Lady Liberty And Her Broom

Hundreds of single straws, each in its own right not strong enough to effect change, could quickly become a broom. ~Natan Sharansky

Yes, Sharansky then talks about “sweeping” away the tyrannies of the world.  Very clever.  But there is a small problem here: a bundle of straws does not make a broom, but a pile of straw.   

This strikes me as the perfect metaphor for why democracy activists in many countries around the world labour and will continue to labour in vain: all the dissident “straws” in the world are useless without the social and political foundations needed to make a dissenting political vision into an effective, reasonably just government.  Countries that lack a political culture that instills respect for the rule of law, transparent and accountable institutions and basic constitutional protections for citizens against state abuses are not going to be able to sustain whatever political changes these dissidents manage to make.