Starting with the American Revolution in 1776, freedom has gained a tenacious hold in many lands, some close to the American colossus, others far away. It is generally agreed that democratic nations are less likely to be in conflict with one another. With the added ingredient of free trade, one has the recipe for peace & prosperity for the general populations.

One critical area of unfreedom in the world is China. Given the representative democracy in neighboring Taiwan, and the pre-1997 Hong Kong situation under British rule, the examples for Beijing are not scant to survey. If the Chinese were to embrace democracy, as it looked like they might during the fall of the Soviet Union (Tienanmen Square uprising), it would go a long way to strengthening democracy’s grip on the globe.

America, and its junior partner Canada, has a vested interest in seeing democracy spread. When Japan and Germany were conquered after the Second World War, it provided a golden opportunity to (1) try again with democracy in Germany; (2) implant democracy in the home islands of Japan where it had never been before.

Washington realizes that the world is a dangerous place, and more democracy can only help. The CIA has overcome its past tendency of overthrowing elected governments that don’t suit it, allowing various forms of people’s movements to grow, intertwine, and flourish as time goes by. In the case of various whistleblowers on the NSA, its power has clearly grown too menacing to be allowed to continue unfettered. The security apparatus of the USA is anti-democratic; its mission is no longer to confront the Soviets but to ensure that national interests like oil and anti-nuclear-proliferation come to the fore. Enhancing this proclivity is the natural paranoia of the spymasters. Even with computers scanning millions of pieces of discrete information the need for human involvement stymies the best attempts of the NSA to maintain a rigorous mastery of its own “Puzzle Palace.”

The spread of freedom can be argued to be a negative force, however, that allows inferior specimens to spew their bullshit on the world. Think of a tagger and his graffiti. He has the “freedom” to deface bridges and bus stop ads with his grotesque untalented verbiage, because no one can catch him. Perhaps the ideal state of affairs is to parcel out freedom to those who merit it, semi-freedom to those who can hack it, and enslavement for the weak and insipid and untalented who wallow in obscurity for a damn good reason.