva and immersed himself in the Bourgeois intellectual Salon life of Paris but he came to dislike everything about Elite French life and when in 1750 the Dijon Academy ran a competition offering a prize for the best essay answering the question has the progress of the sciences and arts done more to corrupt morals or to improve them he argued Against the Grain progress he said wasn't helping it was corrupting Morality In His celebrated first discourse which catapulted him to fame overnight Rousseau argued that the establishment life of Sciences and arts in big cities make people arrogant the successful and the privileged use their success to dominate and the wise were turned by the pursuit of wealth and Status into quote base parasites he said that the Arts and Sciences spread garlands of flowers over the iron chains of society he argued that Society imposed upon people models of Conformity politeness decorum and ceremony at the expense of real virtue he wrote jealousy suspicion fear coldness Reserve hate and fraud like constantly concealed under that uniform and deceitful veil of politeness the veil is All Surface a mask used for social climbing rather than the greater good continued that we do not ask whether a book is useful but whether it's well written rewards are lavished on wit and Ingenuity while virtue is left unhonored there are a thousand prizes for fine discourses and none for good actions in effect praise from an in-group is more important than true good he saw high society as a pecking order of sycophants civility for the sake of the powerful ambition status reputation all more important than what was true or good it's a proto-psychological argument because like Freud who very much admired Russo he's saying what appears on the surface is not always the truth of our actions and desires how often do you realize that you've said something because that's what you think your boss wants to hear or sucked up to superiors rather than told them what you really mean how often have you said something to a friend that you've realized in retrospect you didn't really mean and how often have you realized that your motivations for doing something afterwards turned out to be different to what you thought at the time he wrote that like the statue of Glaucus which was so disfigured by time seas and tempests that it looked more like a wild beast than a God the human soul altered in society by a thousand causes perpetually reoccurring by the acquisition of a multitude of truths and Errors By the changes happening to the Constitution of the body and by the continual jarring of the passions has so to speak changed in appearance so as to be hardly recognizable I'm across the border in France where Rousseau spent a lot of time in anisee it's a beautiful place it's where he met the love of his life an older woman Madame dewaron who paid for his education and supported him and I'm going to go to the house down the road in chambray he spent a lot of time walking around here and writing the Alps are just over there it's a beautiful Lake and he also wrote the best-selling novel of the 18th century a novel called Julie about A Love Affair that was destined not to work and it's full of philosophy and politics too Russo is significant because at the time people believed in a fixed human makeup a human nature like they were imbued with an original sin for example he was revolutionary because he argued that human psychology What defined human changes across history he despised the inequality he saw growing everywhere arguing that while some inequality was natural men are not naturally Kings or Lords or courtiers or rich men all are born naked and poor all are subject to the miseries of life to Sorrows ills needs and pains of every kind he thought that inequality that came from our natural strengths and weaknesses were Justified but that those inequalities that came from privilege money power led us to wearing these veils an inauthentic experience he asked what will become a virtue when one must get rich at any price and you wrote that insatiable ambition and a thirst of raising their fortunes and the desire to surpass others inspired all to injure one another with a secret jealousy and a mask of benevolence although he thought that we couldn't go back he argued we were happier in nature and that our emergence from a state of nature meant that quote all ran headlong into their chains in the hope of securing their Liberty instead of Liberty we have nothing to show for ourselves but a frivolous and deceitful appearance honor without virtue reason without wisdom and pleasure without happiness this idea of a mask or veil of status that we all were meant he was also one of the first thinkers of what we now refer to as ideology which is why Rousseau was a forerunner to much of the thought that came after him he attacked those that argued that wealth and commerce and luxury were bringing virtue across Europe and he made many enemies across the continent and he signed his essays citizen of Geneva to many in Geneva it seemed that Russo was right New Wealth did not seem to be improving the morals of the city patriotism many argued was being replaced by something new like selfishness citizenship in Geneva was being sold to the highest bidder prostitution seemed to be on the rise children increasingly born out of wedlock drunkenness and vanity were endemic one gene even even wrote that the rich abandoned themselves to arrogance they were accused of buying the Republic Rousseau later wrote in his autobiography that when he returned to Geneva its ideas of laws and Liberty were not as clear-cut as I would have wished and he wrote time and time again that he just wished to be useful to his native city drawing out the Republican Spirit finding a foundation for virtue good morals and ethical governance [Music] Russo's Theory naturally led to a question if people were being corrupted by Society what were people like before entering into society what was it that was being corrupted where does goodness reside the dominant theory was that man was born Wicked and made good by Society people were socialized but Rousseau turned this on its head he wrote in the letter that