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Originally Posted by alansmithee
What would you consider the "liberated" part? And What is the authoritarian? Is it merely dependant on what party is in charge? Because I personally notice no difference between now and 10 years ago in what is or isn't allowed. I would actually say that because of the growth of different communication mediums (one of which is the internet) there is more allowed and being challenged at this time than most others. That hardly seems to me to be authoritarian.
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Think a lot bigger than ten years as far as the cycle. Poltical parties are nice and all, but they don't have any real meaning in the long run. Platforms change. Motives change. The democrats and republicans are entirely different today then they were before the world wars.
The authoritarian/libertarian cycle is one that has continued since human communities evolved from packs. It is not a matter of right and wrong - authoritarian can be right, and libertarian can be wrong, and visa versa - it is simply a matter of political change, political philosophy, and social motives. Like I said before, the real test of a government, and even a society, is when selfish people take power. If they are allowed to stay in power, he society has failed. If they remove the selfish people from power and try to fix the system so as to prevent similar problems in the future, it has evolved.
To address the thread, democracy isn't bad or good. It is simply a tool that can be used as the user sees fit. The problem is that when a system is forced on a people who do not want it, it is not so much the form of government that is detremental, but those who force it. America has 'given' Iraq a democracy so that trade and possible economic and political domination will be much easier.
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Originally Posted by alansmithee
And on a more abstract note, assuming that this is truly a more authoritarian time, do you believe that authoritarianism has it's place in society?
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Absolutely. I am a libertarian right now because those who seek to shift us to authoritatians are doing so for clearly selfish reasons. If someone had the good of all people in mind in moving towards authoritarian rule, then it is fine. Motives play a strong part in how I see people.