Tom Nichols on ‘Our Own Worst Enemy’
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 23 August 2021
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
All across the world, citizens of liberal democracies are justifying their rejection of democratic norms and traditions as a protest against a cast of elite villains. It comes in different flavors around the world, but the underlying trend seems to be the same.
While most observers are focusing on the impact of globalization or the activities of these very elites, Tom Nichols is placing responsibility somewhere else: the citizens themselves. Tom Nichols is professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and the author of “The Death of Expertise,” and most recently, “Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault from within on Modern Democracy.” He's also a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion and has over half a million followers on Twitter, where he rages about everything from rock music, to Indian food, to national security. He sat down with David Priess for a wide-ranging conversation about democratic decline, its causes and effects, the tough process of looking in the mirror and related issues, from civil military affairs to the current Afghan crisis.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:33.9 | I think that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and particularly the notion that |
| 0:39.4 | all human beings have inherent human rights, that governments cannot grant or take away. |
| 0:45.6 | I think that is the ultimate natural state of a human being to want to live that way. |
| 0:52.2 | But when we ourselves say I don't believe in that anymore and all I want is just for |
| 0:56.2 | me and my family to become comfortable and screw everybody else. |
| 0:59.6 | Then maybe that becomes self-fulfilling. |
| 1:02.5 | I'm David Priest and this is the LawFair podcast August 23rd, 2021. |
| 1:09.2 | All across the world, citizens of liberal democracies are justifying their rejection of democratic |
| 1:15.3 | norms and traditions as a protest against a cast of elite villains. |
| 1:21.6 | It comes in different flavors around the world, but the underlying trend seems to be the |
| 1:26.0 | same. |
| 1:27.4 | While most observers are focusing on the impact of globalization or the activities of these |
| 1:32.2 | various elites, Tom Nichols is placing responsibility somewhere else, the citizens themselves. |
| 1:39.4 | Tom Nichols is professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College and the |
| 1:44.2 | author of the death of expertise and this week the author of our own worst enemy, the |
| 1:50.0 | assault from within on modern democracy. |
| 1:53.3 | He's also a five time undefeated jeopardy champion and has over half a million followers |
... |
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