Are Democracies Breaking Down?
Every day, incidents of hatred and bigotry show us just how fragile our democracies have become
In a world that seems to have become increasingly divisive, discriminate, violent and hateful, I feel a growing sense of fear and defeat about our future.
There is an increasing spike of man-made threats to which we are witness: in Syria, in Myanmar, in Lebanon, in Nagorno-Karabakh, and even at the doorsteps of Europe and in the U.S. No head of state and no international agency has, so far, been able to enforce an ostensibly safe and democratic way for us to live, to safeguard the basic needs required by all groups of people.
Despite the bold declarations that tout our rights as human beings, our freedom, peace, and respect for life, the international community has remained detached, aloof and silent when faced with very real cases of secularism, marginalization, radicalization, oppression, anarchy and the increasing damage to democracy.
Adding fuel to the fire, mainstream media, supported by billionaires and the political elite, seem to be warranting narrow-minded points of views by regularly feeding us with news that are blatantly far from the truth, or that conveniently accommodate a reverential need to mandate critical thinking.
There are serious issues pertaining to the role, need and efficiency of international organizations that raise questions on how they shape the behavior of the international community. The problems lie primarily on the questionable credentials of actors that are elected to lead these organizations, which could also lead to the election of highly problematic individuals, both in domestic arenas and in international organizations, thereby damaging the credibility of these institutions.
For years, realpolitik has dominated the world’s political system, not based on ethics, morals or beliefs, but rather on purely economic and political interest-laden dogmas. On affairs of foreign policy, realpolitik has been the means by which nations and states have pursued their national interests in many cases at the expense of human rights. National interests of wealth, power and even national security, have long outweighed the liberty, life and security of individuals and social groups.
With the onset of natural, political and economic disasters increasingly exacerbated in 2020, we question the utility of international organizations whose mandate has been to advance the safety, quality and universal rights of human right. Is it time for a new world order, and if so, what can we do about it?
Reflexivity: the key towards more conscious leadership
International organizations are not able to hold nations accountable for their imperialist and discriminatory institutions that increasingly violate human rights and threaten the right to quality life. Colonialism, for instance, was able to overlook many of its horrors, such as the subjugation and slavery of people, and the annihilation of cultures and languages, because it was founded on a metanarrative claiming that Western society as it was, was at the height of civilization and human achievement. The argument was that for a continued evolution to take place for the human race, it was the job of the west to ‘civilize primitive people’.
While we may think that colonialism is a thing of the past, it is very much far from it. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan,for instance, only recently made a statement in August, 2020 that only reinvigorated the essence of colonialism: “In our civilization, conquest is not occupation or looting. It is establishing the dominance of the justice that Allah commanded in the [conquered] region. First of all, our nation removed the oppression from the areas that it conquered. It established justice. This is why our civilization is one of conquest.”
With statements like these, one can only question what role international organizations play to improve and uphold, as they claim to make, the universal values and security of people and of the environment. International institutions are evidently failing us, but what is even more disheartening is the and have evidently failed to sustain or uphold the values they are so destined to implement, and our social and traditional mass media agencies have equally failed to honestly represent these anxieties.
Contrary to popular belief, the media has not promoted a digital revolution, but instead, has primarily been driven by private interests, which don’t always align with the interest of the common good, especially when monopolies and wealth are involved. Social media, in fact, has developed a system that biases towards fake news since these help companies increasingly generate profits.
We have become so triggered by fake news, instilled by manipulative politicians and algorithms, that we absorb these falsehoods as if they were reality. Since we cannot rely on international organizations or on media to instigate progressive conversations, we are left to rely on ourselves to become more responsible and ethical than the society in which we live. To do this, there is a call for us to be more conscious, and increasingly reflexive.
Reflexivity, unlike reflection, requires us to take a more introspective look into ourselves; it entices us to question our own relationships by gazing ourselves as the starting point. It is the process that helps us question how our values and beliefs shape our relationships and our environment. It is a relationally-responsive approach that helps us understand our role in the construction of our meaning and life purpose. Using this self-referential interrogative method, we are better equipped to become active co-creators in protecting and defending ourselves and others in a more embodied and humanized fashion.
Reflexivity engages us to increase our emotional and intellectual curiosity, to question what is claimed to be the truth, and to voice our position against formidable threats that foster a precarious condemnation of our systems. By choosing to be more reflexive, and hence more conscious and ethical, we can take an increasingly active role in making the world a better place, and over time, foster seismic shifts toward a more progressive and less violent world, namely when realpolitik seems to be failing, and when a sense of nihilism has permeated into our lives.
Every day, reports of incidents of hatred and bigotry around the world show us just how fragile our democracies have become, and instead of allowing mainstream media or heads of state to fuel divisions based on race, biology, ethnicity, or religion, the solution remains in each of us, to educate ourselves, to become more critically and intellectually curious and to avoid ignorance at all cost.
It is imperative that we no longer look outside ourselves to search for answers, but ask ourselves “what do we want to give and why?”
Only we (the people) can enable or disable democracies, demand or surrender self-determination, cripple or magnify freedom of expression, and spread or prevent freedom of human rights.
