Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: My dear Chris, I am so proud of you that you posed the question and that your question was chosen by many questions, out of many questions. You know, living in fear is not very good. I lived in fear for a long time. But the way we have done it has caused millions if not billions of people to live in fear by not having the freedom in which we all so long within ourself to have. So do you understand when people become aggressive because they don’t have what they want? Or they don’t get what they need? Because everything depends on what you need to what you want. There’s a big difference, remember that, that what I need to what I want, big difference. Unless those two are fulfilled you don’t have the freedom. You will always be fighting within yourself, within the family, with your community, within your nation and look at the world. That we say that oppression happens. Oppression is as bad in the western society as it in dictatorships. Remember that. Oppression within the dictatorship is as bad the oppression of where we’re living in the west. So who is right and who is wrong? Chris, I hope you find the answer. It lies within you, not out there. You are the one who needs to answer the question and fight that the answer be fulfilled to the world in which you live. I’m so proud of you. Keep working hard to advance the humankind to a new level of reality within. Thank you.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: I think who all are having democracy, not having democracy are basically not aggressive in the western world. But, there are people in the western world who say or gives assurance that there will be democracy and they make problem or hatred between two people or two groups in a countries where there is no democracy. And then they create a war -- civil war or a war with terrorism and that is why I think people are finding that there is unjust and that unjustice is being done to them. So that is why I feel they are aggressive with the western world, not because they are not having democracy, part because the western people are playing with the lives of the people and of the country that is not aggressive.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I have two things to say about your question; one is I would ask you, “Do you think the way this war was launched, for example, in Iraq in order to bring democracy and remove a dictator, was it done in a democratic way?” When I think about that question, I realize that so many people marched against this immoral invasion of Iraq; and yet the Bush administration went ahead with this idea of spreading democracy. So, given that, I would say that you cannot bring democracy through undemocratic means. Two, if we actually think that because these Western rich nations are bringing democracy in countries like Iraq and people are not living in fear, I think we need to look at the number of civilian deaths, the fear of people of bombs going off, to look at the civil war that’s going on today in Iraq, thanks to the kind of intervention U.S. did in the name of bringing democracy or look at the fear that people live with or have lived with recently in Lebanon. So, I think it is a total myth when in the name of promoting democracy, immoral, illegitimate wars have been launched just to promote the interest of few corporations. They do not take away the fear of people. They are not fulfilling aspirations of the people of Iraq or elsewhere. These are unjust wars that are -- do not have the approval of the people of the U.S. or of England or all those countries that have sent their troops in there. And actually, if I could also add, I would say that it’s not necessarily true that I as an immigrant, a brown skinned woman feel secure in U.S. I do live in fear in that country especially with all this war on terrorism, the kind of encroachments on our rights that have taken place. I live in fear in that country and I know a lot of people live in fear. So, I think we have to really question these myths that are given to us about bringing democracy to the rest of the world or giving people an opportunity to live without fear. Actually we are living in fear around the world.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I think this question is loaded. And I would like to really comment on it in a bit. Because when we see the Western World, and spread our way of life, there is a presumption that the Western World has true democracy and that trying to spread this form of democracy to other countries, from that point of view is good. And why would someone would resist it? And so the first part of the question is why do people living in other countries where there is oppression and dictatorship resent the aggression and are aggressive towards Western values coming in and being spread. Well I think that, from the point of view of the other who sees the Western World as a kind of imperialism imposing its way of life, its cultural forms and values upon the other culture. That’s such experiences, such a form of colonialism and such a threat by the other, that even their own internal dictatorship, which is also a form regression and suppression against their own freedom, gets overridden by what seem to be an even greater threat of the imperialism of a foreign