Dr. Andrew Andersen
September 9, 2020
Within the last several months, quite a few friends of mine (most of them born and raised in the former USSR and in the former “Eastern Block”) kept asking me one and the same question: How comes that people who grew up in free, democratic countries are now giving up their rights and freedoms so easily?
Oh, what a question! To answer it one could no doubt write a book or, at least, an article. However, keeping in mind that nowadays people have no time to read lengthy texts, I would prefer to confine myself to a fairly short set of several phrases and statements.
I'll start with a counter question: if some children have ridiculed and slandered their parents, and also publicly disowned them, can they claim to receive an inheritance from those very parents whom they slandered and spat upon? What do you, dear readers, think of such a situation?
I would venture to suggest that you basically agree with me that they cannot claim it.
Now here we have a simple analogy. A considerable percentage of contemporary residents of once-free and democratic countries of Western Europe, the USA, and Canada (let us not talk about Australia and New Zealand at this point) tend to denounce the legacy of several generations of their ancestors, those now execrated white Europeans and North American colonists of European descent (most of them Christians of various denominations), who, whether someone likes it or not, managed to build modern civilization. Well, some people may say that our modern civilization is ugly, and… I can hardly disagree with them. Indeed, our civilization has quite a few ugly features, as nothing in this world is perfect. However, this civilization has been the only one within at least the last 1000 years, that could be considered developed and effective. Moreover, our civilization is marked not only by its technical achievements that provide unprecedented comfort and satiety and not only by high arts that it produced, but also by such important attributes as democracy and a whole set of individual rights and freedoms.
It goes without exaggeration that only and exclusively the ancestors of these "people who grew up in free, democratic countries" banned the slave trade and abolished slavery, established a representative democracy and a republican system, introduced freedom of speech and discussion, freedom of the press and freedom of conscience, setting an example to others (some of the latter did quite well trying to adopt the principles of human rights and freedoms, while others, unfortunately, failed to do so).
Nevertheless, under the influence of various inhuman and destructive forces (we will omit the analysis of those forces at this point), the contemporary people "who grew up in free, democratic countries" prefer to throw mud at everything achieved and created by their ancestors, accuse them in all conceivable and inconceivable sins (self-explanatory, most of those ancestors were far from being angels but who is perfect?) and turn their admiring eyes towards those who have so far demonstrated little, except barbarism, dictatorships, genocide and permanent decay. Moreover, those children of once-free world figuratively sprinkle ashes on their heads for the misdeeds they never committed and literally lick the boots of criminals, bullies and terrorists.
Accordingly, rejecting the heritage of their ancestors, those “who grew up in free, democratic countries” automatically deprive themselves of the whole set of personal rights and freedoms, which these ancestors obtained for them at the cost of hard work and bloody sacrifices that followed rebellions and wars of liberation.
Unfortunately, such a loss is both logical and fair. That is why the societies that, until recently, could be called free and democratic have already deprived themselves of such fundamental rights and freedoms as the freedom of speech, press and discussion, the right to the presumption of innocence and the right to self-defense. And all that can be just the beginning of the decline unless those “who grew up in free, democratic countries” start thinking independently and consider questioning the “values” imposed on them from the outside.
