The Fragile Fiction of Power
The most profound institutions rest upon nothing more substantial than shared belief. Legal protections, constitutional rights, and democratic safeguards exist only because we collectively agree they do. There is no cosmic force ensuring that words written on government letterhead mean anything; the same authority that grants rights will ignore them when sufficiently corrupted. We construct elaborate systems of checks and balances—multiple branches aligned along different timescales, separation of powers, mandatory minimum change periods—all buttressed by our collective faith in their legitimacy.
Yet history teaches us that these protections can be dismantled with alarming speed when that faith erodes. The nature of extraordinary powers is that they will inevitably be used, often in ways their creators never intended. What takes generations to build can be undone in a single administration.
The true defence of our most cherished institutions lies not in their legal foundations, but in our ceaseless vigilance and unwavering insistence that they matter. Democracy survives not through the strength of its written codes, but through our collective refusal to accept their erasure.