Posted on 02/03/2005 6:29:18 PM PST by wagglebee
I have just finished reading Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy" (co-authored by Ron Dermer). This is the best book of its kind I have read in 25 years, and not just because it is a book the President has not only read but that provides the theme for his second Inaugural and State of the Union addresses.
Sharansky's theme is simple, which is part of the beauty of this book. There are "fear societies" and "free societies." A free society is one in which a citizen can go into the public square and say what's on his mind without fear of being imprisoned or killed. A free society is one in which the interests of the leaders are tied to the interests of the people. For this reason free societies do not go to war with each other. America is infinitely less likely to be attacked by a free society that hates us (France) than by a fear society that is an ally (Saudi Arabia via terrorists). That is because the fortunes of leaders in free societies are tied to the interests of their people whereas the fortunes of the dictators in fear societies are not.
That is why there has been no peace in the Middle East: because the Palestinian Authority rules a fear society. The Palestinian Authority and its late maximum leader have stolen billions from the Palestinians; they have kept Palestinians in refugee slums for fifty years; they have murdered those Palestinians who have sought peace. The Palestinian Authority will never be a real peace partner until it reforms and puts an end to the fear society in which Palestinians now live.
In fear societies most people are "doublethinkers." They think one thing and say another in order to avoid being imprisoned or killed. In Saddam Hussein's last year a vote was held and he received 100 percent of the ballots cast. Voting for Saddam meant avoiding the plastic shredders.
This year, thanks to the sacrifice some Americans have made to free Iraq from the clutches of Saddam, 60 percent of the Iraqis braved death to vote for democracy and against the terrorists. That is the difference between a fear society and a free society.
Sharansky's revolutionary idea – democracy first, then peace will follow – is now the policy of the United States. Read this book.
Skeptics will say that the states of the Arab Muslim world cannot become free societies. Sharansky's powerful answer to this (and you really have to read the book to appreciate it) is captured in a personal anecdote. He spent nine years in a Soviet prison. Twenty years later he visited it as an Israeli Cabinet minister. People asked him, "Are you some sort of masochist?" His answer was this:
"To the contrary," I said, "it is inspiring to be here. Twenty years ago, in this very prison, the head interrogators of the KGB, the most powerful oranization of the most powerful empire in the world, told me again and again that the movement for Soviet Jewry was dead, that the dissident movement was finished. Jewish activists and dissidents inside the country, they said, had been arrested. 'Your supporters outside the country are scared and they will distance themselves from you because of the charges of espionage. You have nothing to hope for. You have nobody to rely on.'
"Twenty years later, the KGB has disappeared, the Sovet Union has disintegrated, global communism has collapsed, over one million Jews have left the big prison called the USSR, and hundreds of millions of people are free." One would think that no more proof was needed of the power of freedom to change the world.
This is perfect in its simplicity.
I just picked up a copy of this book, and will start it tomorrow. Sounds like a great one.
David Horowitz Ping!
I have always been a big fan of Elie Weisel (even though I've disagreed with a lot of his political views). He is a man of great conviction and unwavering ideals. He also surprised many on the left the way he fully supported Bush on Iraq.
I heard the President has read it as well.
I finished my copy, this morning. You will enjoy the heck out of it, K. Prescient reading...
Sharansky bump!
Yes, a good model for us all.
I don't have to agree with his politics. He's a Boston University guy and he has reflected well on the school.
I followed Natan Sharansky's earlier career, but I hadn't heard that this book was out. Israel has greatly benefited from the infusion of these brave Soviet dissidents, although one would have hoped their example and presence would have done more to disillusion Israeli leftists concerning the nature of Communism oppression.
bttt
"Sharansky's theme is simple, which is part of the beauty of this book. There are "fear societies" and "free societies."
Straight out of the Federalist Papers. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tracts, and hearing all manner of reason?Madison found inspiration in that. By political descent, so, too, does President Bush.
bttt
Does this make GW Bush the true progressive?
That must burn the biscuts of the left.
I think he is a powerful progressive. But he is a conservative progressive moving away from the welfare state instituted by the Dems.
No doubt. The ultimate "stolen issue." The (American/European) Left only supports "freedom movements" if they're communist in character. .....like the Sandinistas.
bump!
Good book to read........PING
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