This is my project in 2024: Providing opportunities to become (a little bit) braver
#35
Dear Friends of Democracy,
How brave do you have to be to stand up for democracy?
It depends, unsurprisingly, on where you advocate for democracy and with what means.
It's incredibly brave if you do it in Iran, for example.
On the other hand, when I campaign for democracy here in Germany, I have not yet needed any courage. On the contrary, most of the time, I receive support and pats on the back.
That serves me well. Especially since I wouldn't describe myself as very brave. (This is also why I am now trying to strengthen democracy, not that, at some point, I won't dare to do it anymore.)
Like everyone who is in love with democracy, I’ve thought about what I could contribute to strengthening democracy. Since I am a journalist and a central task of journalism is to provide translation services from scientific knowledge to the people, I have considered the following project for 2024:
I will contact scientists from all fields involved in democracy research and ask them what we can all do to strengthen democracy.
I will become a journalist with a focus on democracy research. I want to make all research knowledge about democracy accessible to everyone so that we can all become smarter and more capable of acting to save, invent or reinvent what is the essential prerequisite for a good life: a constitutional state that treats everyone equally and with dignity. I want to become a journalist with only one bias: supporting democracy.
How do I want to put this idea into practice?
The core will be a podcast called "How To Save Democracy". Each episode will deal with a single issue and with one expert – a scientist or an activist. Each episode will highlight a finding of democracy research and present it in such an understandable way that everyone can draw a lesson from it. A lesson for their personal life.
The key insights from each podcast episode will be shared in a variety of ways (especially on social media). Because scientific knowledge needs one thing above all: reach.
Ideally, each podcast episode gives us recommendations for pro-democratic action that we can implement without much courage. Because then more people will take part. Me, for example. And the more people join in, the easier it is to defend democracy, isn’t it?
So we can't start soon enough.
Here's to 2024! Here's to strengthening democracy!
See you,
Johannes Eber