Ada Palmer: observation

Transcript context

…I think there’s an interesting parallel to today, not to be too on the nose, but sometimes people debate the odds that America becomes a Putinist kind of country within a couple of decades. I think the odds are actually quite low. Just because even though constitutionally, or at least in precedent, the president is very powerful, the republican expectation is so strong. The amount of resistance faced, even when you successfully do something, demotivates the next escalation. The only thing that makes resistance weak in the US is when people feel as if partial victory is failure. Remembering moments like how Florence’s resistance all the way to the end meant that there was more liberty for the next several centuries, even under the tyrant, is what we need to remind ourselves, that partial victory is an important thing. Even if the worst were to happen and there were to be tyranny, that tyranny would be so much weaker because there was a lot of resistance, and traditions of resistance and structures would develop that would continue to exist. I think you should discuss the fact that the Medici are the bankers for the papacy. What does that mean? Why is that necessary? How are they able to make money off of that from the interest on the float?…

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