The modern world that we inhabit champions the democratic principle that all citizens have the right to vote and maintain their integrity within the city, state or nation that they belong to. By default this also implies that the democratic principle is entitled to defend itself against that, or who, which does not belong to its own city, state or nation.

 

Acts of violence towards the Other was, and is, legitimate within a democratic system. That Herodotus emphasised that Cleisthenes was the man who introduced the tribes and the democracy – in that order – is telling. The ten tribes of Athens that would become the Assembly of voting free men was primarily a tribal system that would enable a redistribution of wealth across Attica, but more importantly it would supply the city-state with a strong military force to defend itself against Others. 

 

In our current climate the old Athenian moral is making itself known to us once again. The main difference is that we today cannot yet pierce through the veil of centuries of imperial and colonial rule which have all muddled the once clear waters of democracy into a swamp. The clarity of the first democratic principle, although brutal, was transparent in its inherent injustice towards the Other. In the swamp of democracy that we find ourselves trudging through today the democratic principle has made sport of covering itself in the shimmer of progress all the while operating as a hungry wolf. 

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DEMOCRACY is a play on the insurmountable difficulty of distinguishing right from wrong, good from bad, and the lengths humanity is willing to go in order to defend themselves against the Other.

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Created by Josephine Gray & Anmar Taha

Performed by Lena Dahlén, Josephine Gray & Anmar Taha

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Performed at Konstepidemin Hus 10, Konstepidemins väg 6, 413 14 Göteborg

Supported by Göteborgs Stad Kultur