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Democracy as universal value
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Davide wrote: "Populists, opportunists, and fanatics ..."H'mmm. Mighty disingenuous towards the USA.
Especially when advice on governing --if coming from the Italian peninsula --is among the most dubious on Earth. Italy is notorious in Europe as always having the worst governments.
Century after century. Constant uproar; endless hotheads. Demagogues, rabble-rousers, Savonarolas.
Probably not any better now that the country's beloved Silvio Berlusconi is gone. [What would-be fascista is filling his shoes?]
Anyway. The old saying goes like this:
'Heaven in Europe' --is when the food is French, the lovers are Italian, the government is British, and the trains are Swiss.
'Hell in Europe' --is when the food is British, the trains are French. the government is Italian, and the lovers are Swiss.
p.s. Here's the ole devil himself in his private jet! All he needs is a Roman toga!
Feliks wrote: "Davide wrote: "Populists, opportunists, and fanatics ..."H'mmm. Mighty disingenuous towards the USA.
Especially when advice on governing --if coming from the Italian peninsula --is among the mos..."
We were very lucky. We could have ended up with the heirs of the murderer you use as your profile picture. The problem with Italy is that Italians have a weak democratic culture and have never truly come to terms with fascism. Fascism did not govern; it robbed and oppressed the poorest members of society. Just like your Soviet friends did.
Eh. I repeat: the USA doesn't need any advice on democracy from Italy. Our record is better than Italy's, by far.We do have some occasional bad leadership but never a dictator. Never a coup.
Our system can bend and accommodate poor leaders without breaking. We don't fall into line and goosestep for such men.
As for communism/socialism, I only need remind you of something which --so far, whilst browsing your remarks --I must presume you are uninformed on. (no surprise there, seeing as how you've only completed the reading of 178 book titles in your time so far on earth)
No matter. Very well then, allow me to be the first to apprise you --right here and now --that Communist/socialist ideas have resulted in the single-most successful government in the history of the world.
I'll say it again: the single most successful government in the entire history of world government.
What else can I state as cold hard truth? Try this: socialism proves itself successful practically any time fascists fully let it alone to thrive on its own without any hindrance.
Since you arrived here on Goodreads --your persistent vitriol against this dialectic is the glaring clue that you have no reference-point what I'm even referring to. I'd bet money on it.
No mystery as to why, either. Merely further evidence that communist success stories are always under-emphasized; always downplayed to the general public.
Do your two publications even contain a bibliography? I suspect you probably dismissed even something as basic as Pyotor Kropotkin when you developed your 'zombie' ideology. It wouldn't surprise me that you were too apprehensive to read him.
Feliks wrote: "Eh. I repeat: the USA doesn't need any advice on democracy from Italy. Our record is better than Italy's, by far.We do have some occasional bad leadership but never a dictator. Never a coup.
Ou..." We agree on one thing: the United States has nothing to learn from Italy. Italy has to learn from the United States. As for communism, I believe you are extremely ignorant about the subject. My hostility is directed toward murderers. As far as I'm concerned, you are not a serious interlocutor; you are someone who cheers for criminals. I cannot have a meaningful conversation with someone who despises life, freedom, and democracy. But I'm curious: what have you actually read by Kropotkin? I think you've understood very little, considering you've probably only read translators.
Davide wrote: "Feliks wrote: "Davide wrote: "Populists, opportunists, and fanatics ..."H'mmm. Mighty disingenuous towards the USA.
Especially when advice on governing --if coming from the Italian peninsula --i..."
I'll repeat the question: do you know who Feliks Dzerzhinsky was? If you don't know who he was, you're too ignorant to debate Communism with an Italian. If you do know who he was, then you're as much of a criminal as he was.
"Democracy is the fig leaf of elitism."— Florence King (1936- ), American author; from Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye, 1989
This is an incredibly intriguing topic of rising importance in our modern society, as stated by Noble-Prize winner and economist Amartya Sen (I have linked his critical essay "Democracy as a Universal Value" at the end of my post).
The rise of democracy as a maximalist ideal incorporates three main concepts - freedom of speech, the power to choose leaders, and an opportunity for constructive value within debate.
The main misconceptions are easily debunked, including the fact that everyone deserves personal freedom and political rights - including those who are marginalized. Lives always come BEFORE economic growth, despite what anyone may say. Even the United Nations recognizes democracy as a core international value, critical to human rights.
Sources-
Democracy (United Nations):
https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/d...
"Democracy as a Universal Value" Essay
https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/ar...
The Global State of Democracy 2025:
https://www.idea.int/publications/cat...
"5 Elements of a Strong Democracy"
https://www.impact.upenn.edu/framewor...
For this, we owe our gratitude to the Allies: they liberated us from fascism and, at the same time, spared us from Soviet communism. We often forget that the partisans were a minority within the country, and that the democratic partisans were a minority within that minority.
This is history. And despite the pressures exerted by the authoritarian political movements of the last century, Italy became an important liberal democracy at the heart of Europe.
We inherited the freedom for which our fathers fought, and perhaps we are not proving ourselves worthy of it. Yet today, more and more voices are raised to denounce the weakness of democracy. It is not democracy that is weak. We are.
Populists, opportunists, and fanatics have always sought to undermine democratic institutions. It is a story as old as the walls of ancient Athens.
Even today, when we should be celebrating our freedom, delirious voices among us revive the theme—so dear to Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin—of the crisis of “liberal democracies.”
I do not believe that liberal democracies are in crisis. They have never been stronger, and today they seem truly invincible.
Their strength lives in the heart of the Ukrainian people defending themselves against Russian aggression, in the Iranian people fighting for their freedom, and in the millions of activists who challenge dictatorships around the world.
Perhaps the spirit of liberal democracy is weak in a spoiled West that indulges in fantasies of Judeo-Masonic plutocratic conspiracies, that insults its own freedom with endless self-pity, and that embraces the lie of “different values” promoted by tyrannical governments. But it is stronger than ever among the peoples who fight for freedom.
Democracy is a universal value, and it cannot be anything other than liberal democracy.
Some fight to defend it. Others spread lies.
Happy Republic Day to those who choose, every day, to prove themselves worthy of freedom.