Moving Forward

We want a world at peace. We know peace takes work. How do we bring peace closer? Democracy, because democracy is about listening, and it's about patience. When Winston Churchill talked about democracy being "the worst form of government except for any other that has been invented," he was speaking from the frustration of leading a democracy, where one has to listen and has to be patient. Democracy calls for tolerance.

Peace and democracy. Taylor Branch said yesterday, speaking of Martin Luther King's life on the day dedicated to him, that King was completely committed to the nonviolent path that leads to voting and winning elections. As Branch noted, "Every vote is a piece of nonviolence." Ballots, not bullets.

And capitalism? Capitalism is the foundation of progress on democracy and peace. In 1900, only 8% of the British population voted, but Britain was successfully capitalist, and its system not only produced a full-fledged democracy at home by the 1920's, it also yielded up the largest democracy on earth with Gandhi's India. In Japan, Taiwan, and Korea, capitalism came first, then democracy. China is now moving down the same path.

The three great ideas of our century are moving the world forward.