Two years ago I was in Lima attending a conference on liberty by Nobel Prize winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa’s International Liberty Foundation. The evening after the conference, I was invited to the colonial district of Lima where a group of fifteen or twenty young people had gathered in an old, decrepit cultural center to discuss the ideas that bring liberty. We talked about democracy and the challenges of voting our values; we talked about prosperity through property and the free market values that bring ownership and responsibility; and we talked about propriety and the importance of the family in the fabric of society. We encouraged each other – and we fought the darkness. Last year I stood on a street corner in Georgetown, Washington D.C. while a multitude of freedom loving Venezuelans around me dared to dream that their vote would finally free their homeland. While it was not to be, in the endless voting lines and the tri-color conversations of a tireless people longing for a peaceful path to liberty I was amazed at witnessing the energy of a people seeking to be free. We discussed our memories of a free Venezuela and our dreams for the future. And we fought the darkness. Last week I sat with a group of new friends in an alley off Istiklal Street in Istanbul. They were from Morocco, from Egypt, and from Kurdistan in Iraq. Some were smoking shisha, some drank juice and I was sipping a hot Turkish tea as we talked about the values that could bring freedom at last to the Muslim world. Principles of natural rights, of tolerance without extremes and the pre-eminent position of reason over tradition. And we fought the darkness. Wherever I go I find men and women of courage fighting for freedom. They do so often at great risk – like women-journalists trying to navigate Egypt’s complicated political landscape; like young people daring to dream of a Venezuela where their opinions would not be punished; like those who advocate for reason in a world of sometimes violent tradition. Together these “thousand points of light” are uniting to illuminate a global movement for liberty. And it’s gaining ground. Slowly through each hard-fought battle the principles of the enlightened man are taking hold; as the tireless continue to fight the darkness.
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- September 2013
- December 2012
- September 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- June 2011
- May 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- November 2010
- September 2010
Recent Comments
Joel D. Hirst on The Suicide of Venezuela Caiden C on The Suicide of Venezuela Les Hirst on Colombia – A Death I… Colombia – A D… on A Death Foretold Rod C Smothers on Putin’s Master Plan Categories
Meta
It is interesting to note that in all these cases where you and those aspiring to freedom have met, the people denying them that freedom are invariably so insecure that they find it necessary to use force to stifle the voice of dissent. Only when a society is fully mature and balanced can it tolerate some of its people holding contrary or simply different views from those currently running the show. Keep fighting, there is a vast silent majority behind you and one day they will feel courageous enough to speak out. When that happens the whole world will hear their voice.
LikeLike
Free societies are very resilient – totalitarian regimes are very fragile. That is why they need to use violence. Their hold on power is tenuous because it is illegitimate.
LikeLike