Hello,
As the world around us feels more uncertain and disorientated than ever, I hope this letter finds you well. I would like to bring something to your attention that affects us all, something both fragile and powerful: democracy.
Don’t you feel that political life has become more polarised over recent years? I mean, not just since of the election of Donald Trump or because of other major headline events, but more deeply, because there is something going on in the way we communicate, in the way we disagree, even in the way we think. Something has changed.
Across the globe, many historically solid democracies are under severe pressure. In some places, they are already faltering. In others, they are slipping into authoritarian patterns, slowly, subtly, sometimes unnoticed. To the left, and to the right.
Even here in Germany, a nation with a short, but strong and prosperous democratic tradition, we face growing challenges: mistrust in institutions, political polarization, or the sense among many voters that their voices don’t matter, or worse, that politicians are not listening to them anyway.
But in the final analysis, it isn’t just about politics. It’s about values. It’s about how we treat each other. It’s about the sense that outrage, spectacle, and suspicion are to be replaced with honesty, kindness, and responsibility.
Robert F. Kennedy said in the 1960s, “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.”
In that spirit, I say tonight: every democracy gets the kind of citizens it cultivates. And the question we must ask, is: what kind of citizens are we cultivating?
What is democracy, and why can it fail?
Let’s look at democracy not as an abstract idea, but as a living system that depends on each of us to survive. Democracy, the people’s power, or the people’s rule, is not just a method of electing leaders to act in the best interest of the community.
It’s a way of life. It’s built on respect for human dignity, on the belief that every voice counts, and on the promise that we will resolve our differences through dialogue and inclusion, not through violence, suppression or manipulation.
Democracies are built on three columns: legislature, executive, and judiciary. Separation of church and state as well as free and independent journalism are, in my opinion, two additional, equally important pillars of any functioning society.
But democracies can fail. They do. And when they do, it is rarely because of a single event. They fail slowly, quietly, in small steps.
For example,
when people stop believing their participation matters;
when leaders stoke fear instead of hope;
when disagreement turns into division, and division turns into contempt;
when power is used to silence opposition rather than serve the people;
when citizens become spectators, instead of participants;
when media conglomerates stop cultivating independent journalism but rather aim for click-rates and advertising revenue, or even worse, become political players themselves.
In ancient Greece, the term “idiot” was reserved for the person who did not participate in public life. So, people who didn’t care about politics or society - were referred to as idiots.
I believe democracies can be renewed or revitalised, even with a lot of idiots around. Democracies can be rebuilt. They can grow stronger, but only when citizens are engaged, informed, and courageous.
And that’s where you come in.
Because you are not just the future of democracy. You are already shaping it, every day, through the choices you make, the conversations you have, the issues you care about, and of course, the content you share online.
If democracy is to survive, it will be because young people like you choose to take it seriously and participate actively. Not just as an idea, but as a responsibility, or even a moral obligation.
Media, technology, and the truth: Now, here is something that surrounds and affects us all: information. We live in an era unlike any other in human history. The amount of information available to us is staggering. At any moment, we can read the news, join a global debate, learn from people we’ll never meet during our lifetime.
That’s a miracle of our time, but it’s also a profound challenge and responsibility.
Because we also live in a time of disinformation, polarization, and confusion. Social media platforms, designed to connect us, often reward outrage and misinformation. Algorithms push us into echo chambers, and all of a sudden, truth becomes negotiable, whilte trust becomes fragile.
In many ways, the digital revolution has done to democracy what the printing press had once done to the church. It has disrupted the old ways, redistributed power, and forced society to confront hard questions.
But with disruption comes danger.
We’ve seen how falsehoods can spread faster than facts. We’ve seen how digital mobs can silence debate. And we’ve seen how foreign powers, and sometimes domestic actors, exploit these weaknesses to foster division and undermine democracy. This is why media literacy, understanding how to navigate this digital world, is now a core democratic skill.
Just like voting or free speech or civic courage. And it’s also why we must teach not what to think, but how to think: how to recognize bias, how to listen, how to weigh evidence, how to stay curious, and how to disagree with respect. All without putting forward dogmas or political doctrines, a challenging task.
At Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights for example, we see education as the cornerstone of all our efforts. Not education as test-taking, but education as empowerment, teaching students, especially young people like yourselves, how to engage responsibly with media, with politics, with our own history, and with each other.
Because the battle for democracy is, in many ways, a battle for the narrative:
Who controls the story?
Whose voices are heard?
What kind of society do we imagine together?
Your role, and the power of civil courage: Now we get to the core of this letter’s message: your role, your voice, your courage.
You may not yet vote. But that does not mean you are powerless.
You are never too young to care.
You are never too young to act.
You are never too young to lead.
In fact, young people have often been the ones to bring about the most lasting change, from the civil rights movement to environmental activism, from human rights to democratic renewal.
Robert Kennedy believed in young people. He said: "This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity."
The courage he spoke of, civil courage, is what I urge you to embrace.
The courage to stand up for someone being excluded.
The courage to call out injustice.
The courage to listen before reacting.
The courage to serve something greater than just yourself.
Democracy is not inherited. It is created, day by day, person by person, generation by generation, and requires constant efforts to survive.
So, I ask you:
What kind of citizen will you be?
Will you be a bridge-builder in a world of walls?
Will you be a seeker of truth in a world of noise?
Will you be an upstander in a time when it’s always easier to stay silent, and hide?
In Dante’s Inferno, the hottest places in hell were reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, preserved their neutrality.
You don’t have to change the world overnight. But you have to start.
Because each choice you make, what you say, what you share, what you stand for, sends a message outward.
And those messages matter.
Because the future is not a place we can just go to.
It is something we have to build first.
So let’s begin to build it together. Speak up when democracy is in danger, independent from your political orientation. Get involved. Ask questions. Listen closely. Read. Know your history. Think critically. And vote when the time comes.
And never, ever forget that your voice matters.
Because the story of democracy, your democracy, is still to be written.
Yours sincerely,
Chris