Justice & Law Quote by David Korten

Pride, here, is doing double duty: it reads like admiration and like an accusation with good manners. Korten isn’t simply reporting what “Europeans say”; he’s spotlighting a self-image that functions as both moral brand and political shield. “Social fabric” sounds cozy and apolitical, a metaphor that makes institutions feel natural, woven, almost inevitable. That’s the point. By invoking fabric rather than policy, the quote frames rights not as a transactional bargain but as a shared identity - something you inherit, protect, and display.

The phrasing “strong rights for workers and the weak in society” is a carefully chosen coalition. Workers and “the weak” are not always treated as the same political constituency, but Korten stitches them together to suggest a broader ethic: a society measured by how it handles dependence, vulnerability, and power asymmetry. “Weak” is blunt, even slightly uncomfortable; it refuses the softer euphemisms (“disadvantaged,” “marginalized”) and forces the reader to confront hierarchy as a real condition, not just a demographic.

Contextually, this line sits in the long transatlantic argument over what modern economies are for. Europe, in this telling, claims a model where markets are bounded by social guarantees - unions, welfare states, labor protections. The subtext is that this pride is contested: it can be genuine solidarity, or a story Europeans tell themselves while austerity, gig work, and anti-immigrant politics tug at the seams. Korten’s activist intent is to make that pride operational: if you’re proud, prove it.