the question is to examine the hidden but very real relations which exist between the nature of government and the genius morals and knowledge of citizens and this would involve me in delicate discussions This research is good to do in Geneva he spent the summer of 1754 in the city digesting new material for what would become his magnum opus the social contract and in a work that would have an almost unsurpassed influence on the history of Europe arming the French revolutionaries with intellectual weaponry and inspiring Democratic movements and thinkers for centuries to come Rousseau in the flick of a pan changed the definition of a word that's Central to politics sovereignty foreign the standard view was that the Sovereign was the Monarch and that the Monarch was Sovereign for two reasons first because people had handed over some of their freedom to them in exchange for security and second because God had willed that the Monarch had a divine right to rule why else would they be there this was the basis of ancient regime politics for example Louis XV of France had said that it is in my person alone that Sovereign power resides in Geneva the elitist Patrician government had argued that handing power to the people would lead to chaos and disorder in the politician genre bear chuae's words continuous Peril influentially the Patrician Jakob de champo Rouge argued that the best type of government and the most favorable to Liberty is that of an elite Council composed of the most wiser enlightened and important citizens in small enough number to avoid the inconveniences of the multitude he warned of the ignorance of the little people and the passions by which is so easily allows itself to be carried away in response the politician Pierre fattier who argued that the Greeks and Romans assembled up to 20 000 people three times a month Assemblies of the people were one of the principal supports of Liberty Fazio was eventually executed by Geneva's Patrician leaders his supporters were tortured and hanged although not killed Rousseau's grandfather was amongst those punished Geneva's ruling patricians accused the people of insubordination and disloyalty to the city being good citizens and obeying leaders was a duty that they had this was the era of pamphleteering of increased literacy of journals in philosophy and in 1718 what came to be known as the anonymous letters circulated around Geneva arguing that genevans had been a free people once that their rights were being trampled on by tyrannical leaders that the general assembly had once had to approve all legislation that they had the right to assemble every five years this quote being one of the principal supports of its Liberty the anonymous letters were denounced by the government as tending towards Anarchy full of seditious maxims against all governments assemblies were forbidden and the patricians in charge argued that Rome perished by the very hands of the people and that these pernicious letters would lead to confusion and disorder eventually leading to tyranny the council they said looked after the citizenry and they should be grateful and happy [Music] that right there is one of the places Russo lived in with Madame dewaron as one of his happiest times it's been turned into a museum I just sat outside and had lunch and I've never been on a pilgrimage but it's so peaceful here and I feel like for the first time I know what the pilgrimage feels like it's a really beautiful place and I signed the guest book for all of us Rousseau took aim at the ruling patricians and the emerging bourgeoisie at the same time they both forgot something important that it wasn't about the ruler or The Sovereign it wasn't about yourself it was about the people the people were sovereign his 1762 book the social contract sent shock waves across Europe and is famous for declaring that man is Born Free and everywhere he is in Chains the most popular view of the time which came from Enlightenment thinkers like Thomas Hobbs and John Locke and one that the rulers of Geneva relied on was that when we emerge from a state of nature and enter into society we necessarily give up a part of our freedom handing it over to a king or a ruler in exchange for their Protection security and Civil Society in doing so the ruler becomes The Sovereign Hobb said that without this we would be in his famous words in a war of all against all Russo despised that idea because he thought it was impossible to give up your own Freedom you have to be more free within the social contract than you were before otherwise you'd leave [Music] as rosenblatt writes this is one of Russo's most important ideas quote a popular sovereign composed of all the people to which the government magistrates are accountable as simple officers charged with only the execution of the laws passed by The Sovereign Rousseau wrote quite simply that the people being subject to the laws ought to be their author his work then sat upon a difficult task it tried to explore how a multitude of individuals could come together into a community of people he was worried about the selfish individualism fostered by Bourgeois life as much as the Tyranny the bourgeoisie were fighting against in this he was very much ahead of his time Ichi said when they came together in a community is an indivisible part of the whole from this emerged his most enduring idea the general will the general will must both come from all and apply to all he said he said that if each person gives themselves over to the Sovereign body as a whole then each is as free as before and no one has any interest in oppressing or restricting any other's freedom in other words all are equal before the law he thinks people coming together in small city-state-like Assemblies of the sort found in Switzerland was the best form of democracy but that often being impossible in modern societies he favors what he calls elective aristocracy what we'd call representative democracy today which is meant to be the rule by the wisest in the service of and directed by the general will of the people democratically this all seems quite obvious to us now but that's only because Russo made it so he almost single-handedly with the