{"id":17098,"date":"2016-06-23T21:36:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=17098"},"modified":"2016-06-23T21:36:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:36:27","slug":"opening-remarks-at-frontiers-of-democracy-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=17098","title":{"rendered":"opening remarks at Frontiers of Democracy 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

We meet at a sobering moment. This conference is a descendent of a meeting organized in 2008 called No Better Time. Today does not seem like \u201cno better time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most thoughtful predictions give a man who has been called a fascist by senior members of his own party a 30% chance of becoming president. If the doctor gave you a 30% chance of succumbing to a deadly disease within the next five months, you wouldn\u2019t draw a lot of comfort from the thought that you\u2019re more likely to survive. Like that patient, our republic is in danger.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, fascist candidate Marianne Le Pen leads French polls for president, drawing twice as much support as the incumbent. Strongly paternalistic and antidemocratic nationalist leaders\u2014all strong men<\/em>\u2014already dominate most of the nations in an arc from China and Russia to Hungry. Venezuelans are fighting in supermarkets for loaves of bread for their children because of a crisis of governance. The Arab Spring has turned into five consecutive years of repression in the whole region and slaughter in Syria, where 400,000 have died with no end in sight. And here in the United States, a man can murder 49 human beings because they are gay. Some are inspired by the sit-in in Congress, but hardly anyone really expects the government to make changes that will reduce the chances of the same thing happening again.<\/p>\n

Bertold Brecht wrote a poem in 1939 entitled \u201cTo Future Generations<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n

Truly I live in dark times!
\nA sincere word is folly. A smooth forehead
\nIndicates insensitivity. If you\u2019re laughing,
\nYou haven\u2019t heard
\nThe bad news yet.
\nWhat are these times, when
\nA conversation about trees is almost a crime
\nBecause it implies silence about so many misdeeds,
\nWhen, if you\u2019re calmly crossing the street,
\nIt means your friends can\u2019t reach you
\nWho are in need?
\n\u2026<\/p>\n

This we knew:
\nEven hatred of humiliation
\nDistorts the features.
\nEven anger against injustice
\nMakes the voice hoarse. Oh, we
\nWho wanted to prepare the ground for friendliness
\nCould not ourselves be kind.
\nBut you, when
\none can help another,
\nThink of us
\nForgivingly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the context in which we gather for Frontiers. Indeed, it could be said that there is<\/em> no better time to meet<\/p>\n

We are hardly alone, of course. We have many allies around the world. In fact, right at this minute, by sheer coincidence, a conference has begun at the Central European University in Budapest entitled \u201cFrontiers of Democracy.\u201d Seeing a photo of their sign, texted by a friend, I thought of another poem<\/a> written in 1939.<\/p>\n

Defenceless under the night
\nOur world in stupor lies;
\nYet, dotted everywhere,
\nIronic points of light
\nFlash out wherever the Just
\nExchange their messages \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps we can send some light in the direction of Budapest and many other places around the world.<\/p>\n

I have given a dark picture, albeit with some ironic lights. None of that implies that we can\u2019t have fun. Working together to build a better world is a source of satisfaction, even joy. We can exemplify the pleasure and humor that comes from civic life at its best. I hope you will enjoy every aspect of Frontiers, especially your interactions with one another. If we let civic life turn dreary, few will chose to participate, and politics will be left to the ruthless.<\/p>\n

At the same time, we must be profoundly serious. The stakes couldn\u2019t be much higher. We must squarely face unresolved problems, such as how to expand civic values and practices to the scale of nations and the globe, how to tap the power of social movements, and how to define and confront evil.<\/p>\n

We must do more and better, and we must change fast. We have a lot to accomplish in the next 48 hours. Let\u2019s get to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We meet at a sobering moment. This conference is a descendent of a meeting organized in 2008 called No Better Time. Today does not seem like \u201cno better time.\u201d The most thoughtful predictions give a man who has been called a fascist by senior members of his own party a 30% chance of becoming president. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17099,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17098\/revisions\/17099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}