Nazis, MySpace and Freedom

Iraqi Al-Qeada leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi was killed earlier this morning, for those of you who hit this blog before heading to the real news. The actual bombing of his/compound was done by American planes, but it's interesting to note that the official announcement came from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and claimed intelligence confirming his whereabouts was provided to the Iraqi security forces by Iraqi people. While I don't want to celebrate Zarqawi's death the same way he'd have celebrated mine, I think this is a positive sign that Iraq has made significant strides forward in defending it's own borders. It also shows that the people of Iraq are frustrated and sick of irrational militants like Zarqawi who are just as keen on blowing up civilians as they are their political and religious enemies. I pointed out a few months ago that this strategy would never work, and that the people of Iraq would turn on Zarqawi in the end, and now they have.

Moving away from current events, disconnected thoughts on Nazi Germany, fundamentalist Islam in the middle east, and China have been congealing around the topic of freedom. Freedom's become a buzzword in post-9/11 America used to mobilize people for any number of political schemes, and thus runs the risk of being trivialized. I want to briefly discuss the importance of freedom, and then mention a few things we can think about to preserve it.

While I don't buy everything he's spouted, President Bush is certainly right about one thing: the fundamental difference between the American ideal of government and that of a large number of other cultures and societies can be summarized in the value we correctly place on personal freedom. The single strange parallel I can draw between failed cultures of the past and failing societies in the present is that they try to promote progress while simultaneously restricting personal freedom. Nazi Germany, the USSR and China promote or have promoted different forms of eugenics supposedly for the advancement of society, and in radical Islamic states the restrictions are religious and social more than biological. The idea is that the state is a better judge of behavior than the individual, and so the individual should be forced to comply with state sponsored programs for progress.

As technology and communication advance, however, the power of the individual to change their culture increases dramatically. The state's control ultimately fails if the masses will it - the desire for personal freedom outweighs the desire for progress. The idea that we're made to be free is rooted so deeply in the human psyche, fundamentally included in our undeniable free will, that it causes itself to be expressed over and above all other desires once restricted. If nothing else, the rise of "crowd sourcing", peer-to-peer networks, and the power of large social networking sites on the internet (MySpace, Facebook, even blogs) should prove that mobs of people inevitably form around technology, and that their whims can guide the course of culture significantly.

Germany never got the chance to learn this lesson, as their sadistic leader was defeated and destroyed before his ignorant utopia could have its heyday. The Soviet Union is a clear example of the poverty stricken destitution that arises when a lack of freedom stifles innovation. Afghanistan and Iraq have learned these lessons quickly, entering the western world dancing on the graves of their former dictators. China has made huge strides towards freedom, and if this trend continues, their regime might be able to disappear quietly and productively instead of suffering the inevitable implosion that will occur if it does not.

In America, our unique problem is not that our freedom is destroyed by government, but that we've run the risk of freely giving up our freedom. The image of happiness and consumer-driven culture leads to complacency and we become and ignorant nation of sheep. A recent Wired article says,

"This is a nation of sheep. Slick magazines, TV and, increasingly, the internet tell us what to buy, what to wear, how to think. (Cosmopolitan even tells you how to have an orgasm.) Mass culture has extracted our collective rebel bone. If only the British had marketed themselves better in 1776, we'd still be swearing fealty to the Crown."

It goes on to offer several small steps we as individuals can do to preserve freedom, including continuing to read, expanding our attention spans, and voting. I'd also acts of service, because restrictions on freedom often begin when governments are asked to legislate solutions to problems that wouldn't exist if individuals considered it their civic duty love their neighbors.

In conclusion, I'd post more pictures if it didn't take half an hour to get these two up. Sorry this is so long.