Safe Man Wants To Be Free
A Maori proverb, roughly translated into English, reads: “A safe man wants to be free and a free man wants to be safe.” Truly, this proverb dichotomizes the two things many societies are striving for. However, without safety, people will not strive directly for freedom. This is represented clearly in many developing countries where the circumstances force the “average man” to strive for only the security of his life.
During the early 1950s, a few years after the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War, the new Communist Government was actually welcomed by the majority of the population. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) kept the peasants safe and secured their food supply by providing them with land and other resources. Few argued …show more content…
During the cold war, many nationalist revolts against the Soviet Union occurred in Eastern Europe, but they only after the nationalist had their dinner plate filled did a small portion of the population began revolts for “independence and freedom.” WWII was too destructive to the degree that it took decades for countries to recover, and this process of recovery gave the Soviet Union decades of a revolt-free Warsaw Bloc. Another example for such a case would again be communist China. During the first few decades of communist rule, no major uprisings against the newly instituted authoritarian government were mounted. Even in the early years of the 1960s, when disastrous weather combined with ill-planned economic policies caused a massive famine, no one dared to make a move against the government. However, after Chinese Premier Deng Xiao-ping initiated a series of policies designed to “open-up” the Chinese Market and the Chinese economy began to prosper, university students－among the first to receive new western ideas－began a protest that was quickly quelled by the Chinese Government and is known as the “Tian’ an-men Incident.” After this incident, no such mass protests or demonstrations ever happened in China, even until today. Thus, one can conclude, from the examples of the Eastern European nationalist movements and the “Tia’ an-men Incident,” that people will only demand freedom when their physical wellbeing is secure, and even if such demands do exist, they will only be voiced out by a minority. Thus, H.L. Mencken’s observation that the “average man does not want to be free” still holds true to a certain
During the early 1950s, a few years after the Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War, the new Communist Government was actually welcomed by the majority of the population. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) kept the peasants safe and secured their food supply by providing them with land and other resources. Few argued …show more content…
During the cold war, many nationalist revolts against the Soviet Union occurred in Eastern Europe, but they only after the nationalist had their dinner plate filled did a small portion of the population began revolts for “independence and freedom.” WWII was too destructive to the degree that it took decades for countries to recover, and this process of recovery gave the Soviet Union decades of a revolt-free Warsaw Bloc. Another example for such a case would again be communist China. During the first few decades of communist rule, no major uprisings against the newly instituted authoritarian government were mounted. Even in the early years of the 1960s, when disastrous weather combined with ill-planned economic policies caused a massive famine, no one dared to make a move against the government. However, after Chinese Premier Deng Xiao-ping initiated a series of policies designed to “open-up” the Chinese Market and the Chinese economy began to prosper, university students－among the first to receive new western ideas－began a protest that was quickly quelled by the Chinese Government and is known as the “Tian’ an-men Incident.” After this incident, no such mass protests or demonstrations ever happened in China, even until today. Thus, one can conclude, from the examples of the Eastern European nationalist movements and the “Tia’ an-men Incident,” that people will only demand freedom when their physical wellbeing is secure, and even if such demands do exist, they will only be voiced out by a minority. Thus, H.L. Mencken’s observation that the “average man does not want to be free” still holds true to a certain