Democracy in Retreat?
When the Berlin Wall fell, when the Soviet Union came apart, it was hailed as the triumph of liberal democracy. At long last the Cold War had ended, and the chains were coming off.
Yet less than two decades later, it seems that democracy is on the retreat. More and more we're seeing real freedom being curtailed, whether it be freedom of speech, freedom of movement, or the freedom to earn a living without getting a permission slip from an employer.
There seem to be several factors involved. The most immediately obvious is the problem that power tends to attract the very sorts of people who shouldn't have it. The sorts of people who see high office not as a way of serving their constituents, but of helping themselves. Whether it's enriching themselves with sweet government contracts or gaining access to other, more subtle perks of power, they're quite happy to take whatever they can get their mitts on. And as long as they can talk the right charming line, the voters will happily elect them -- especially if these officials will make sure some of the gravy comes their way, in the form of pork-barrel politics.
Another one is fear-driven policy. When the Soviet Union fell and its successor states worked to reduce the level of nuclear tension, a huge burden of fear lifted. We no longer needed to fear that some sort of miscommunication between the superpowers could result in all of us being incinerated in nuclear fire. But it didn't mean that everything would henceforth be rainbows and unicorns. There was still plenty of trouble out there, from bandits to theocrats. The September 11, 2001 attacks were a sharp and very frightening reminder that the democratic West still had enemies, and in a world where more and more people have access to large amounts of energy, some of them would choose to use it to harm others, whether in the name of ideology or religion.
In response to that sense of overwhelming fear, Americans demanded that the government Do Something -- and they did. New security procedures were put in place to ensure that bad actors would no longer be able to gain access to airplanes -- except their implementation ran afoul of that first problem: power is attractive to the very people who shouldn't have any. The new agencies to protect America against terrorism soon became riddled with the sorts of people who enjoy lording it over others. Horror stories abounded of TSA personnel behaving more like thugs than public servants, of legitimate airline passengers being treated like a cross between a suspected terrorist and a cow. And in the process, real freedom shrank.
And ever since then, the resulting conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere have led to endless cycles of fear-based erosion of freedom. People in the free world fear theocrats, and take away everyone's freedom to make sure bad actors can't abuse it. Theocrats and other tyrants fear being overthrown and enact harsh measures on their own people, resulting in mass migrations of refugees, which in turn frighten the inhabitants of the people in the lands where they seek refuge. Bad actors use the refugees as cover to enter countries and do damage, which leads to fear for everyone, both refugees and locals, who no longer know who they can trust.
The third and perhaps the saddest reason for the shrinkage of real freedom is the people who want to make the world a better, kinder place, but think they can accomplish it by criminalizing thoughtlessness and bad manners. Frustrated when people game the criminal justice system by playing on people's prejudices, they end up removing due-process procedures that protect the innocent from wrongful accusations, whether malicious or simply a case of mistaken identity. Good people end up living in fear that a slip of the lip, a careless word or infelicitous turn of phrase, could destroy their careers or ruin their lives. And worse, there is a growing backlash that could actually end up being even more destructive to the rights of minorities and vulnerable individuals than the traditional system's lapses and shortcomings.
So it seems that democracy, once gained, is not necessarily easy to keep. Or as the saying goes, the tree of liberty must be periodically watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Yet less than two decades later, it seems that democracy is on the retreat. More and more we're seeing real freedom being curtailed, whether it be freedom of speech, freedom of movement, or the freedom to earn a living without getting a permission slip from an employer.
There seem to be several factors involved. The most immediately obvious is the problem that power tends to attract the very sorts of people who shouldn't have it. The sorts of people who see high office not as a way of serving their constituents, but of helping themselves. Whether it's enriching themselves with sweet government contracts or gaining access to other, more subtle perks of power, they're quite happy to take whatever they can get their mitts on. And as long as they can talk the right charming line, the voters will happily elect them -- especially if these officials will make sure some of the gravy comes their way, in the form of pork-barrel politics.
Another one is fear-driven policy. When the Soviet Union fell and its successor states worked to reduce the level of nuclear tension, a huge burden of fear lifted. We no longer needed to fear that some sort of miscommunication between the superpowers could result in all of us being incinerated in nuclear fire. But it didn't mean that everything would henceforth be rainbows and unicorns. There was still plenty of trouble out there, from bandits to theocrats. The September 11, 2001 attacks were a sharp and very frightening reminder that the democratic West still had enemies, and in a world where more and more people have access to large amounts of energy, some of them would choose to use it to harm others, whether in the name of ideology or religion.
In response to that sense of overwhelming fear, Americans demanded that the government Do Something -- and they did. New security procedures were put in place to ensure that bad actors would no longer be able to gain access to airplanes -- except their implementation ran afoul of that first problem: power is attractive to the very people who shouldn't have any. The new agencies to protect America against terrorism soon became riddled with the sorts of people who enjoy lording it over others. Horror stories abounded of TSA personnel behaving more like thugs than public servants, of legitimate airline passengers being treated like a cross between a suspected terrorist and a cow. And in the process, real freedom shrank.
And ever since then, the resulting conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere have led to endless cycles of fear-based erosion of freedom. People in the free world fear theocrats, and take away everyone's freedom to make sure bad actors can't abuse it. Theocrats and other tyrants fear being overthrown and enact harsh measures on their own people, resulting in mass migrations of refugees, which in turn frighten the inhabitants of the people in the lands where they seek refuge. Bad actors use the refugees as cover to enter countries and do damage, which leads to fear for everyone, both refugees and locals, who no longer know who they can trust.
The third and perhaps the saddest reason for the shrinkage of real freedom is the people who want to make the world a better, kinder place, but think they can accomplish it by criminalizing thoughtlessness and bad manners. Frustrated when people game the criminal justice system by playing on people's prejudices, they end up removing due-process procedures that protect the innocent from wrongful accusations, whether malicious or simply a case of mistaken identity. Good people end up living in fear that a slip of the lip, a careless word or infelicitous turn of phrase, could destroy their careers or ruin their lives. And worse, there is a growing backlash that could actually end up being even more destructive to the rights of minorities and vulnerable individuals than the traditional system's lapses and shortcomings.
So it seems that democracy, once gained, is not necessarily easy to keep. Or as the saying goes, the tree of liberty must be periodically watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants.