One of the most beautiful Internet moment this year came when Brazilian leftists in the valley of despair after Lula’s round one loss posted almost as a joke exhorting Xi Jinping to come interfere in Brazilian elections. Somehow, a Chinese netizen read it and wrote an earnest and heartfelt reply, encouraging the Brazilians to fight on because only they have the power to save their country. “An egg broken from the inside is new life. An egg broken from the outside is an omelette.” And then somehow, the Brazilians left executed the most stunning turnaround imaginable. They mobilized, organized, testified. Bolsonaro still cried fraud but Lula ended up winning by millions of votes and lands a historic fourth term. But the real breaking of the shell this week happened not in Brazil but across the world in Serbia, where a truly extraordinary movement called Students list has been incubating for the last two years. The breaking of the shell happened when the totally organic and decentralized students movement actually took power. It feels like something we’ve lost faith in: a revolution that happens through the framework of democracy. I’ve often been accused these days of “being a simp for authoritarians.” But what I really am is against the breaking of the shell from the outside. And unfortunately America has a terrible predilection for doing this. It goes around the world spreading democracy but countries end up smashed and instead of healthy chicks we’ve got omelette crumbs hanging off the beak of the eagle. Of course the future is so fraught. How will such a decentralized movement switch to governance? How will it navigate Serbia’s delicate geopolitical balance between Russia and the west? And can the movement deliver not just on change but on growth? I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I am hopeful. Because the breaking of the shell came from the inside. 🇷🇸