external culture and power coming in against its own cultural identity. So, it’s a complex issue. What’s interesting in this question for me is that an ego-based culture and cultures, and we seem to still have that on the planet, that our culture seem to be continuing to be egocentrically based, as an ego way of thinking will always have oppression within itself. An imperialism. And democracies that are distorted. And prejudices and imperialism, whether you are living in a dictatorship or in a democracy. So that the imposition of one form of life on another is still within that old model of oppression and power place enforces. So that there is no happy solution within that. Both sides are blighted in some way. So to me the question is, what would it be, if we are living in a more enlightened culture, global culture of mutual respect across our borders? That would be a very different way, a different context in which this question would have to be completely rethought.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: I think there is a bit of naiveté in this question. Because there's a value judgment being placed that the Western form of democracy really is, should be accepted with open arms by other people in the world. And while we may feel they're oppressed, perhaps it's not the case that the people in these other countries feel oppressed. It may be the case that they do not want to have our way of life become their way of life. The Western world, especially in the United States, has a very young history. These other countries have very long histories comparatively. In Iraq for example, you have the Euphrates and Tigris rivers which are mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible. And it's a very ancient culture and civilization. The U. S. has been in existence, excluding the history of the indigenous people, which should not be excluded, but just utilizing the so-called birth of the United States within the last 200-plus years, it's a very young world. So we have much to learn about other cultures and other peoples, but it is really the imposition of our values, our perspectives, our culture, our way of life on others that may be more objectionable than if the understanding of each other's cultures and way of life were able to be understood in a way that is not imposed upon these other peoples, other worlds. So any imposition would not be welcome.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: This question alludes to the fact that the ones who live in a democracy are so convinced of themselves that they are not able to understand the other ones. We do live in democracies and say yes, we have found the truth. We know how to live, what is right, what are the right values and criteria, and all the other ones are living in an erroneous way. Why do they live erroneously and don´t understand that we do have the truth? But the other ones think along the same lines. The ones who do not live in democracies do think as well that they know the truth. And that they have the right values and criteria. What did the Europeans think 200, 300 years ago? Or 500 years ago? Wasn´t it evident that absolute monarchy was the only value, the only truth? Then we have evolved, have developed, and we believe that we have developed in the right direction. But the others may see it differently. And the others might develop as well, might go in different directions. Thus we need to have sympathy or comprehension for the fact that the others do not see our truth as truth, that they have a different truth that we see with other eyes. Only in this way can we deal with each other.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: There’s people within our country living in fear, all the time. And where I’m coming from, my point of view is, no one of living in fear, but there are people in our country that are, people in democratic countries. And, goes back to question 38, is there’s something better than democracy? And that what is that genuine democracy? And those people in foreign countries who don’t have democracy, being oppressed by dictators, gets so aggressive against the western world which once to spread our way of life. Is our way of life appropriate for them? And is our way of life democracy? Our way of life is a consumeristic, capitalistic, oppressive society. It is also very celebratory, beautiful, and opportunistic society. However, the democracy that has been spread in these foreign countries is that of the first, more than that of the second. And there is a veil of illusion on these countries, sometimes, when this democracy is coming to liberate them. I’m talking about the woman from Iraq who was so happy when the Americans came in to her country because, okay, now we will have democracy and now we will live this life, will not be in fear all the time. However now, she says, so many years later, that’s not democracy that was brought to her country. She’s living now in more fear than before than in dictatorship. Now that democracy is supposedly in her country, she’s even in more fear all the time. So, Chris, definitely education and information about our western world and what we are promoting. And what is genuine true democracy? Is that really what we’re really promoting? Or promoting a commodification and privatization of these countries?

