So what is the difference between tyranny and freedom? In a working democracy (freedom) nobody gets everything that he wants (especially for those at the very top the certainty of winning the next election if there are elections), everybody gets something, and anyone capable is expected of making a contribution. Human life is valuable to the extent that even if there is war, the citizens of a democracy are not cannon fodder to be sacrificed cheaply as the norm for tyrannical regimes like the demonic Third Reich, fascist Italy, thug Japan, the Soviet Union, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Satan Hussein's Iraq. Democracies ultimately win wars by winning the peace, which means that they ensure people whose regime must be defeated that a military loss has no personal consequence. The three most warlike Axis powers (well, at least the western part of Germany until 1989) haven't made any trouble -- not that I would want to mess with either of them. The worst battlefronts have been those between totalitarian regimes -- Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union and Iran against Iraq; whoever wins, the People of both sides lose, and oh, do they lose in lives and welfare. It is telling that what scared the CIA most was a war between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic. They starve so that their regime can feed the cannon fodder just enough to sacrifice the cannon fodder.
Democracy works. It works well enough that what may be the most totalitarian of all states, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] (the official designation of that horrid regime is four lies in five words: the DPRK is no democracy; it in no way serves the people of northern Korea; it is for all practical purposes a hereditary and absolute monarchy; the people of the South have no cause to want incorporation into it, has horrors comparable to Nazi Germany even to the point of the Nazi doctrine of Sippenhaft -- that if the enemy of the state gets away or dies before the State gets a chance to punish the fellow adequately, family members get punished. It looks as if the word "of" isn't a blatant lie, as it is a mere preposition that would not even appear in some languages that have a genitive case such as Latin, Greek, Finnish, or German.
Human life is also something to foster through high-quality education (democracy requires a solid basis in education; if a people is to be ignorant it cannot remain free. It is not enough to have education teach only bare literacy and some minimal technical skills. To be most effective people need to be wise enough to read between the lines, something that tyrannical regimes find too hazardous. People well educated can be more effective at complex tasks and enrich life through creativity from which our souls prosper. I doubt that you have ever read Nineteen Eighty-Four, an easy book to find and not particularly difficult reading. The "socialist" state is a dog-eat-dog plutocracy; people cannot think or create, so life is gloomy; prosperity is a farce. Wars are frequent and bloody. Worst of all, everything that the government says is a lie, the sort of lie in which words are completely stripped of all meaning so that people are unable to express any feeling. Critics have faulted Orwell for having no sizzle in the Romance between Winston and Julia, but that is deliberate: unable to express love in words, Winston and Julia can't express love, so they can at most feel an animalistic attraction. Complex language is a key factor in making us fully human; take that away and we might as well be frogs or snakes.
Human nature at its best complicated enough to make it interesting even to smart people. We have dogs, cats, and some smart birds (cockatoos, parakeets, and the like) as pets, and those critters are themselves complex; tropical fish are really decorations. Really-smart people read complicated fiction as by Goethe, Dostoevsky, Hugo, and Faulkner and get excited by excellent poetry. You can tell that Eric is brilliant due to his love for the music of J S Bach. Bach is not for dullards. People who know their art, music and literature are rich in ways that dimwits who cannot see the word luxury as a commercial hustle are poor even if they get some expensive stuff. Even great cinema melds art, literature, and often music, examples of such manifesting itself in The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, Cabaret, and Chicago. When overpopulation and conspicuous consumption become incompatible due to global warming (something that smart people understand well because they understand the raw science), the more intellectual life will be the only satisfying life.
Democracies demand that people pay taxes, but those are overt and predictable. Tyrannies have other ways to exact contributions such as unpaid, non-voluntary overtime, requisitions of food from farmers (often sold overseas for weapons), and dubious charities that end up enriching the elites. In 1935 the lowest real wages to be found in Europe were in the Soviet Union (no surprise) and Nazi Germany. Workers had no right to strike and no right even to seek employment elsewhere without consent of one's employers. Nazi Germany was so reactionary that it introduced industrial serfdom.
OK, so democracy has its faults. Nobody gets everything that he wants except by pure chance. Everybody has a chance at a good life, and people with severe disabilities get sustenance. Children and the elderly get protection from the worst that capitalism can exact. People have genuine consumer choice. People who have the capacity to gain something from education can get it. Overt taxes are all that one pays to a government which for the vast majority gives a net positive between contributions and benefits. The political system ensures that everyone gets something desirable. People get to live in accordance with the dictates of conscience -- and I would rather obey my conscience than a Josef Stalin or even a wannabe dictator such as Donald Trump. Tyranny? Complain and you might be tortured or killed. Who needs a conscience if one must obey someone devoid of any moral constraints?
I am a fundamentalist on humanist democracy. Humanism is the only workable ideology, and democracy is the only way to ensure that the common man gets a decent shake. I have far more in common with an Indian Muslim who supports the Congress Party of India (Indian Muslims connect to the party of Gandhi) than I have with an American fascist even if I look much like the American Ku Kluxer or neo-Nazi. Humanism can accommodate any religious tradition. Democracy can work in any culture. Tyranny is a raw deal anywhere; the state will eventually menace your life under tyranny.
