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Good
morning <$firstname$>,
I
stumbled across Mark
Shuttleworth's Blog on Sunday and his latest entry
there impressed me SO much that I'd like to call your attention
to it today.
I
have often said that everyone gets the government he deserves,
and Mark Shuttleworth confirms this when he speaks from
my heart about making, and constantly remaking, cultural
and political choices.
In
Defense of Independent Governance comments on the
value of three key principles across continents and decades
:
- That
human nature is unchanging across the world and across
time
- That
the presumption of innocence until the proof of guilt
is a vital choice in the maintenance of a free society
- That
freedom of speech is essential for a healthy society
Close
to the end he concludes : "These principles are
not written in the laws of physics - we create them in society,
and we must defend them. They cannot be taken for granted,
even in countries like the USA, which have them written
into their constitutional DNA.
Since
they are a choice that society makes, and since society
is reborn in each generation, they are a choice that society
must make, and remake, constantly. Sometimes, we fail."
If
you can, I'd like to urge you to read
the whole article - it'll only take you five minutes,
but here is an-other excerpt (my emphasis underlined and
bold) :
"It
is a tragic thing to impose ones own cultural, religious
or political views on people who see things differently.
That tragedy has played out far too many times - from Apartheid,
to the Holocaust, to the invasion of Iraq in recent
history, to the acts of the Conquistadors centuries ago.
It
shows up when a new government renames the streets and cities
of the old government, which renamed them from the previous
government. We lose our own identity when we lose the
voice of history, even if it is a history of which we are
ashamed.
It
also shows up in the homogenization of global culture, with
McDonalds and Disney turning the rich culture of the
world into large swathes of barren desert. I am very
sensitive to the beauty of the cultures that I’ve been
privileged to experience in depth - South Africa,
Russia, England, America. And I find it sad
when one culture arrogantly suppresses another. I
believe in letting people make their own choices. The future
belongs to those who embrace global thinking without losing
their identity and their culture.
At
its largest, grandest level, “making choices”
is what democracy is all about. However, sometimes the illusion
of democracy is used to give legitimacy to choices that
were not, at all, democratic.
In
Zimbabwe, for example, we have a government that
is in power “democratically” because of the systematic
culture of fear that was created every time people expressed
an interest in making a different choice. I cannot therefore
pay much respect to the idea that the government of Zimbabwe
is a true reflection of the cultural choices of Zimbabweans.
In
such cases, we are obliged to question the decisions
made by governments who claim to hold power by democratic
mandate, when in fact they hold it by brute force."
Until
next time, all the best from :
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23
May 2007
"In
the long-run,
every Government is
the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom;
we have to say, Like People like Government."
Thomas
Carlyle
1795 - 1881
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