Free Iraq?
Iraqi polling stations have just closed.
A few bombs, several million votes, 30 dead, resounding success.
And so there might be democracy in Iraq, but freedom?
I know I'll be accused of taking my freedoms for granted, but I understand Hamlet when he talks about Denmark being a prison, Rosencrantz replies Then is the world one. Hamlet's stark answer, a goodly one.
Living where I live is great. I have freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom to work and earn a good wage. Many freedoms. But I am not a free man.
The ancient Greeks defined a Free Man as a political entity. A man who participated in the ongoing social and philosophical debate and had a say in the decisions taken by the political body.
This I resolutely do not have. I have no say on what my government does or does not do. I can protest, but they will not listen, I could partake in local democracy but that has nothing to do with larger issues, such as Fox Hunting, ID Cards, Immigration, Terror Laws, Policing, etc etc. We may have democracy in this country, but as the Greeks would see it, we are all slaves to the government's wishes. This is why, in Britain, very few people ever bother to vote any more.
I envy Iraqi's. They have been given a great freedom that has been denied them for many years, the freedom to vote for their government. They have shown the will and strength to excercise that freedom. They have come out of a period of darkness, not in the most graceful manner, but they have progressed nonetheless, let us hope that a fledgling democracy will not kowtow to America, will not conciously exclude any Iraqi from the decisions of their own government, will not be destroyed by fundamentalist Islamism, that it will take a long long time before their democracy becomes as cynical as Britain's or America's. They truly, at this moment in time, have a greater freedom than anyone here in the West
It must be nice to be able to have such faith in the political process. But bile must be reserved for another time. All Good Luck to the Iraqis, who today started out on an uncertain road, but at least it is a road as opposed to the desert they have just left.
I personally, will put my faith in Lord Byron, again I take from The Assassin's Cloak.
I have simplified my politics into an utter detestastion of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of a universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, no worse, for a people than another.
1814
Alright, Byron never saw Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Hussein, US Imperialism, Islamism, Apartheid or any of the really brutal regimes. But I understand and sympathise with the sentiment.
A few bombs, several million votes, 30 dead, resounding success.
And so there might be democracy in Iraq, but freedom?
I know I'll be accused of taking my freedoms for granted, but I understand Hamlet when he talks about Denmark being a prison, Rosencrantz replies Then is the world one. Hamlet's stark answer, a goodly one.
Living where I live is great. I have freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom to work and earn a good wage. Many freedoms. But I am not a free man.
The ancient Greeks defined a Free Man as a political entity. A man who participated in the ongoing social and philosophical debate and had a say in the decisions taken by the political body.
This I resolutely do not have. I have no say on what my government does or does not do. I can protest, but they will not listen, I could partake in local democracy but that has nothing to do with larger issues, such as Fox Hunting, ID Cards, Immigration, Terror Laws, Policing, etc etc. We may have democracy in this country, but as the Greeks would see it, we are all slaves to the government's wishes. This is why, in Britain, very few people ever bother to vote any more.
I envy Iraqi's. They have been given a great freedom that has been denied them for many years, the freedom to vote for their government. They have shown the will and strength to excercise that freedom. They have come out of a period of darkness, not in the most graceful manner, but they have progressed nonetheless, let us hope that a fledgling democracy will not kowtow to America, will not conciously exclude any Iraqi from the decisions of their own government, will not be destroyed by fundamentalist Islamism, that it will take a long long time before their democracy becomes as cynical as Britain's or America's. They truly, at this moment in time, have a greater freedom than anyone here in the West
It must be nice to be able to have such faith in the political process. But bile must be reserved for another time. All Good Luck to the Iraqis, who today started out on an uncertain road, but at least it is a road as opposed to the desert they have just left.
I personally, will put my faith in Lord Byron, again I take from The Assassin's Cloak.
I have simplified my politics into an utter detestastion of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of a universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, no worse, for a people than another.
1814
Alright, Byron never saw Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Hussein, US Imperialism, Islamism, Apartheid or any of the really brutal regimes. But I understand and sympathise with the sentiment.
posted by Caractacus at 02:22
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