The smart would be of help.
The soft underbelly of a free society comes in the ways in which it can be exploited by the internal power vacuums created by same. Systemic faults are always there. Systems can always be gamed, abused. The muscle and will that pushes agenda, that opens any wheels to be greased, that lives for, works for, has the entitlement for power always goes against those with interests to resist, those with interests in preservation of the values of the system.
Access to the levers of force, the force of the state, forces challenging the state, this is paramount. Challengers angle enough to make themselves the de facto masters of allowable behavior. Be it the terror of the disruptive or those who skew and game systems for other ends there is always leverage given away by those who are not hard eyed.
The willing are required to keep societies free from being weak imitations of that which they strive to be. The smart would be of help.