Freedom Before Democracy
It seems that much has changed since last month. George W. Bush seems to be gaining greater awareness and information beyond his immediate circle. This has to be seen as a good thing, not to mention a bit of self-defense against a coming political firestorm in regards to "the slack in Iraq". His expression of regret for our "errors" of the past, in regards to fostering elites to sustain our free lives of privilege, is a welcome development. There is a lot of blood money and suffering repressed people to acknowledge.
As for spreading freedom and democracy around the globe, we need to be more precise with our language. Freedom is what we should spread, as a means of peace, and we need to do the same just as powerfully here at home. By adopting full accountability and transparency. The freedom of information. For on the scarcity of information, and the curtain of secrecy, all corruptive elites thrive.
Looking back at history, democracy isn't good enough by itself. Democracy with a certain measure of liberty isn't good enough either. Hitler was elected. And then he used the people against themselves to transform political instruments of liberalism to repression. The same could happen anywhere, and has happened frequently in the past century.
Checks and balances are in order. The people need to be the first order check and balance, and this can only happen in alliance with a free and independent media. With this in mind, full transparency and accountability are not only desirable, but necessary, in order to assure the growth and survival of freedom. Not to mention peace. Eliminating the dictates of secrecy would remove much of the malfeasance that escalates to extreme elite deviance in the case of war.
Indeed, in a world of deadly weapons of mass destruction and genetic engineering, state or corporate secrecy is really not a valid option anymore. Institutions, both domestic and transnational, which assure global transparency from the get-go will work far more effectively, and at a much more reasonable price, than open-ended and hopeless investment in competitive human intelligence, which is not a win-win game.
The world is no longer an innocent place. It never really was. Here in America, and around the globe, we're awaking to the potential and threat of the future. Of the present. Of business as usual. Now is the time to open our eyes and make sure we can see everything we need to see to assure our freedom, security, and peace of mind. This is not a radical proposal, in the light of common sense and reason, but is truly revolutionary when it comes to politics and elite deviance as usual.
Just speaking for myself, I love challenges. And this one has so many dimensions, and has so much at stake, that it's the challenge of all challenges. Will we realize freedom, and peace, or will we eventually perish in a spiralling world of violence and despair? We make the call.