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas:

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: In this question to me is this phrase "our way of life” suspicious, as if our way of life were so ideal that we can’t talk about it with reserve. Off course the pundits from non democratic countries must understand where they live, but this shouldn’t keep them from the seeing some bad sides of free world. Critical view on the every point in this world should be one of the basic human rights. How an individual comes to the ability of this kind of looking upon the things depends also on the level of his own maturity.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: Well, let’s look at this question a little more deeply. The Western World, which allegedly wants to spread our way of life (i.e. not living in fear all the time), I don’t buy that. That would suggest that the so-called Western World does not live in fear. I think it does. I think that’s the heart of a lot of our behavioral problems. But coming to the question, I think many countries, especially Islamic countries they don’t want Western consumer values. They don’t want secular values, or at least a lot of people don’t, and they also don’t want foreign religions taking root in their cultures. Western economic imperialism under the guise again of democracy, it’s often being perceived as the – it’s just a cover-up for so many other agendas. Particularly again – particularly in the Middle East anyway of extracting resources; oil and gas, minerals and so on. You know that’s what’s really going on here, I think. But yeah, living in fear is a relative condition. I think people are yearning; they’re really yearning for true peace, which I think can be possible when we’ve really transcended our own fear. But I think the aggression from people in foreign countries comes because they really understand what’s going on with the West and that’s often basically the strategies of domination by another word. I think, because I remember just after this last crazy adventure going into Iraq, I think there were hundreds of Western “missionaries” attempting to convert the infidel into the “real religion.” I mean what a travesty. What errant nonsense, ignorance. It makes me sick actually; but anyway.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Catherine David: This is a quite typical question of mentality. It seems to me that democracy, again, is not yet a magic cure, and that each nation, each culture has the right to accomplish democracy by its own means, its own way, and that the world's populations who live under authoritarian or dictatorial regimes are not stupid enough for not seeing (1) that the so-called transfer of democracy can sometimes be accomplished in total parallelism to the most serious economic repression, are not idiot enough (2) to have noticed that our huge western democracies accomodate quite well to authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, and (3) are not stupid enough not to see what our so-called 'way of life' can include. And I think that, once again on the side of populations who live under authoritarian and dictatorial regimes [they are relatively numerous], there is no contradiction between the refusal of the dictatorship or the missing freedom and the desire that democratic transition is accomplished for the best of local interests, of its populations, and that the 'way of life' is not necesarily desirable. One can easily be democrat in Iran and not feel like having Starbucks or having any relations [to the tone], e.g. relations to Western economic [tone]. I think it would be important that the west, even if I don't like a lot the generalizations because there are many people and many situations in the west, but that people can understand that.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: I think that it's not the people who are making noise. I think it is the very dictators who make the noise against the Western world because they know very well that with democracy their chance of becoming long President will be less, will be small. I am sure that no person, no human being, will say no to democracy, to freedom. And I'm sure nobody wants to live in fear. I think everyone want to be totally free. I think everybody welcomes these ideas, but because they are pushed away by those very dictators before they could fall on the ears of those people, but it is not the people chasing away democracy and it is not the people choosing to live in fear. And I think we should not stop. I think we should continue trying to share with Democrats, with everybody who don't have any. And I think it's our responsibility to challenge the dictator who is making noise and say it is the people making noise. And also, I think that is very important for the Western world who are trying to bring the democracy to know that many people under dictatorship have very less voice, have very less technology and knowledge, less computer, less reading materials, less information; and therefore, they should press a little bit harder.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Constantin von Barloewen: In the last decades, with the economic hegemony of north america and the western states the fact has occured that dictators take the freedom, under excuse to fight western states, which they do not owe their own people. China still justifies its superior dominance in relation to its population with a anti-western course. In Russia it is the same. Russia today, the russiche orthodoxy in the policy, affirms the Chinese model, looks to China, because one believes a model of a non western, a non-democratic culture which can keep up economically nevertheless, is prominent in world-economical concert. I.e. Russia sees China as a political exception, which strikes the west with large economic dynamics and success and nevertheless no carrying out of western human right and liberty criteria. Russia seems to appoint itself today ever more strongly to this, I would like to say, Chinese special way, not western and nevertheless economically successfully. That is a large danger, which undemocratic systems unfortunately bring with themself and Russia is today, naturally under the Putin government, only a limited democracy. It is at most an authoritarian democracy with questionable methods of an not integrated civil society.

by Constantin von Barloewen

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Cornel West: Well, we have to raise the question again of what we mean by our way of life, not living in fear all the time. I would think that all people do not want to live in fear; and the problem is, is that for so long the affluent peoples in the Western world were able to live in such a way that their lifestyles were not only at the expense of others living in fear, be they enslaved in the States or be they under colonial oppression in Asia and Africa or Ireland or the Caribbean, but there was indifference here. And these kinds of seeds come back to haunt one. And, therefore, yes, as many fellow human beings in foreign countries who live under autocratic rule but who still have the right to engage in criticism of the hypocrisy of the West, just as we in the West have a right to engage in criticism of the hypocrisy in various foreign governments. It is a matter of Socratic integrity and intellectual consistency that we are able to criticize each other based on principles and standards that transcend or are higher than either one of our nations and either one of our social experiments. Hypocrisy, no matter where it is needs to be teased out, criticized, and we hope overcome it.

by Cornel West

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 1:30:00 PM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: In my point of view, this is because of brainwashing. Their leaders within their own country brainwash them to make their people believe that democracy is not good. Like, for instance, in the Middle East, even if people who are experiencing dictatorship in the Iraq in the case of Saddam, still when Americans came and say, “We want to give alternative form of government that you are experiencing,” people tend to dislike still the concept of democracy, and maybe because this is a dictator democracy. So, it's really a question of world view. Those countries might have different world view in terms of democracy than what Americans are trying to share to the world with dictatorship. So, it's more of -- for me, it's more of a difference in world view and, of course, adding to the brainwashing that the leaders are doing. That’s the reason why -- and maybe because democracy does not really respond to their needs and maybe that’s the reason why they still hate or they still don't like the concept of democracy in their own countries.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas