{"id":263176,"date":"2026-07-14T14:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/how-books-can-save-democracy-michael-fischer\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:24:36","slug":"how-books-can-save-democracy-michael-fischer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1kitap1.com\/en\/how-books-can-save-democracy-michael-fischer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Books Can Save Democracy – Michael Fischer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In practice, seeing the world through the eyes of others credits them with the same humanity we claim for ourselves: the same capacity for hope, love, fear, and grief that informs our own lives and gives us the right to expect consideration from others. Mandela\u2019s willingness to establish a personal connection with his adversaries bolstered his ability to compromise with them and allow them a chance to move with him beyond the past. By strengthening his relationships with Afrikaner leaders, Mandela backed up his commitment to include them in the new society taking shape.<\/p>\n

He gave them reasons to trust that his vision of South Africa included them. In dysfunctional or faltering democracies, the values I have been attributing to Mandela collapse into their opposites. Empathy gives way to bitter polarization and dehumanization, compromise to unyielding opposition, and forgiveness to an unrelenting quest for retribution. A perpetual fight to the finish results when despising one\u2019s adversaries drives decisions and commitments.<\/p>\n

I am for x because the opponents I despise are against it, and I will do everything I can to defeat what I see as their threat to who I am and what I value. I can\u2019t imagine talking with these adversaries, let alone working things out with them. The issue triggering unbounded conflict between bitter enemies can be almost anything, from climate change and public health policies to the choice of a carryout.<\/p>\n

The constructive debates that democracies depend on devolve into shouting matches or vicious attacks that disputants can imagine ending only when their side wipes out the other. Like the people cursing Elizabeth Eckford, citizens who have lost faith in dialogue, elections, and persuasion gravitate toward undemocratic ways of achieving their political goals, including bullying, intimidation, violence, and in some cases support for authoritarian leaders who promise to protect their supporters from their despicable enemies and to get things done on their behalf.<\/p>\n

The autocratic boast \u201cI alone can fix it\u201d gains support when people lose confidence in working out their differences with others. In dysfunctional democracies, in short, opportunities for disagreement multiply while trust in peacefully resolving conflict declines. It is a terrible combination. In these backsliding democracies, instead of everyday life tempering political differences (Tocqueville\u2019s ideal), toxic political divisions seep into everyday life, turning even friends and family members into strangers and adversaries.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no escaping political strife, no respite from all the fighting. The habits of the heart that sustain democracy can\u2019t find a foothold anywhere, not even in an everyday lunch in a park. We end up dreading family gatherings instead of looking forward to them.<\/p>\n

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San Antonio, Texas 78212 Copyright \u00a9 2025 by Michael Fischer All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. Book design by Anne Richmond Boston Author photo by Jeri Krentz ISBN 978-1-59534-321-5 paper ISBN 978-1-59534-322-2 ebook Trinity University Press strives to produce its books using methods and materials in an environmentally sensitive manner. We favor working with manufacturers that practice sustainable management of all natural resources, produce paper using recycled stock, and manage forests with the best possible practices for people, biodiversity, and sustainability.<\/p>\n

The press is a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit program dedicated to supporting publishers in their efforts to reduce their impacts on endangered forests, climate change, and forest-dependent communities. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences\u2014Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi 39.48\u2013 1992. CIP data on file at the Library of Congress 29 28 27 26 25 | 5 4 3 2 1 OceanofPDF.com FOR VIVIAN AND WILLIAM OceanofPDF.com What Does Literature Have to Do with Democracy?<\/p>\n

In Zadie Smith\u2019s short story \u201cThe Waiter\u2019s Wife\u201d (1999), three women are sitting on a park bench in 1970s London: Clara Jones, of Jamaican ancestry, pictured by Smith as \u201ca black girl with a winning smile\u201d; Alsana Iqbal, a recently arrived immigrant from Bangladesh; and Neena, Alsana\u2019s niece. Clara and Alsana are both pregnant. Clara is expecting a girl and Alsana twin boys. Clara and Alsana have gotten to know each other through their husbands, longtime friends who served together in World War II.<\/p>\n

Alsana calls Neena \u201cNiece-of-Shame\u201d because she objects so strongly to Neena\u2019s westernized political and cultural opinions, which reflect her experience as a university student. As the women talk and eat, Alsana and her niece quarrel early and often, with Neena provoking Alsana by belittling her as a \u201clittle submissive Indian woman\u201d much too subservient to her husband. \u201cIt\u2019s 1975,\u201d Neena scolds Alsana. \u201cYou can\u2019t conduct relationships like that any more.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like back home. There has to be communication between men and women in the West, they\u2019ve got to listen to each other. . . .\u201d Their conflict escalates when Neena brings up what especially bothers her about Alsana: her arranged marriage (\u201cHow could you bear to marry someone you didn\u2019t know from Adam?\u201d). An infuriated Alsana defends her marriage as \u201cby far the easier option,\u201d but that doesn\u2019t stop Neena. Things get even more tense when Neena goes on to lament that Alsana is expecting boys: \u201cI mean, I just think men have caused enough chaos this century.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s enough bloody men in the world. If I knew I was going to have a boy. . . I\u2019d have to seriously consider abortion.\u201d Alsana is outraged, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.<\/em><\/p>\n

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