Our political leaders are talking about bringing Freedom and Democracy to the Middle East, Blair in particular to the whole world. To hear Bush and Blair speak you could be forgiven for thinking the words Freedom and Democracy mean the same thing. We have debated the definition of Democracy before; but what is Freedom?
A dictionary definition is: -
1.The condition of being free of restraints.
2. Liberty of the person from slavery, detention, or oppression.
3.
a. Political independence.
b. Exemption from the arbitrary exercise of authority in the performance of a specific action; civil liberty: freedom of assembly.
4. Exemption from an unpleasant or onerous condition: freedom from want.
5. The capacity to exercise choice; free will: We have the freedom to do as we please all afternoon.
6. Ease or facility of movement: loose sports clothing, giving the wearer freedom.
7. Frankness or boldness; lack of modesty or reserve: the new freedom in movies and novels.
8.
a. The right to unrestricted use; full access: was given the freedom of their research facilities.
b. The right of enjoying all of the privileges of membership or citizenship: the freedom of the city.
9. A right or the power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: “the seductive freedoms and excesses of the picaresque form” (John W. Aldridge).
To borrow from Rose Wilder Lane, freedom is control of self. Most of us have a very stylized view of freedom yet few of us really live it as true freedom means total responsibility for one’s every personal act – physical, political, economic and even spiritual
In reality most of us do not want that total freedom for either ourselves or for others so we conveniently transfer it elsewhere. In the West we transfer most to our Democratic form of Government, which conveniently takes over much of the responsibility from us. Spiritual responsibility we largely transfer to Religious organisations. By organising ourselves into a Democratic Society in fact we voluntarily give up much of our beloved freedom to the state who enacts laws, bylaws, taxes, rules and regulations which we ignore at our peril. Look at that definition again and we do give up a lot of most of those definitions of freedom.
Other societies have given up a degree of their freedom but in a different manner to Democratic Societies. The Middle East gives up most control to their Religion; which is why their leaders are largely governed in decision-making by religious constraints. In reality all forms of Government are aware of most people’s willingness to let others make decisions for them. All forms of leadership Democratic or other put in place rules and regulations for people to live by plus tax and penal systems.
Many might argue that because in a Democracy we can vote the incumbents out every few years we are “freer” than a Middle East Country run by a single party system or ruling family. but are we?Remember in Democracies we vote, in other forms of leadership the people as a mass tend to overthrow their leaders or "convince" them to depart when they abuse the elements of freedom given up to them.
One definition of freedom is the ownership of one’s body, so anyone who is not a slave or imprisoned could be stated to be free. Even unreasonable restrictions cannot deny us freedom for as Satre said – he was most aware of his freedom during Nazi occupation of France because of all the restrictions. These made him more aware he had the choice to break them even if he would pay a price for doing so. In the West you can now be imprisoned without trial so are we truly free?
Consider if we have that freedom and are willing to give it up to some form of Government or other leadership, it must be our decision as to how we do so. Simply because the West feels “free” living in a Democracy does not mean a Arab or Farsi feels less “free” under the system he lives with.
I feel putting the two words Freedom and Democracy into a single sentence when referring to the Middle East is at best an oxymoron. State and Church are clearly separated in Democracies not so in the Middle East, where freedom to live by the tenants of the Koran is the most important freedom they consider they have. If we impose a Western style of Democracy on the Middle East I would argue many in that region would feel we were restricting their freedom, as it would totally affect their current way of life.
My agreement is total in the world working to do away with murderous dictators and tyrants in any society; however once we have assisted the people to do so we must step back and let them decide what social system they decide to give up part of their freedom to. To think we can impose Western Democracy on every race, religion and creed is sheer arrogance with a very strong underlying political and economic agenda. A quote to finish on:-
“What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose, the right to create for yourself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice, and the exercise of choice a man is not a man, but a member, an instrument, a thing” – Archibald MacLeish.
