I got an email from Doug Ross – linking me to his substack at: https://directorblue.substack.com/p/liberty-vs-tyranny-charting-the-history?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email It’s worth following and reading – a very fine, well researched article.
Probably the most significant excerpt I can share is this: “Liberty is not the natural state of human civilization — it is the exception. The global freedom index barely moved for five hundred years, then surged dramatically beginning in the late 1700s, driven overwhelmingly by the American constitutional experiment and its philosophical descendants. That surge peaked around 2005–2010. Since then, every major freedom index has tracked a global decline — in democratic governance, in free speech protections, in judicial independence, and in free market access.” In examining the historical record, Ross finds that over the past 5,000 years of history, tyranny has been the norm, excepting the 250 years that followed the American Revolution. There are some complex illustrations supporting his essay – I’m copying the ones that show the more recent timelines:
The Geographic View: A World Freedom Map Across Eras
Go to the link at the beginning of this article, and read Ross’ essay. If I haven’t convinced you yet, here’s one more excerpt from the article: “The most dangerous myth in modern politics is that freedom is inevitable — that history naturally moves toward more liberty, more rights, and more openness. It does not.
The data across centuries and continents shows that tyranny is the default, and freedom is a fragile, rare, and recent achievement that requires constant defense.
The American experiment in constitutional self-government, separation of powers, and individual rights did not just change one country — it bent the trajectory of global civilization. But that trajectory is now bending back.
If we in the West do not understand how rare and precious their inheritance is, we are certain to lose it — not to foreign armies, but to the slow, familiar erosion that has swallowed every republic that came before.”
Go read the essay.
Leave a Reply