„Stranger“

In the 16th and final episode of „Stranger “ (USA), also known under the English title „Secret Forest „, a TV crime series by Soo-youn Lee (60 min., Korea 2017), which kept the whole of South Korea on tenterhooks last summer, the main character publicly takes stock after uncovering massive corruption in all layers of Korean public life – the judiciary, police, politics and business. The result is by no means a happy ending . Too many lives have been lost, too many deep wounds have been inflicted. But the madness has run its course and the core of human decency has been preserved; enough to inspire hope that something healthier can emerge for future generations. But it’s not easy, as Hwang Shi-mok, the fictional Korean prosecutor, points out. When democracy is hanging by a thread, there is only one reason for optimism:

„The most powerful weapon that judicial authorities possess is constitutional law. As long as the constitution exists, we can keep fighting. “

This sentence made me reach for the remote and rewind the video to make sure I had heard correctly. The fact that this statement triggered such an immediate reaction says a lot about the times we live in. The phrase could be spoken almost anywhere in the world today – by activists in Hong Kong fighting against China’s ruthless persecution and brutal suppression of dissent; by U.S. Department of Justice officials seeking to stop China’s ruthless persecution and brutal suppression of dissent. Justice Department officials struggling to remain impartial guardians of the law and resisting the bold advances of a president guided less by his democratic mandate than by his autocratic instincts; in Russia, where a courageous group of dissidents is standing up to a powerful criminal elite; or in Burma and Syria, where all the hellfires of damnation seem to be burning simultaneously. Only the two world wars of the 20th century seem more apocalyptic in scale – their horrors defined by the staggering number of human casualties, the monstrosity of the Holocaust and the use of two atomic bombs against the civilian population of Japan.

But like a precious time capsule buried in the sand, hope remains. Constitutional states are imperfect but beautiful creatures, at once fragile and resilient.

Their central documents describe our highest ideals, the best in us reduced to its essence. With a few carefully formulated words, they chart the way for a humanist society – fundamental principles that protect human dignity and human life, that demand respect, that powerfully reject discrimination and hatred. Democratic constitutions mark our hopeful beginnings and form an iron bulwark against an authoritarian end. We invoke them regularly, often as a last resort. Even in times of great turmoil and dismal failures, this foundation and its democratic spirit exist . As prosecutor Hwang Shi-mok aptly put it: „As long as our rebellious spirit is preserved, we, the common people, will win the battle against autocracy.