The Great Experiment by Yascha Mounk

The subtitle of the book is: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Succeed. It was yet another work of non-fiction on Obama's reading tlist in 2022 that I read based soley on that, his recommendation. He will make me care about politics and how it can be an agent for positive change. Apparently the egis of this book came from the author speaking on German television in 2018, where he remarked that Germany was “embarking on a historically unique experiment – that of turning a monoethnic and monocultural democracy into a multi-ethnic one”. He was immediately deluged with emails from far-rightists who felt his comment corroborated their belief in a conspiracy to eradicate the white race. This might have prompted him to reflect that the word “experiment” was perhaps a less than optimal way to characterize mass migration and its consequences. Instead, he went away and wrote an entire book around this very theme. This is not so much a book full of solutions or policy suggestions but rather a string of observations. He identifies the elements of the caste system within all cultures, and not to give too much away, elements of autocracy leverage the fear of losing the advantage of being on top to prize away democracy for power and financial gain. This is the lesson of Trump, that racism is alive and well, but can be triumphed over if we pay attention.