Nine Acres in Athens: Democracy’s Rise (and Fall)

As a veteran newspaper reporter with only a rudimentary education in the classics, visiting Athens fed my fascination with democracy’s long struggle in the era of Xi, Putin and Erdogan.

 
In these troubling times, it has been reassuring to walk on a hot September afternoon among the ruins of Athens’ ancient agora. It was once the busy heart of what is often described as the world’s first democracy.

 
Athens and Washington, D.C.

Five thousand miles away, and a few days before my Athens excursion, U.S. President Joe Biden had stood in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, warning that the United States’ democracy was “under assault.”

A violent mob seeking to toss out the valid votes of millions had “held a dagger to the throat of our democracy.” That threat remains, Biden asserted.

Athens’ old agora, at the foot of the Acropolis hill on which sits the Parthenon, provides relief of sorts from these anxieties.

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Πηγή: theglobalist.com