Vinka's Library of Mind

Aku memulai buku How Democracies Die dengan rasa penasaran yang sederhana: bagaimana sebenarnya demokrasi runtuh? Apakah lewat kudeta? Tank di jalan? Atau revolusi besar? Ternyata jawabannya lebih sunyi. Lebih pelan. Dan justru itu yang menakutkan. Buku ini membuatku sadar bahwa demokrasi tidak mati karena satu tokoh, tetapi karena pembiaran kolektif yang perlahan menjadi kebiasaan. Sejak introduction, aku langsung tertarik pada dua norma yang menurut Levitsky dan Ziblatt menjadi pagar tak terlihat demokrasi: mutual toleration dan institutional forbearance . Mutual toleration berarti kita mengakui lawan politik sebagai rival yang sah, bukan musuh yang harus dimusnahkan. I nstitutional forbearance berarti menahan diri—tidak menggunakan seluruh kekuasaan legal yang kita punya hanya karena kita bisa. Dua norma ini tidak tertulis di konstitusi mana pun. Tapi tanpa mereka, demokrasi hanya tinggal prosedur kosong. Semakin aku membaca, semakin aku sadar bahwa demokrasi bukan hanya ...

  I decided to read—and eventually buy— The Great Gatsby  after Haruki Murakami recommended it in his memoir  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running . Murakami wrote: “The Great Gatsby is a truly extraordinary novel. I never tire of its story, no matter how many times I read it. It is a work of literature that enriches you each time you open it. Every rereading reveals something new, something fresh.” At first, the story felt painfully slow. I even put the book down for almost two weeks—despite its slim length of just over a hundred pages. Jazz Age America, seen through Nick Carraway’s eyes, appeared hollow to me: a world filled with etiquette, polite conversations, and quiet arrogance. Everything shifted the moment Nick met Jay Gatsby. Something clicked. From that point on, I could no longer stop turning the pages. Gatsby stood apart from the people of East Egg and West Egg—mysterious, hopeful, and perhaps the only character who possessed a sincere emotional core in...

  George Orwell's  Animal Farm  is an immensely powerful political allegory, originally crafted as a satirical reflection of Stalinism, but it continues to resonate deeply with today's political landscape. Through the lens of a seemingly simple tale about a group of farm animals rebelling against their human oppressor, Orwell weaves a timeless narrative about the corrupting influence of power, and how idealistic revolutions can devolve into oppressive regimes. At its core,  Animal Farm  mirrors the events of the Russian Revolution, but what makes it timeless is the broader, more universal themes that Orwell masterfully explores. The pigs, who assume control after the rebellion, gradually adopt the same authoritarian practices they initially sought to overthrow. The famous line "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" encapsulates the betrayal of ideals that often occurs when power is centralized in the hands of a few. This theme isn't...