<
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/american-democracy-breakdown-authoritarianism-rise/670580/>
"In 2009, a violent mob stormed the presidential palace in Madagascar, a deeply
impoverished red-earthed island off the coast of East Africa. They had been
incited to violence by opportunistic politicians and media personalities,
successfully triggering a coup. A few years later, I traveled to the island, to
meet the new government's ringleaders, the same men who had unleashed the mob.
As we sipped our coffees and I asked them questions, one of the generals I was
interviewing interrupted me.
“How can you Americans lecture us on democracy?” he asked. “Sometimes, the
president who ends up in your White House isn’t even the person who got the
most votes.”
“Our election system isn’t perfect,” I replied then. “But, with all due
respect, our politicians don’t incite violent mobs to take over the government
when they haven’t won an election.”
For decades, the United States has proclaimed itself a “shining city upon a
hill,” a beacon of democracy that can lead broken nations out of their despotic
darkness. That overconfidence has been instilled into its citizens, leading me
a decade ago to the mistaken, naive belief that countries such as Madagascar
have something to learn from the U.S. rather than also having wisdom to teach
us.
During the Donald Trump presidency, the news covered a relentless barrage of
“unprecedented” attacks on the norms and institutions of American democracy.
But they weren’t unprecedented. Similar authoritarian attacks had happened
plenty of times before. They were only unprecedented to us."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
