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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: h0db who wrote (121102)	12/7/2003 3:38:11 PM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 281500

I would submit (if true) much of the reason for those government turning "against" the U.S. is because of the monopolistic control of information from the dictatorial regime they've experienced. The communists in China, who fear the creation of democratic institutions need to give the people an excuse to stay pacified with the status quo. Fear and nationalism work well in this regard. The Chinese are no different than people everywhere, if given a choice, without the fear of jail or worse, they would choose some form of democracy. In 1989, students came close to toppling the communist government and establishing a form of representative democracy. They even built a Goddess of Democracy and demanded the government change. Were these Chinese Un-Chinese? Considering the risk they took, I would suggest their desire for democracy is very strong. Books won't stay banned forever. The internet won't stay censored forever. Ideas won't get locked up forever. The lessons from history are that censors always lose. We may go through years of turmoil when those nations hold free elections. However, we are only putting off the time in which that transition takes place. Dictators always look good until they lose power. 50 years from now these places will have some form of representative government. Of that I can be relatively sure. How we get from here to there is the big question. Part of becoming democratic means letting the people make bad decisions, living (or dying) with the consequences, and evolving toward moderation. Agreed, so let's get started.