There was an old woman in the old city of Yaroslavl, on the banks of Volga River who cried witnessing democracy. On that day she was watching a history that was being changed, a dramatic process that even laid on a television screen.
She followed the extraordinary reports from Moscow: a conference of the ruling party, which used to be so closed and terrible and often displaying the sinister faces, but now could be so funny. The party which was used to deny its own genealogy, but now seemed to realize: that the Party had been a hammer and sickle that bullying the people, very decapitating.
The old woman was stunned. For the first time -- according to her long memories -- a party conference took place openly. Not only because the conference was broadcasted to the entire audience, but also the delegations could criticize in the conference, could argue. There was no sense of danger that perhaps later in the evening the secret police would knock on the bedroom door and took away some of the dissidents and disappeared just like the rest of snow in the morning.
The old woman was thrilled. She later told reporters of The New York Times, "I sit in front of my television and I cry. My brother lost under Stalin's rule. On one night they came and he soon disappeared. Almost inconceivable to me that nowadays people can talk so freely. It's a miracle, really a miracle."
But where the remarkableness comes from? Our mother also can't find out easily where does it come from. We also do not easily understand where the democracy comes from.
On July 4, 1776 a number of people -- many of them were intelligent people, bold, aspiring, and clever in arguing -- gathered in Philadelphia, in the British colony which was called America. They wanted to declare independence from Britain. After discussing more or less a week, they finally agreed on a declaration draft written by Thomas Jefferson, for calling that every human being "endowed by the Creator with certain rights that can not be set aside", ie, the right to "life, liberty, and the search for happiness".
The document was then famous, proved to be valid for more than 200 years later. United States became the longest country in safeguarding those rights, although with all its serious risks. In general, the document -- which speaks to and about "all men" -- was seen just as a typical American product. Historian Page Smith once wrote that indeed there was "a very American" thing in the document, ie, when they included the efforts to "seek happiness" as a right, a rather odd thing actually. But anyway when Jefferson drafting the declaration in his room on the second floor of a brick house in Philadelphia, he did not pretend to want to present an original idea. No declaration seed in his mind.
We can even investigate further from there: to religious disputes in Europe, especially in Britain which was mixed with the dispute over other interests. At that time the Stuarts kings -- especially those who had a Catholic queen -- dealing with supporters of Protestantism that dominated the parliament. Armed conflicts took place. King James II was defeated. The parliament won.
What was fought in nearly 100 years during the 17th century finally reached: the rights of a citizen to firmly maintained in the presence of arbitrary rulers. The Glorious Revolution took place in 1689.
The Revolution then had echoes in the American Revolution in 1776, and American Revolution had echoes in French Revolution. The day before July 1, 1789, on the day when the French people destroyed the Bastille prison -- an emblem of the King's oppression -- people lifted La Fayette became the vice chairman of the Assembly gathered for the Revolution. We know La Fayette fought in the American Revolution. He was an admirer of American Revolution, and the French Revolution wanted to acquire its vibration.
Perhaps democracy is a contagious fever. We do not know for sure whether the fever is just typical of the "West". We also do not know for sure whether the "West" eventually always remains a foreign object in the body of the "East" countries, including Russia, North Korea, and China. There are so many things we do not know yet.
But now we know why the old woman on the banks of Volga River was crying when she saw people starting to speak freely. She wept with gratitude because she ever felt frightened. She knew how did it feel "being trampled".
Democracy -- of course -- is not easy. After all, it is easy to know what it means, regardless of what its brand. If you do not believe it, ask the trampled grass, the oppressed.
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[CZ-Lacalifusa021714]
What? Alain Soral himself? Ohh... you're almost correct!
Precisely is : A childish smile of a man as old as him. Sometimes his smile looks very democratic.
I can never find a handsome bald old man exactly like him in this city. He is irreplaceable.
Oh France, say you'll always wait for me.
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