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Dec. 27, 2004 The Middle Ages were the age of monarchs and emperors. With Kings making law by decree and having to keep their aristocracy under control. We then had the age of limited democracy. Parliments with little power and only a handful of people who could participate in the process. The 20th century was the age of totalitarianism. It gave us Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, well you get the idea. Are we now beginning the democratic age? We now seem to be in a moment in history where democracy is exported rather than horded. Personally I think this is a good thing. We have seen the collapse of the Taliban and a democratically president in their place. Saddam Hussein is gone and the nation is preparing for elections. But consider the Ukraine. Here we have another revolution for democracy, the orange revolution. The people saw they were cheated out of their choice for President, and they wouldn't stand for it. This was a non violent revolution, much like the one that brought about democracy in Georgia.(No, not the state, the country) If this isn't proof that people want to be free I don't know what is. There is the horrible argument that some people simply aren't capable of democratic rule. They made this case against Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, all are democracies today. A true democrat takes over in Kiev one that will take democracy even furhter. This brings me to another region: the middle east. It is wonderful to see nations once under the thumb of the USSR to be holding free and fair elections, but what does this mean to the arab world? Freedom lags behind. Of all the arab nations not one is a democracy. A few can be described as being partly free, Jordan, Bahrain, Morocco. Will this be a democratic age, or is this an aberration? An accident of history. What will democracy in the islamic world look like? Look to Senegal, Indonesia, Albania. Democracies with muslim majorities. None of them arab though. Will Iraqi democracy bring Sharia with it. While it is likely that Islam will play some role it is unlikely that it will turn into another Iran. Speaking of Iran(as well as other nations being repressed) there is a majority there wanting to be free of dictatorship. Regime change can happen without bloodsehed, the orange revolution showed us that. Let's hope the revolutions spreads, let's hope we see baathists in Damascus, and Mullahs in Tehran(not to mention rulers of other nations) running for cover. The world can use a lot more democracy and freedom. ------------ About the author: Craig Chamberlain has written more than 100 articles for Useless-Knowledge.com. Email: craig_chamberlain@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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