Saturday, April 12, 2003
The stability of a free country depends on the self discipline and self control of its citizens. The stability and social controls in a free country are internal. In a dictatorship, the controls are external. For a free society to work, the people must have internalized a particular set of values and beliefs. The peoples committment to freedom and equality must be stronger than their committment to any political, economic, or religious ideology.
In a free country everyone looks out for his or her neighbor. In an anarchy, it is every man for himself.
The United States is far from perfect. But the last election shows how close to a truely free country we are. The election was so close that even now we don't know who actually won, and we do know that the party that is not in power did win the popular vote. However, the party that "lost" (the democrats), did not start a civil war, muster an army, and try to take what was rightfully theirs. How many times and places have existed in history where that could have happened? Americans have a powerful committment to the process of orderly transition of power that takes priority over their other strongly held beliefs and committments.
Freedom in a our system of government is limited. People sometimes get the idea that in a the United States you are free to do whatever you want to. But in a free country you are only free to do things which do not infringe on the rights of others. It is a mistake to say that in a democracy the majority rules. In a democracy, the majority is in charge of protecting the rights of the minorities. If a majority that does not understand this gets elected, the democracy is ended. If the majority does what it believes to be right even though it violates the rights of those who disagree with it, there is no democracy, there is no freedom.
In a free country everyone looks out for his or her neighbor. In an anarchy, it is every man for himself.
The United States is far from perfect. But the last election shows how close to a truely free country we are. The election was so close that even now we don't know who actually won, and we do know that the party that is not in power did win the popular vote. However, the party that "lost" (the democrats), did not start a civil war, muster an army, and try to take what was rightfully theirs. How many times and places have existed in history where that could have happened? Americans have a powerful committment to the process of orderly transition of power that takes priority over their other strongly held beliefs and committments.
Freedom in a our system of government is limited. People sometimes get the idea that in a the United States you are free to do whatever you want to. But in a free country you are only free to do things which do not infringe on the rights of others. It is a mistake to say that in a democracy the majority rules. In a democracy, the majority is in charge of protecting the rights of the minorities. If a majority that does not understand this gets elected, the democracy is ended. If the majority does what it believes to be right even though it violates the rights of those who disagree with it, there is no democracy, there is no freedom.
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