flick of a pen made the people Sovereign and the government's just the Servants of the people and in doing so he gave the French revolutionaries and many thinkers after the tools they needed to talk about freedom in a new way and he still continues to be one of the central philosophic sources for how we think about democracy today he's taught across undergraduate political classes back in Geneva Rousseau was both loved and loathed one citizen wrote thank you for the present you have given us it is an arsenal of the most excellent weapons one of his allies in Geneva wrote to him that his books were widely read and that even your enemies are forced to admit that your Genius is displayed with most Vigor your work must frighten tyrants born and unborn it makes Liberty ferment in all Hearts but the book was banned caused an uproar across Europe and was burned in France Rousseau was forced into Exile in the foothills of the Jura mountains in Switzerland we say was a wonderful contradiction he was a success in a society he despised by individuals he didn't like he fell out endlessly with his friends he wrote the first modern autobiography ruthlessly examining his own faults which were many he wrote to treat us on education and child rearing despite giving his own up for adoption he wrote A Treatise on the theater in how pernicious it was despite being a playwright and he tried to reconcile the individual and the communal impulses in US many say he failed but I think the fact that he leans into these paradoxes in the world and in himself is what makes him an incredible writer he tried honestly to tackle the contradictions of the emerging modern world contradictions he saw so distinctly in his home City Community versus emerging capitalism Elites versus new money consumerism versus virtue nature versus civilization tyrants versus the people the paradoxes of modernity and while it didn't happen until many decades after Russo's death Switzerland slowly became a modern federal republic historian Mark Lerner writes that because of the lack of a strong central government in the Swiss Confederation there was space for profound political Innovation and experimentation in the variety of republics at the cantonal level he called the Switzerland of the Enlightenment period drawing on those myths and sagas of Liberation a laboratory of Liberty and the French revolutionaries declared in 1789 that men are born and remain free and equal in rights the principle of all sovereignty rests essentially in the nation and the law is the expression of the general will sources of great European rivers the Rhone and the Rhine tributaries of the Danube and the poe all spring from these mountains and poetically then so did much of the discourse and debate that framed and still frames much of how we talk about our lives [Music] I feel like this is becoming a bit of a theme see the Germany video the American founding fathers Drew on Swiss history and politics when framing their own independence Russo's thought leads to can't Hager landmarks robs bierre read him religiously historian Thomas McFarland writes that he may well have been the most important cultural figure of the last quarter millennium and he was the father of Romanticism a movement that the philosopher assaya Berlin called the greatest single shift in the consciousness of the West all of this is why I can I think with good reason describe him as maybe the most influential person to have ever lived and the historical literature is full of inspired Travelers pilgrimageing eloping and exploring while reading Rousseau he put Switzerland on the map for Aristocrats of The Grand Tour of Europe by the early 19th century travel guides were printed that included Engravings illustrating Russo's house on the ilsom Pierre one of Russo in his garden and scenes from Julie and his autobiography The Romantics took from Russo his interest in what humans were like outside of that corrupting influence of society asking what authentic humans might be like uncorrupted by the seeking of status and wealth and privilege he put the individual's Freedom at the core of his thinking and in doing so in all of his writings explored individual passions and character and nature at the same time as our political communal life The Poets William Wordsworth set off on a walking tour from England to the Alps inspired by Russo and Shelley read his novel Julie the new Heloise on the shores of Lake Geneva and took a boat trip with Byron that Rousseau himself wrote about I think this is a good spot for lunch Richard fralin has written that Geneva was both the starting point and the finishing point the inspiration and the goal of Russo's political thought it reminds us that what we usually think of as abstract ideas in Dusty books or disappearing conversations have their roots in real places real lives in bricks and mortar in mountains and scenery and landscape and we too often forget that I'll leave you with the words of Rousseau himself who in writing about his own work said here is the history of the government of Geneva is it not word for word the image of our republic since its birth until today I therefore took your Constitution which I found good as a model of political institutions and I'm proposing you as an example to Europe [Music] [Music] thank you to all of these incredible patreon supporters these videos take a long time to research write and make I do a lot of reading they're always sourced and there's a bibliography in the description below I've written something short on why I think this kind of well-researched long-form content is worth supporting it's through the link below too if you agree then you can support then a night by pledging anything from a single dollar per month and get your name in 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Channel: Then & Now

Views: 47,284

Keywords: switzerland, history, democracy, rousseau, geneva, direct democracy, swiss, landsgemeinde, cantons, social contract, confessions, emile, wordsworth, byron, shelley, romanticism, romantics, french revolution, chambery, annecy, sion

Id: j537acWOhsY

Length: 40min 59sec (2459 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 26 2023