🌰 protests strengthen democracy

When I read about Russia’s role in the Canadian convoy protests , I immediately thought of Roman concrete. Let me explain.

This week, behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno released a paper on Russia’s role in the Canadian convoy protests. Her summary and full paper are worth reading but TLDR: Russia amplifies existing dissent in democratic countries to destabilize them.

In other news, scientists have finally figured out why ancient Roman concrete is so much stronger than modern concrete. The Romans knew that concrete would crack over time, so they added a brittle form of lime that reacts with water to reform. These “lime clasts” break first under pressure then quickly recrystallize, creating “self-healing concrete”.¹

To an authoritarian regime, public dissent is always a risk. When the public cannot disapprove “safely”, there is only revolution left. From that perspective, it benefits Russia to support protests in others countries. However, in a healthy democracy, public demonstrations are lime clasts, not dynamite. Just as lime reacts with water to strengthen concrete, the public reacts with its representatives to strengthen democracy.

That said…is our democracy healthy? Is our lime crystallizing or crumbling? In the United States at least, I can’t tell.

Info:

• Inspired by: Russia’s Role in the Far-Right Truck Convoy
• Related to:
  • 🌰 democracy requires active maintenance
  • [[❔ does democracy allow for more experimentation]]
  • [[🌰 demands of democracy]]
  • [[🗨️ China has become rich and powerful thanks to capitalism … But its population is not clamouring for democracy.]]

1. I am not an expert. I probably got some of the nuance wrong. Read the MIT article above for a more accurate explanation. ↩

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Every post on this blog is a work in progress. Phrasing may be less than ideal, ideas may not yet be fully thought through. Thank you for watching me grow.