Accidental empires
Taki
‘Is democracy on the march or is it in retreat?’ screams a headline in the Washington Times. The question was put to Condoleezza Rice last week, and I must say, for a little-to-show-for-it secretary of state, she answered very well: ‘Freedom does not advance on a steady trajectory — setbacks and detours should be expected ... ’ Americans seem to be obsessed with democracy, now even more so than during the Cold War. We (ancient) Greeks take credit for it, but don’t really consider it for others, only for ourselves. Athens became a democratic city-state in various stages. The poorest were eventually made eligible for the magistracies, but the generalship always remained in aristocratic hands. When someone got too big for his breeches, like Themistocles, out he went. But he craftily persuaded the Persian Xerxes to attack the Greeks in Salamis, only to score an even greater victory than Marathon, and it was all his own. The victory, that is. Old Themistocles even managed to persuade the Spartan admiral to stay away, making it a one-man show. Something like what Ahmed Chalabi tried with Bush and Blair where Iraq was concerned, except for the fact Chalabi was a conman-crook whereas Themistocles was a very shrewd and intelligent patriot.
The point the great Greek historian Taki is trying to make is that empires fall into place not by design, but by accident. The Athenian empire began with alliances against Persia — the Confederacy of Delos — which eventually Athens transformed into an empire. At first Spartan admirals were in command, but the Ionians disliked Dorian discipline and decided on the Athenian Kimon, the rich son of Miltiades, the victor of Marathon. So what about democracy, then? The Spartans took care of that little bother. There are those who believe the ruinous Peloponnesian War took place in order to break the power and influence of the Alcibiades class, i.e., rich aristocrats. The last refused to enter chariot teams at Olympia and thought the rest of the Greeks rather unsophisticated. Once Athens went down the Swanee, aristocrats refused to splash out on civic expenditures, and in came the professional classes. Does this remind any of you of home, home being the British Empire and modern Britain? Once the Greeks went pro, it was curtains, until Alexander saved it for us Hellenes, but no one did it for you Brits.
But back to democracy in modern times. Elections in Gaza have led to the creation of a terrorist mini-state ruled by Hamas, according to Bush and his gang. But to some of us, all it means is to be careful what you wish for. Answered prayers, and all that. If I were a Palestinian I’d be voting for Hamas in Gaza and for Hezbollah in Lebanon. The gang that can’t shoot straight in DC doesn’t seem to get the message. Palestinians are not Virginians living in a Utopian rural environment, but fourth-generation refugees from their lands and homes, and being treated almost as subhumans by the Israelis. Punto e basta. What else can one say?
Secretary Rice believes that Iraq has never been as free and democratic as it is today. If I were conducting the interview, I would have asked her if Iraqis back in 1920, when Churchill was advocating the use of poison gas against them, felt as free and democratic as they do today? (I suppose that’s why no one asks me to conduct interviews.) Incidentally, Iraqis today do not feel free and democratic, and view Americans and Brits as occupiers.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was widely believed that liberal democracy was the natural way to organise society. Professor Fukuyama went as far as to call it ‘the end of history’. Poor prof. Professor Taki calls it only the fourth chapter, as far as empires are concerned: Greek, Roman, British, now American. Soon Chinese and Indian.
Autocracy, a word invented by you know who, is making a comeback. Russia and China are not obsessed with democracy, nor constitutional government, certainly not with ochlocracy. Sovereign democracy is the operative word out there, a governing system that has little tolerance for dissent. And it’s working. Given the choice between freedom and democracy on one hand, and power, order and stability on the other, it takes a very rich, spoilt fool to prefer the former. In China, a higher standard of living is what 1.2 billion people think about, and to hell with what a man who has suffered from arrested development these past 60 years has to say back in Crawford, Texas.
Take it from Taki. Autocrats will always protect their fellow autocrats. Moscow and Beijing will never side with termlimited American officials against Tehran, Khartoum and Pyongyang. Why should they? Tell me of an American ally who ended up sitting pretty? The South Vietnamese? The Greek colonels? The Lebanese Christians? The Shah? Don’t make me laugh.
But now I will make you, the readers, laugh. As I was leaving for my boat in the south of France, I opened a letter from the man I respect the most, and admire even more than I respect, Michel Déon, an immortal of the French Academy. He lives in Ireland and has been reading the Speccie for ever. It was the kindest letter I have ever received. I once asked Michel, who has written more than 50 wonderful books, and who introduced the first woman member to the French Academy, if it were possible I was Hemingway’s natural son, so strong were my feelings for Papa. In his letter he tells me that, no, I could not be, ‘he will always be standing alone in the 20th century’, but then he writes that I have finally dropped the mask (the column about the little boy across from my window) and that I should keep writing. I plan to do so.
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