Is Sharansky Right?

The answer appears to be "yes." Natan Sharansky, author of The Case for Democracy, draws a distinction between "free" societies and "fear" societies. He defines a "fear" society as a repressive regime like the Soviet Union where he was himself an imprisoned refusenik. Sharansky describes the three types of persons in such a society: true believers, refuseniks, and double-thinkers. The true believers are obviously the group that internalizes the regime's methods--like the loyal Communist party members in the Soviet Union. The refuseniks are the group that openly speaks out against the regime regardless of the consequences. The middle group is that group of double-thinkers. He describes this group as those that mouth the words of the regime, but do not truly believe it.

Sharansky argues--much more eloquently than this author ever could--that a "fear" society spends a large amount of its resources in keeping the true believers from becoming jaded double-thinkers and from already jaded double-thinkers from becoming outright refuseniks. He also predicts that no matter what happens or how repressive the regime's tactics may be, the number of true believers will always be much smaller than an observer thinks and the ranks of the double-thinkers will be much larger.

Sharansky's argument seems to accurately reflect the situation in Iraq. The true believers--the militants--are a very small minority. The Iraqi electorate, even if comprised of some double thinkers--clearly rejected the militant views. The refuseniks in this case--the one's actively embracing democracy--are a much larger group than anybody expected.

Judging by his inaugural speech, President Bush has clearly internalized many of Sharansky's principles. This is one of the reasons Base10 thinks that George W. Bush will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents in the history of our nation.
- posted by Base10 @ 6:19 PM