Democracy

"You must foster freedom and basic democracy in countries because otherwise they will collapse and be overthrown through great effort and violence."

“As soon as resources become scarce, democracy begins to break down.”

"If a nation cannot provide the basic elements for its peoples, even if it becomes a democracy, even if it achieves a just system, it will not be able to stand. It will never have stability. And the people will be in constant distress, leading to further upheavals, leading to war between factions and groups vying for power, not only for their own political or religious ideologies, but to survive."

"Now you are fighting on several fronts to deal with the consequences of centuries of abuse to your environment. You must unite to clean your waters and clean your air. You must unite to distribute food where it is needed and to assist nations so that they can provide enough food and water to their people. You must foster freedom and basic democracy in countries because otherwise they will collapse and be overthrown through great effort and violence. Individuals and citizens must become far more responsible in how they use the resources of the world, especially in the wealthy nations. It is a change on an immense scale."

"Democracy is actually being carried out as an experiment here by us. I think it's really important. I think it's under jeopardy."

"If the people of a nation want and expect and demand a provision of great resources, their government has to fulfill their desires. And the more democratic the nations, the more governments are bound to meet these escalating requirements."

"Freedom for the individual becomes a problem in terms of stability. Nations that are more democratic tend to be internally more dynamic and more creative, but in a sense more unstable as well. If individuals have the freedom to express themselves, they also have the freedom to exert social power and to change the structure of their society. This is beneficial if the society has an adequate provision of resources and can sustain this provision over time. But as humanity will soon discover, as these provisions begin to diminish, the circumstances and the allowance of freedom will diminish as well."