The World Yearns for Freedom.......Not So Much

There is a pattern that I am noticing the more that we travel. I had seen it before but since we have been traveling for so long it has repeatedly come to my notice. I grew up as a military BRAT and reading a lot of WWII history which gave me an image as a kid of America as the beacon of freedom – of “truth, justice, and the American way”. I pictured oppressed people all over the world looking toward the United States to help raise the yokes of oppression. Once I got older, as many of us do, I became more cynical. I am always up for a good conspiracy theory and know that there are forces at work at many levels of government, business, and society in general that are not out to promote the general welfare. I have come to accept that there are two sides to the US persona. The realism and the idealism. The conflict between these two is probably what leads to a lot of the gridlock the American government finds itself in.

I still like to believe in the ideal. That America is the land of the free and that democracy is the best form of government. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people...” in the words of Abraham Lincoln and that the rest of the worlds “oppressed” people want that for themselves. I am being proved wrong.

When Kathleen and I got engaged in Tunisia it was a year after the Arab Spring Jasmine Revolution. The first of the Arab nations to overthrow their dictatorship. This was the first time I was disillusioned when we were riding in a taxi and the driver informed us that it was better before because “the trash used to be picked up”. He was very embarrassed about the garbage lining the side of the road.

In Thailand there were actual protests going on against democracy. The protesters wanted the elected government thrown out. I don't exactly include this example in my disillusionment because ultimately these protests were just a struggle for political power but I found it hard to imagine that thousands of people were on the street protesting against democracy.

Especially in the last couple of months I am realizing that people do not want freedom. They want security. They want their kids to be able to play in the street. They want to be able to go to the market to find food and not be robbed in the process. They want to be able to raise a family in peace and are quite willing to not have some freedoms in order to get that.

 

When we were in Turkey we met an Iraqi. He was a Shiite so should have no love for Saddam Hussein but he was lamenting back to the days before the American invasion. He said that it was hard during those years but he did not have to worry about bombs exploding every time he left his house like he does now which is why he has left his country and is trying to move to Canada.

In South Africa we have heard from 3 different people that run the racial spectrum. A white, a “colored”, and a black. Every single one of them says that since democracy has come to their nation that the country has gone downhill and that it is not safe. The violent crime rate makes Johannesburg one of the top 10 most deadly cities in the world. Each one of them also said that they just see things getting worse and had little hope for their nation. Each one of them also told us that at some level they miss the days of apartheid. This was from a colored and black man that grew up during that time and were discriminated against. They told us how they could not go to the beaches and had separate entrances to places and train cars on the metro. Despite that oppression they said that part of them (not all of them) missed those days because it was safer. I was dumbfounded to hear that from a non-white person.

The ultimate realization I guess I am coming up with is that a country can be a democracy but not be free. Real freedom needs peace. It needs government services to work. With the amount of gun violence and government dysfunction maybe the United States isn't as free as we like to think.  This is the sort of thing that is one of the main reasons we are traveling. To see how other cultures work and think and to challenge the paradigms that I have formed over the years about how the world works.