Reason must trump the contradictory appeal of lawlessness

The rules-based Western system of government is flawed, but we must persuade people that it’s better than the alternative, says Ana Palacio.

IN THE classical Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, the god Dionysus, powered by a thirst for vengeance, battles the inflexible and closed-minded King Pentheus for the soul of Thebes.

Pentheus’s rigidity — his attempt to suppress, rather than understand, the emotions inflamed by the passionate and unconventional Dionysus — proves to be his undoing. Dionysus wins, and Pentheus is ripped to shreds.