Some people feel that democracy as an institution is under threat. I would like to make some observations in this regard, which I have concluded by analyzing historical contexts. Regardless of the social structure of a country, democracy always exists when and as long as there is no one capable of acquiring and retaining absolute power. Democracy is therefore the cooperation of many mediocre people in order to be able to organize the governance together. At the moment when a single person who can do this alone appears, democracy will be present at most formal. In different cultures, at different times, there tend to emerge outstanding personalities who, because of their abilities, acquire and retain absolute power, simply because they are outstandingly talented in one or more ways, then the others. The existence of talent does not imply that one is a benevolent person, nor even that one is a humanist person, nor even that one uses one's talent for the advancement of the community. It may be that talent is limited solely to the management of power or an extraordinary willingness to compromise in the squeeze of controversy, but it may be that he has caught an upward social trend line at the right time. 

Autocracies are never overthrown by the people, nor by some opposition. They are just tools. One-man power collapses of its own accord, its time runs out, the air around it runs out, the trend lines slip away, new generations resonate with a different outlook. And until that happens, "Let every soul obey the powers that be, for there is no power but from God, and what power there is, it is ordained of God." (Paul's Letter to the Romans, 13.1) 

True, that people with outstanding talents could "play democracy" for the sake of others, e.g. to teach and develop them. If they do not do this, why not? Simply because talent does not go hand in hand with wisdom. We can be born with talent, but to become wise is only possible through experience and the correct processing of that. 

What can a person do, who lives in an autocracy and aspires to democracy? One thing: to become a sage!

Margaret Rhasoda Varga
UCCM head-master
2021. Budapest, Hungary