I question this. I don’t believe that a desire for freedom is a universal trait among all humans and their societies. Certainly it is not something that has been present in all societies in all times.
Consider Russia today. Putin seems to rule with considerable popular approval, but I don’t think you would consider it a “free” country. It is no longer a dictatorship of the Communist party, but I wouldn't say that makes it free, either. There is no tradition of “freedom” in Russia in the sense that we Americans would see it there, from the USSR all the way back to the Czars.
Americans relish freedom, so we just sort of assume that everybody must do so. Because inside every foreigner is an American just waiting to get out? You could trace our inherited system of laws’ first baby step towards freedom perhaps back to the Magna Carta (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta) in 1215, while absolute monarchy was the norm elsewhere. I note that some Americans today aren’t really that bothered by violations of habeas corpus (see Jose Padilla case), so perhaps we aren’t as freedom loving as we claim?
I’ve never understood why proponents of our democracy project in Mesopotamia saw this particular society as such fertile ground for such an experiment. Perhaps if more had either known or not forgotten the long process (with ups and downs along the way) that our own society has grappled with to ensure freedom we would not think it could be so easily transplanted in places where it has little or no tradition.
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