I prefer law and order (without which civil life and civil liberties are farce), the rule of law (which makes life workable) and elections that my side can lose. Eternal death be upon the murderous tyrants of the past from Nero to Idi Amin. Death to fascism in all forms (including Ku Kluxism), Marxism-Leninism, Apartheid, Ba'athism, Iranian Hezbollah, and ISIS/DAESH!
Democracy works. It works well enough that what may be the most totalitarian of all states, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [DPRK] (the official designation of that horrid regime is four lies in five words: the DPRK is no democracy; it in no way serves the people of northern Korea; it is for all practical purposes a hereditary and absolute monarchy; the people of the South have no cause to want incorporation into it, has horrors comparable to Nazi Germany even to the point of the Nazi doctrine of Sippenhaft -- that if the enemy of the state gets away or dies before the State gets a chance to punish the fellow adequately, family members get punished. It looks as if the word "of" isn't a blatant lie, as it is a mere preposition that would not even appear in some languages that have a genitive case such as Latin, Greek, Finnish, or German.
Human life is also something to foster through high-quality education (democracy requires a solid basis in education; if a people is to be ignorant it cannot remain free. It is not enough to have education teach only bare literacy and some minimal technical skills. To be most effective people need to be wise enough to read between the lines, something that tyrannical regimes find too hazardous. People well educated can be more effective at complex tasks and enrich life through creativity from which our souls prosper. I doubt that you have ever read Nineteen Eighty-Four, an easy book to find and not particularly difficult reading. The "socialist" state is a dog-eat-dog plutocracy; people cannot think or create, so life is gloomy; prosperity is a farce. Wars are frequent and bloody. Worst of all, everything that the government says is a lie, the sort of lie in which words are completely stripped of all meaning so that people are unable to express any feeling. Critics have faulted Orwell for having no sizzle in the Romance between Winston and Julia, but that is deliberate: unable to express love in words, Winston and Julia can't express love, so they can at most feel an animalistic attraction. Complex language is a key factor in making us fully human; take that away and we might as well be frogs or snakes.
Human nature at its best complicated enough to make it interesting even to smart people. We have dogs, cats, and some smart birds (cockatoos, parakeets, and the like) as pets, and those critters are themselves complex; tropical fish are really decorations. Really-smart people read complicated fiction as by Goethe, Dostoevsky, Hugo, and Faulkner and get excited by excellent poetry. You can tell that Eric is brilliant due to his love for the music of J S Bach. Bach is not for dullards. People who know their art, music and literature are rich in ways that dimwits who cannot see the word luxury as a commercial hustle are poor even if they get some expensive stuff. Even great cinema melds art, literature, and often music, examples of such manifesting itself in The Wizard of Oz, Singin' in the Rain, Cabaret, and Chicago. When overpopulation and conspicuous consumption become incompatible due to global warming (something that smart people understand well because they understand the raw science), the more intellectual life will be the only satisfying life.
Democracies demand that people pay taxes, but those are overt and predictable. Tyrannies have other ways to exact contributions such as unpaid, non-voluntary overtime, requisitions of food from farmers (often sold overseas for weapons), and dubious charities that end up enriching the elites. In 1935 the lowest real wages to be found in Europe were in the Soviet Union (no surprise) and Nazi Germany. Workers had no right to strike and no right even to seek employment elsewhere without consent of one's employers. Nazi Germany was so reactionary that it introduced industrial serfdom.
OK, so democracy has its faults. Nobody gets everything that he wants except by pure chance. Everybody has a chance at a good life, and people with severe disabilities get sustenance. Children and the elderly get protection from the worst that capitalism can exact. People have genuine consumer choice. People who have the capacity to gain something from education can get it. Overt taxes are all that one pays to a government which for the vast majority gives a net positive between contributions and benefits. The political system ensures that everyone gets something desirable. People get to live in accordance with the dictates of conscience -- and I would rather obey my conscience than a Josef Stalin or even a wannabe dictator such as Donald Trump. Tyranny? Complain and you might be tortured or killed. Who needs a conscience if one must obey someone devoid of any moral constraints?
I am a fundamentalist on humanist democracy. Humanism is the only workable ideology, and democracy is the only way to ensure that the common man gets a decent shake. I have far more in common with an Indian Muslim who supports the Congress Party of India (Indian Muslims connect to the party of Gandhi) than I have with an American fascist even if I look much like the American Ku Kluxer or neo-Nazi. Humanism can accommodate any religious tradition. Democracy can work in any culture. Tyranny is a raw deal anywhere; the state will eventually menace your life under tyranny.
I prefer law and order (without which civil life and civil liberties are farce), the rule of law (which makes life workable) and elections that my side can lose. Eternal death be upon the murderous tyrants of the past from Nero to Idi Amin. Death to fascism in all forms (including Ku Kluxism), Marxism-Leninism, Apartheid, Ba'athism, Iranian Hezbollah, and ISIS/DAESH!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.