What Time is it?
Authoritarian fragility, democratic resilience, and why the civilizational clash looks different than we thought
Something is cracking in the machinery of power.
In a single month, three men—Putin, Trump, Musk—each revealed the same sickness spreading through authoritarian systems. A dictator paralyzed by his own rigidity. A populist humiliating his allies to prove he still can. A billionaire discovering that in a hierarchy without rules, wealth buys nothing but the privilege of being publicly broken.
These aren’t separate stories. They’re the same story: power devouring itself.
The discourse is stuck between optimism that excuses everything and despair that excuses nothing. Between those who insist institutions are holding and those who declare the fight already lost.
Both are wrong because both misunderstand the question.
Not “are we in crisis?”—obviously.
Not “will democracy survive?”—it depends.
The question is simpler, harder, biblical:
What time is it?
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