Democracy and human rights are cornerstones of our moral vision in the modern era.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled to. Rights of freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are considered to be essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests. A leader is to be deemed legitimate only if he is able to willingly rally the support of the people around him, collectively .The people must choose & initiate their leaders from among themselves. The citizenry as a whole is to be represented in the choice of its leaders. The choice belongs to the people. Leaders are there to serve the people - not the other way around.
The human psyche is home to two contrasting impulses: a striving for freedom, and a propensity for submission to authority. Our generation has been granted opportunities that have never been granted before. There has come about a tremendous awakening for yearning for the most basic of human freedoms -freedoms of equality & rights. Equality & rights of freedom & liberty from oppression & dictatorship. That these dictators adopt constitutions which recognize the intrinsic right of every citizen to participate in the process of government as opposed to a dictator who imposes his dominion on an unwilling nation. Democracy is preferable to imposing the will of a single individual on everyone.The idea of a leader is an individual who has cleansed himself of every last vestige of ego and self-interest & are elected by their fellow countrymen to work for the long term good of their constituents. They are there to inspire his people by being selfless, guiding them in the fulfillment in their mission and purpose in life of doing good. Doing good means feeding the hungry, enlightening the ignorant, bringing peace to warring factions. Our vision of perfection is the obliteration of all evil and suffering from the face of the earth & tolerance of racial & religious freedoms. A world that is free of war and hunger is the ultimate.
Throughout the ancient world, the truth was self-evident: all men are not created equal. You were what you were born: a king, a noble, or a serf. An orderly society was one in which people knew their place.
The 20th century saw the expansion of democratic ideals on a global scale. The younger generation have grown distrustful & resentful of their higher authorities that be and in increasing numbers are rejecting the values and way of life into which they had been raised, taking a first important step in rejecting the false, humanly-contrived ideologies which they had been taught & which has been instilled within their minds. After decades this gap, in essence, is changing how values are being instilled one generation after another. Leading to a wave of social unrest. The cause of civil disturbance is the action of public civilian disruption & solidarity to resist & challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime against repression of their people & expressing displeasure of major socio-political infrastructure problems as they desperately grapple & demand for a push toward dramatic change & reform.
We understand how critical computer literacy is to leveling the playing field of knowledge and power and are thankful that we live in a culture that seeks to encourage it. And we understand why the world's darkest dictatorships do little to encourage such literacy: To educate the masses in computer literacy is to empower them.
When a person takes the potential they have been given, and misappropriates it by not applying it bridging the gap between all past generations, they are stealing our future hope.
All too often, personal freedom translates into selfishness, anarchy and violence; into the exploitation of the few and the weak by the many and the strong. What is most miraculous about what is happening in the world today is that it is all being carried out mostly peacefully - something which has never happened before in the history of man. In previous generations, whenever there was a revolution, it was achieved only through destruction and bloodshed. In contrast, the changes we are seeing today, while more extreme than anything we have known in recent memory, have been achieved in a mostly peaceful manner. Felled not by guns and bombs but by peaceful demonstrations in city squares in which the voice of the people simply declared their demand for freedom & democracy.
Governments that are democratically elected, but are driven by cruel and immoral policies, are sources of destruction. When the notion of democracy is twisted to the point of becoming something else altogether, like autocracy, can we really say that democracy has triumphed?They might have " legal legitimacy", But what happens when your own government unleashes a barrage of rockets & gunfire against its innocent civilians and use repressive force & fear againt their own people? They cannot be recognized by the international community until they develop moral legitimacy. Only a social structure of honesty, trust, fairness & balance governed wisely & well will help democracy survive.
If you don't come to democracy...democracy will come to you!
While it takes outside intervention to secure individual rights for the citizens of these countries, there are factions within these countries which are determined to undermine these newfound freedoms, the vast majority of the populations of these countries have eagerly embraced the demise of their respective lands' hitherto tyrannically oppressive regimes.
But what about man's potential for true freedom? While monarchical rule certainly made submission to authority a tangible reality in the lives of its subjects, it also suppressed their quest for freedom. The quest for freedom in its truest sense is Spiritual Empowerment. Freedom to seek a higher purpose to life. An environment of freedom nourishes, rather than destroys spiritual growth and deeper connection with God.
We must progress toward a world which by and large accepts the basic concepts of liberty, equal human rights and freedom of religion; a world which is choosing to live by moral and Godly ideals.
There is a famous statement by Maimonides' that "there are only two free beings: God and man. God is unique and distinct "in the Heavens" because only He is free. Man is unique and distinct among all corporeal creations, because he alone possesses free choice." God didn't endow human beings with free choice in order to manipulate them as He wishes—for that He has hordes of angels! He gave us free choice because He wanted us to choose to recognize Him.
There is another quote by Maimonides which he quotes, "In those times, there will be no hunger or war, no jealousy or rivalry. For the good will be plentiful and all delicacies common as dust. The world's sole occupation will be to know God.."
In creating man and "breathing into his nostrils" a soul that is "literally a part" of Himself, God created the single creature with a potential for freedom--a potential that is in essence Divine. It is this potential that drives the human being to constantly challenge and surmount the limits imposed on him, including even the limits of its own nature.
We are not here to fight the world, but to MOLD it, DEVELOP it and SUBLIMATE it. Each era and society has its "customs," its unique zeitgeist and cultural milieu that is to be exploited to serve your Creator and your mission in life embracing vision to guide our lives and define our relationship with the world we inhabit - Go Forward & move toward it!
The Messianic Redemption, dubbed the "true and complete" redemption, will arrive when the world is ready to "elect" God of its own volition.
