The first years of any century are often the most dynamic. Certainly the last three centuries have proven that: The 19th century witnessed the birth of the United States of America, its industry, politics and stock market, all of which radically changed the world's socio-political order as the first and only society based on personal freedoms.
The 20th century experienced what may be the most under-reported transitions in world history: The collapse of centuries-old monarchies throughout the world and their replacement by republics, Bolshevism, Communism and other experimental systems of government. In just two decades, the political and geographic map of the globe was radically altered, setting the stage for multiple revolutions and two major global wars.
The 21st century is no different. At the time of this writing, we're two decades in, and the changes are shaking the planet. Only this time, the shifts are powered by massive amounts of political, financial and instant communications. Make no mistake, these are historic times, no doubt with historic outcomes.
After all this time, however, what have we really learned about people, power and politics? I can tell you what I've learned -- and you're not going to like it:
I submit to you that the vast majority of the world's population doesn't really want personal and political freedom. Sound harsh? Take a little trip with me down Historical Data Lane and see if you don't agree:
First, understand that enjoying personal and political liberty requires a higher than average amount of intelligence. Sure, this will ring the leftist alarms of sounding racist, but outside of western cultures, the world's intelligence levels aren't terribly impressive. As George Carlin used to admonish, "The average person is pretty stupid, and half of them are stupider than that." He wasn't far off. The average IQ in the western world is 100 -- and half of those are below that. And the rest of the species is even less impressive.
Sublimating our animal instincts in favor of ethics, law, morality and innovation is appealing only to those who understand the benefits and accountability that goes with personal liberty. Unfortunately, without the intelligence, there is no understanding. And without the understanding, there is no stability.
Still hurts your feelings? Okay, so let's write all that off as nonsense. Let's just go with history.
Aside from the United States of America, just about every political uprising "in the name of Democracy" has failed dramatically. Most people don't know that the republic of Haiti erupted into the world's first black democracy in the mid-nineteenth century and has been an impoverished failure ever since. That's almost two centuries of corruption, thievery and cut-throat poverty in a country where literacy is almost unknown. Before the revolution, Haiti was brutally dominated by western taskmasters. Not that life was easy, but it was for more sustainable than what came next.
Not convinced? Ask yourself what happened to the highly publicized "arab spring" of 2010/2011. Remember that? In a perfectly planned public relations stunt, the persecution of a little vendor exploded into a purportedly long-awaited revolution that eventually spread across the entire Middle East. The theory was that the arab world was ready to embrace personal freedoms and democracy.
Except it wasn't and it didn't. Just as soon as the smoke cleared, all the old school strong man rulers resumed their thrones, with their boots firmly planted on the throats of their people, just like in the good old days.
Still not sure? The same thing happened when the Soviet Union "collapsed." The "evil empire" became mired in economic confusion, but at the end of the day, a new Russian federation emerged headed up by yet another strongman who engineered a dynasty of his own and runs the place to this day.
Sensing a pattern here? Let me spell it out for you: Not only is most of the world incapable of democracy, they don't even want democracy. What they want is a strong father figure who will tell them what to do, and where and when to do it. They don't want accountability. They like being free of decision-making. Having someone else do the heavy lifting takes a lot of pressure off them so they can focus on other, more basic life choices, whatever those may be. They want to hand off their fates to political and religious powers so that they don't have to think, period. In exchange for those favors, most of the globe's humans are willing to put up with poverty, corruption and misery.
The big question, then, is why are western cultures trying to force democracy on cultures that expressly reject it? The big answer is simple: Because western cultures are often to engrained in their own arrogance. Even the furthest left social worker really believes he's "raising the standard of living" amongst people who have proven time and again that they aren't interested.
If one truly believes in self-determination, perhaps a better solution to world peace is simply backing off from other cultures and letting them do what they do, no matter how egregious or distasteful they may seem. The epitome of western freedom and democracy itself is "your rights end where my nose begins." Their noses begin at their borders and maybe that's as far as we need to go.
As Devo once sang, "Freedom of choice is what you have/Freedom from choice is what you want." No wonder it became a hit.