Following up on columnist Sara Weinberger's suggestion that we need to educate ourselves about risks to democracy ("Democracy, future is in our hands," July 15), I visited the Project 2025 web site www.project2025.org. It seems that those behind Project 2025 want to create a new society in our country with new rules that can clear the way for autocratic control. It made me feel that there is a real danger that, once the proponents of Project 2025 achieve power, they will try to eliminate people who oppose their agenda or force them to conform. As early as the 1940s, psychologist Erich Fromm warned in his insightful book “Escape from Freedom” against the tendency for those in modern society to give away their personal freedoms to autocratic leaders. He explained how people can find comfort in being part of a submissive crowd that follows a leader who claims to have all of the answers. Fromm's warnings resonate now. I hope that Americans will not fall into the trap of anti-freedom programs like Project 2025 which threaten to destroy our democratic governmental system and the ideal of the common good.

Sidney Moss

Northampton