There will continue to be lies, murder and war, because that is in us humans. Especially during times of social upheaval, when many are afraid for their existence, their position and their values. This is the hour of the arsonists. Now they announce their slogans and simple recipes. In fact, they want to fuel fears and smoldering grievances into political fires by naming alleged culprits and inciting against them. They rely on followers as a sounding board. These become willing helpers because they share the goals of the instigators. The blind allow themselves to be led by madmen.
Political madness and thoughtlessness are fed from a thousand sources. The decisive factor is the combined destructive power of the leaders and their foot soldiers. A distinction must be made between unrestrained conquerors like Napoleon, the destroyer Hitler, and calculating power-hungry people like Franco and Erdogan. The driven know no limits to their actions. This is also why the gamblers initially achieve spectacular successes – before they burn out and drag their followers with them. Risk-averse divisive figures like Pinochet, Trump, Orbán and Netanyahu are more successful in the long term. They avoid wars wherever possible – at least until they consider the time for violence to be appropriate.
All political arsonists have in common the strategy of widening latent social fault lines. In this way they succeed in destabilizing and dividing society. The result is that many people call for the strong man again. The arsonists are also subject to an inherent danger. Due to their need for control, they sooner or later eliminate independent advisors and then surround themselves with yes-men who suppress any criticism and conceal all the risks of politics from the leader. Foreign partners who are trying to appease people encourage unstable and increasingly self-righteous personalities like Vladimir Putin to underestimate the dangerous consequences of their policies and to start wars.
In contrast to his colleague Putin, Donald Trump avoided the dangers of a foreign policy confrontation or even war. Just like the Russian, the American got rid of his independent advisors. Due to fortunate circumstances, but also because he understood the primacy of the economy, Trump was initially able to maintain the satisfaction of his supporters. But not least because of his divisive policies, the arsonist lost the presidential election in 2020. He did not want to accept his defeat and incited his followers to fight by all means to seal his failure.
But the executive branch joined forces to fend off the uprising against the constitution. It was a victory for democracy and its institutions. But Trump is not giving up. He has once again thrown himself into the race for the White House and has a good chance of emerging as the winner, as President of the United States and thus as the world’s most powerful politician.
These and other tests show that democracy, despite all its weaknesses, is the most effective force for neutralizing political arsonists and preserving freedom. Democracy is an abstract concept. But it has a number of effective instruments. What is crucial is how they work together, the vehemence and the duration of their use. The balance between government, popular representation and the legal system is vital for the functioning of a democracy. Integrity and mutual control are indispensable.
Liberal institutions cannot be imposed. They need time to develop and to be generally accepted. Only then can they effectively protect democracy against its enemies. This also requires the courage to legally ban anti-constitutional forces. The state, in turn, needs honest and credible representatives – from the government to the civil service.
An independent press ensures that the representatives of the government, parliament, parties and courts remain credible and are duly appreciated by the citizens – while at the same time the “crazy people”, the destructive opponents of freedom, are exposed as such. Above all, committed citizens are needed. They must stand up for democracy in good time – also in a generally visible way – by taking to the streets for freedom and against populists. Even dictatorships can be overcome by self-confident people, as the victory of the democracy movement in the GDR has shown.
A democratic country and its society must be free and independent. One of the prerequisites for this is the separation of state, religion and ideology. This is because religious doctrines and worldviews claim absoluteness based on their own understanding. They demand unconditional obedience and do not tolerate any foreign gods alongside them. A democratic state, on the other hand, derives its values from the intellectual framework of the Enlightenment and its claim to leadership from the sovereign people.
This is incompatible with the eternal truth of a religion. The political representatives of Islamism pretend to be a mouthpiece for their faith and to act in its name. This means they can be misused as political arsonists. Recep Tayyip Erdogan used democracy merely as a vehicle to achieve his political goals, which he justified on religious grounds. In this way he justified his claim to absolute political power in Turkey and in its foreign relations.
A country’s policy can only have a peacekeeping effect if it refrains from trying to appease destructive powers at home and abroad. Attempts to accommodate war-willing powers with compromises only encourage the aggressors. Peace is best served by a policy that is willing to compromise but self-confident. This costs money and commitment. The strategy “si vis pacem, para bellum” remains timelessly valid.
Democracy is not a land of milk and honey. The most effective liberal system and credible government policy are merely functions of civic engagement. Only if the population supports the state and government policy are they able to credibly confront aggressors and, if necessary, put a stop to their activities. Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, Erdogan and others will not be the last political arsonists. If civic and political engagement is lacking, countries and societies will succumb to destructive forces – like France did to Hitler and his followers.
A limited ceasefire between democracies and arsonists is possible, but a permanent compromise is not. If citizens want to preserve their freedom, they must always be prepared to fight unconditionally for it and against its destroyers – if necessary with their lives.
The poet Heinrich Heine gave the necessary “good advice” on this as early as 1853: “Leave your grief and your shame! Court boldly and demand loudly, […] And you will lead home the bride: freedom.”
The article is an excerpt from Rafael Seligmann’s latest book: “Arsonists and their followers. Putin, Trump, Netanyahu” (Herder)
