Spectacles

Violent dictators used to retire when the going got tough. These days, they just get more violent. We visit Sudan to learn why. — Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/minidoc-13-08-22/ — More info: Three years ago, the people of Sudan successfully ousted longtime military dictator Omar al-Bashir and started their country on a path to democracy. Today, though, things look grim—a new military dictatorship has blocked the democratic transition and rules repressively from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. But why did the new leadership reverse course? Its refusal to cede power is part of a larger political trend of violent dictators who would rather stay in power than flee to comfortable exile. We explore just why that is.

Viktor Orbán, once Hungarian democracy’s greatest champion, is now its greatest enemy, while Republicans in America cheer on his authoritarian regime. What happened, and why does the right love him? Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-why-republicans-love-the-man-who-squashed-democracy-in-hungary/

Between Saudi cities in the desert and Peter Thiel’s attempts to homestead the high seas, it’s clear that for some, money isn’t enough. That can be a danger in liberal democracies. — Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-how-cities-of-the-future-conceal-dangerous-ambitions/ — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to build cities of the future in the middle of the desert — NEOM — with a ski resort called Trojena, a floating city called Oxagon, and a city built in a straight line called The Line. But the supposed motivations don’t add up. Rather than practical concerns, it seems MBS is animated by a desire to be a great founding figure: a motive shared by American billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel, who first dreamed of libertarian utopias on the ocean — seasteading — has since redirected his interest and energy toward supporting National Conservatism: a far-right, anti-democratic political movement embraced by Josh Hawley and Thiel’s client-candidates J.D. V

He assassinated Japan’s most successful politician ever. But now, he seems to have won over public opinion. What happened? — Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/spectaclesmedia Sources and Attributions: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-japan/ — On July 8, 2022, in Nara, Japan, Shinzo Abe was shot twice with a homemade shotgun by Tetsuya Yamagami. Despite Abe’s towering status in Japanese politics — a former prime minister, and Japan’s longest serving ever — Yamagami declared his motive personal rather than political — a grudge against the Unification Church. The catch? Abe wasn’t even a member. And yet, the public seems to have been convinced by Yamagami. Featuring mass weddings, Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, the bizarre theology of Sun-Myung Moon, his cultists the Moonies, and so much more, this is the story of the Unification Church, and it has a lot to teach us about how to balance the separation of church and state.

Peace in Northern Ireland is still young, and today, it may be in danger. We explain what makes Ireland different, why peace is hard, and how democracy helps. — Check our sources and attributions: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-island-isnt-normal/ — From 1969 to 1998, Northern Ireland was engulfed in a civil conflict known as The Troubles. The country—only a small section of the island of Ireland—was divided between two factions fighting over the Irish border: Protestant British Unionists and Catholic Irish Nationalists, represented by various militias and the Provisional IRA, respectively. Car bombs and military checkpoints were commonplace, while “peace lines” segregated neighborhoods by religion. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement brought the conflict to an end, legitimated by democratic referendums in the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but today that agreement is in trouble. A political row over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol has erupted, pitting un

George Bush, imaginary WMDs, an endless war—that’s just scratching the surface of what went wrong in Iraq...and who's to blame. — Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-who-really-ruined-iraq/ — In 2003, a small coalition of countries led by the United States invaded Iraq, at the time ruled by the autocratic Saddam Hussein. While supporters and planners of the invasion hoped to establish a liberal democracy in Iraq, their mission rapidly became a quagmire that left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, and gave birth to a corrupt and unstable regime that has failed to provide Iraqi citizens with security or prosperity. But to understand why America failed in its project of nation-building, it’s necessary to examine the decades leading up to the invasion, as well as the weeks and months following it. From military planning to international sanctions, political purges and serious administrative blunders, the answer emerges.

After WWII and the Cold War, democracy looked unstoppable. Lately, it seems more complicated. Francis Fukuyama, Stanford's Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow and the world’s leading author on the subject, joins us to discuss — could it still be true? — Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-is-democracy-inevitable-w-francis-fukuyama/ — In 1989, Francis Fukuyama — until then a fairly unknown functionary in the US State Department — published an article that started a firestorm of debate. The title, an unassumingly simple question: “The End of History?” Three years later, he followed up with a book, “The End of History and the Last Man,” an engaging, thoughtful, and far-too-often misunderstood work. Fukuyama’s thesis, that liberal democracy is the natural conclusion of all human development, feels almost as strange as saying, “God is good,” when the world is yet filled with so much evil. Yet it is a crucially important idea, and today, though it faces serious challenges, feels

Estonia is one of the best performing post-Soviet countries, thanks in no small part to its revolutionary digital democracy. But it’s not all computer code—there’s something about the Estonian attitude that’s crucial to its success, and it’s something all democracies can learn from. — — When Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and restored liberal democracy, the small Baltic country’s leaders knew that they wanted to catch up with the rest of the developed world, and more. Embracing an optimistic, can-do attitude, Estonians pursued cutting edge technology in both the public and private spheres. The country developed a unique conception of “digital democracy,” in which every citizen could access public services online. But while Estonia has gotten plenty of press attention for its digital futurism, the country’s success is about more than just the tech. There’s an Estonian attitude that underpins all of its incredible innovations and allows its people to brid

In 1965, French President Charles DeGaulle started a fight that nearly tore Europe apart — over the same disagreements that still haunt the continent. This is the story of the empty chair crisis. — Citations here: https://www.spectacles.news/mini-doc-empty-chair/