Democracy on life support: time to flick the switch.

A moment of reckoning

What would you do if your freedom had an expiry date? Because right now, it's ticking.

During these tumultuous times, I've been thinking a lot about what divides and connects us across borders and differences. There's something in the air lately, isn't there? A sort of collective unease that catches in your throat when you're just trying to go about your day. It whispers: all is not well.

Yet hope, like a lighthouse standing against the storm, remains unshaken. It does not falter in the face of crashing waves. It does not surrender to the darkness. It endures because we choose to keep the light burning.

Many of us have watched—first with disbelief, then with growing alarm—as the foundations of democratic life have been chipped away, brick by brick. Yesterday in the French Senate, the heroic Claude Malhuret put words to what we've sensed but struggled to name: we face a coordinated assault on free societies, all the more dangerous for its cunning.

The lessons of our past

History offers us both caution and courage.

In 1940, as darkness enveloped Europe, Churchill understood that fascism could not be accommodated or appeased. "We shall fight on the beaches," he declared, not because victory was certain, but because surrender was unthinkable. He also once warned, "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last." Today, that crocodile is growing, devouring Ukraine, eyeing Taiwan, and dismantling democracy from within. Have we learned nothing from history? Have we forgotten that it took the courage of ordinary citizens, the resolve of nations, and the unity of free people to defeat the tyrants of the past?

When De Gaulle transmitted hope across occupied France, he recognised that resistance begins as a whisper before it becomes a shout.

When Lincoln faced a divided nation, he appealed not to partisan advantage but to "the better angels of our nature."

And when Dr. King stood before the Lincoln Memorial, he understood that justice delayed is justice denied – that moral clarity cannot wait for political convenience.

Bob Dylan captured our present moment decades ago when he sang: "How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?" The answer is blowing in the wind of our collective conscience.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, I'm reminded of the words of renowned suffragette and courageous activist, Emmeline Pankhurst, who once declared, "We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers." That fierce clarity is what we need today. The Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko asked, "When will we receive our Washington, with a new and righteous law?" That hunger for leadership echoes across continents, from Kyiv to Kansas City, from Manchester to Moscow.

The current crisis: betrayal and the fragility of freedom

The world’s greatest democracy, the United States, once the beacon of freedom, now stands at a crossroads. The betrayal of allies, the erosion of democratic checks and balances, and the capitulation to despots have sent shockwaves through the free world. No American president has ever abandoned an ally in war. No leader of the free world has ever sided with an invader against the invaded.

And yet, here we are.

Claude Malhuret’s powerful speech* reminds us that Ukraine is not just fighting for its own sovereignty—it is fighting for Europe, for the principles of international law, and for the belief that might does not make right. If Ukraine falls, what message does that send to every other nation under threat? To the Baltic states? To Taiwan? To every country that still believes in freedom?

Solidarity, not enmity, with the American people

To our friends in America: we stand with you, not against you. This is not an indictment of the American people. America has been, and must remain, a force for good. The ideals enshrined in its Constitution—the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—must not be lost to those who seek to rewrite history. The world must stand not against America, but alongside the millions of Americans who refuse to let tyranny dictate their future. The America we admire is not defined by any single leader, but by the enduring ideals grounded in your founding principles.

When leaders embrace autocrats while abandoning allies, they betray not just international agreements but the very spirit that made America a beacon of hope.

And to citizens in every nation: neutrality is no longer a moral option. As Elie Wiesel reminded us, "We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim." Your silence will not protect you when the foundations of shared prosperity and mutual respect are undermined.

Abraham Lincoln, in the depths of the American Civil War, declared, "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion." This is our stormy present. And we must rise with it.

The moral stakes

To be clear: This is not merely a political crisis. This is a moral crossroads that will define not just our generation, but generations to come.

When autocrats classify dissent as treason... When journalists are silenced for speaking truth... When elections become performative rather than substantive... When corruption is not just tolerated but institutionalised...

...these are not policy differences. They are direct assaults on human dignity.

The American poet Langston Hughes asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?" Today we must ask: what happens to democracy betrayed? Not just in one nation, but across a constellation of societies that once stood as beacons of hope?

The path forward

How then shall we respond? Not with despair, but with determined action.

For us as individuals and human beings: become information warriors. Combat disinformation with facts. Support independent journalism. Engage in difficult conversations with those who see the world differently.

For us as professionals and business leaders: recognise that markets cannot thrive without rule of law. Ethical capitalism requires ethical choices about where and how you operate. Your shareholders may demand quarterly profits, but your stakeholders – employees, communities, future generations – demand integrity and inclusion, not exclusion.

For society: build coalitions beyond traditional divides. Progressive or conservative, religious or secular – these labels matter less than our shared commitment to institutions that protect dignity, enable accountability, and preserve the peaceful transfer of power.

For governments that still stand for democratic principles: strengthen multilateral institutions. Create economic incentives for democratic reforms. Impose meaningful consequences on those who undermine human rights and democratic processes.

Rekindling hope

This moment calls not for pessimism but for renewed determination. Democracy has never been the finished article but an ever-evolving journey of education and empowerment. Each generation must defend, challenge and enhance it.

The "New Axis" seeks to convince us that democracy is weak, messy, inefficient. They are right about the last two points but catastrophically wrong about the first. Democracy's apparent messiness is its greatest strength – the ability to self-correct, to admit error, to become more inclusive over time.

In the face of coordinated autocracy, we must build coordinated resilience. In response to their centralised control, we must demonstrate distributed creativity. Against their fear, we must offer hope – not naive optimism, but the grounded hope that comes from knowing that throughout human history, the arc of progress has been uneven but undeniable.

The clarion call

This is not the twilight of democracy, but the clarion call for its renewal.

This is not the time for comfortable silence, but for courageous solidarity.

This is not the end of our shared story, but the beginning of its most important chapter.

Let future generations say of us: when democracy stood at the precipice, they did not surrender to cynicism or fear. They joined arms across borders and differences. They chose the difficult path of defending human dignity against those who would crush it.

They understood that freedom is never guaranteed – it must be claimed by each generation.

The warnings have been sounding for years, but too many have chosen comfortable silence. Claude Malhuret's profound words have finally named what many feared to acknowledge: we face not merely political disagreements, but a coordinated assault on the very foundations of our democratic societies.

The poet Amanda Gorman reminded us, "there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."

Today, we choose to be that light – together.

A new chapter for the Free World

As Martin Luther King Jr. declared, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice".

This is not the end of democracy—this is its reawakening. This is not the triumph of tyranny—this is the moment where we unite and stand up for basic human principles. We are not standing on the brink of a New World Order, dictated by autocrats. No. We are standing at the dawn of a global movement, one that will unite the forces of democracy against a New Axis of Evil.

#DemocracyUnderThreat #StandWithUkraine #DefendFreedom #UnitedAgainstTyranny #RiseForJustice #LighthouseKeepers

You can read or watch Claude Mahunet's extraordinary speech here