18世紀啟蒙運動背景.興起和重要性

The background, rise and importance of the enlightenment movement starting in the 18th century. Anyone with the slightest knowledge of politics in the UK and the US today knows that the partisan/party divide in their respective governments is complete and utterly destructive of good government. Enjoying the same language and many similar traditions both countries emerged from the last war with their governments intact. Other nations starting from scratch developed proportional voting in their elections while the two anglo saxon nations remained proudly stuck with their already outdated first past the post systems. As their societies through education became more and more sophisticated the election rules became more and more ineffective resulting in the current deadlocks. In the period known as the French enlightenment which led to the French revolution, educated ideas about government were developed which have been the bedrock of all democratic advance ever since. It is these early ideas and the consequences of recent mass education – another but welcome result of the last terrible world war, which are the subjects of this film. No topic could be of greater imprtance to these two nations and because of the peculiar position they occupy in the world at large, to all of humanity in this time of world wide pandemic. At the heart of democracy lies the idea of equality and the party political conflict which currently bedevils governments is anathema to honourable rule. The film tries to unravel the roots of this destructrive but fascinating problem and point ways to their resolution.