I do believe that democracies can
engage in a kind of forgetfulness,
because it's very easy to take for
granted this really rather fragile and
somewhat mysterious thing that we call
democracy. When I think of democracy I
think not of just freedom or liberty, but
as the institutions in which freedom and
liberty become encased so that they can
actually be practiced by human beings
and the rights can be protected. Now it
is a somewhat mysterious process by
which people come to trust these
abstractions called constitutions, or rule
of law, or for that matter elections, to
carry out their concerns, their
aspirations. To advocate for change if
they need to and to do it peacefully,
rather than adhering to clan or family
or religious group or going into the
street right. That's a really pretty
mysterious process and so we can also
live with it for a long time.
Tend to forget how really hard it is to
achieve and stay there and so one thing
that I wanted to do with this book was
to remind people, first of all of our own
American experience, which has actually
been a very tough and difficult
experience to getting to even where we
are now and to relate that long road
which is why it's called that two-hour
long road to others who have just begun
that journey. But, I think it's really
quite easy to take it all for granted
until something breaks, and then it's too
late.
