Freedom is one of those all-purpose words we deem relevant to everything from democracy to custard. Harmless enough until it’s attached to quixotic events in an alien world. What is applicable to the west may not be universal. Jeffersonian democracy was palatable to an elite planter class inspired by enlightenment. Ideals were an effective bulwark against divine tyranny ruling at arm’s length, but for Cairo, Damascus. Tehran?
We are all appalled at a senseless loss of life. The tens of thousands lost in recent months deserved more than a surrender of breath and dream. The question remains, how to prescribe the best of possible solutions for areas lacking in any democratic experience. Force of arms only tempts us to become the devil we hate. Playing the western messiah only alienates.
Perhaps the answer lies in accommodation. We can accept the squeeze of a hand and forego marriage. Assist states in developing effective services. Pave roads, feed children, electrify homes. You can’t read Plato in the dark. Programs directed toward sustained economic progress can prove more effective than a thousand guns. The secret lies in using existing structures and ideologies. Governments don’t have to be to our liking. Religions can be antithetical. Use what we have and embrace the present. In that way the future will take care of itself.
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I remember a friend, Peace Corps volunteer, describing the pride he felt when his Nepalese village received their first food shipments stamped “Gift of the USA.” Children gathered, asked him to explain the lettering. No one possessed any reasonable English facility. Yet by evening every family was thankful for this place called “USA.”
Why not keep the stick behind our backs? Certainly we have national interests and the right of self-defense. However, there is little need to bark all day. Encourage language programs, cultural exchanges in our schools. Embrace difference. Students will graduate into a twenty-first century world. Their skills must go beyond the neighborhood. There is a word in Italian, “abbondanza,” an abundant richness. Life is the measure of a thousand doorways. Intellectual immersion provides the keys.
