A dictator-in-waiting thanks his applauding farm animals.
Why do people willingly, downright eagerly, toss away their freedoms like nasty bits of garbage, cheering as we hand over our historically rare semi-democratic powers to megalomaniacal nut-jobs?
Actually, don’t worry about trying to answer that question, and neither will I. It’s too big and too sad of a question to address in my admittedly not-too-serious blog. I don’t thing there is any real answer anyway, although George Orwell does a pretty neat job at exploring the mechanics of such rapid digressions in freedom in his “Animal Farm.”
The reason this question of freedom-tossing comes to mind for me today is that — and I honestly can’t believe it, even thought I should — the a massive percentage of Venezuelan voters have whole-heatedly pushed through President Hugo Chávez‘s agenda to do away with term limits. This paves the way for him to easily extend his wackier-by-the-day presidency by years if not decades if not until his last, clinging-to-life days like good ole Fidel Castro. This, of course, seriously increases the chances of Chávez becoming yet another one of history’s unfortunate, how-did-we-let-this-happen dictators overseeing a totalitarian state in which the ability to even vote at all could quickly become a dream.
I read about this sad development in a BBC News item, just two days after seeing “Valkrie,” Tom Cruise’s new (and totally lame, by the way) movie about the much-publicized, over-reaching, impossible-to-strop tyranny of Mr. Adolf Hitler.
But we don’t have to get all Nazi-oriented to look at the horrors or people giving up their freedoms. I think the most pressing and depressing example in recent history is the bullshit that went down with the Patriot Act in the United States. Talk about fearful people throwing away their own rights like a dirty napkin. Shame of you (am me) America!
Don’t get me wrong. I am not necessarily a whole lot less scared than the average people of Venezuela or the United States. But I did see the Patriot Act as Pure Horror in the moment, before it was passed, realizing it was a roue, but um, not knowing what to do about it. (I guess that just makes me slightly less scared but much more impotent.)
Scared or not, impotent or not, I do believe I am willing to sacrifice comfort in the moment for freedom with a longer shelf-life. Here’s what I mean:
Let’s imagine that if in six or so years we find that Barack Obama has been the most amazing and just president in United States history–for Democrats, Republicans and WackJobs alike.. Now lets say we have to vote to remove term limits so he can run again. You know. Just once more. And let’s say that if he doesn’t run again it is virtually guaranteed that Sarah Palin would become the next president, and she had become even more disturbing since her vice presidential bid. What would I do? I would vote unflinchingly to bump Obama out of office, even if I were sad to see him go.
Why? Because in keeping with the best and most unique of American political principles, I know that power should not be kept in the hands of the few, even if those hands are the best hands out there.
I imagine that few in the United States will be aware of what has taken place in Venezuela, and those that are are probably more upset than I am, being either disenfranchised Venezuelans or reactionary US politicians. But it is a sad day indeed, I believe, and I hope that Obama’s vision includes becoming much, much closer to Venezuela and Chávez, and not try to further distance the nutcase, as Bush was so apt to do. I say this because the United States’ bad international behavior has done much to give Chávez the power that he should not have.