The world may be getting smaller with each passing day, but as more individuals around the world are becoming aware of the merits of living in a free society, many nations are not as quick to evolve. Even such freedom-loving movements as the Arab Spring can come flying back like egg in the face of its citizens (one needs look no further than Egypt to realize how these grassroots, seemingly progressive, movements can backfire in a major way and lead to devolution instead of evolution). Democracy, as it turns out, is not such an easy concept to export — some areas of the world are simply not ready for it yet. In a 2009 conversation at the National Constitution Center, former President Bill Clinton expounds on how the true beauty of a democratic country extends far beyond choosing the winners of free elections plain-and-simple — it also has much to do with how we treat our “losers and loners” as well. “The thing that makes our constitutional democracy sing is what we do with the losers and the loners,” says Clinton. He argues the key to a successful democracy is not just successful elections and majority rule, but “selling diversity and minority rights.” His insight also touches on a conversation he had with Charlie Rose and Norah O’Donnell on CBS This Morning during the recent presidential election in November 2012. By extension, Clinton points out, a free society and a shame-based society have about as much in common as black and white. “Shame-based societies,” Clinton notes, “will not survive in the 21st century.”
