Turkey and the Fear Society
How certain am I that the world will not notice this development? Oh, 100 percent. It's one of those little items, again. No one's reporting it in English. Compared to Iran's hanging binge, it's such a modest outrage against civil liberties that who's going to bother to get exercised about it?
But an outrage against civil liberties it is. Erdoğan has begun pressing charges against bloggers whose writings meet with his displeasure. A 22-year-old college student, Barış Ünver, could face two years in prison for intimating that Erdoğan was "the soul mate" of PKK terrorist Ocalan.
Writing this week about Egypt, the former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky draws a distinction between free societies and fear societies:
The reason people are going to the streets and making revolution is their desire not to live in a fear society," Mr. Sharansky says. In his taxonomy, the world is divided between "fear societies" and "free societies," with the difference between them determinable by what he calls a "town square test": Are the people in a given society free to stand in their town square and express their opinions without fear of arrest or physical harm? The answer in Tunisia and Egypt, of course, has long been "no"—as it was in the Soviet bloc countries that faced popular revolutions in 1989.
Turkey fails the test, obviously.
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Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Claire, this may be a glaringly obvious question or a glaringly dumb one, but I ask it just the same: What sort of effect does this little edict have on you personally? Will you have to be mindful of the things you write going forward?
May '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Speaking of Sharansky....I wonder what he makes of Egypt, with his The Case for Democracy and all that. Does he think there's too much groundwork to be done first? Haven't noticed his weighing in yet. Ditto Wolfowitz.
Jul '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Dave, my friend, that is a false dichotomy.
Your question could be both glaring obvious and glaringly dumb.
By the way, Dave, Marin County is suffering from a debilitating shortage of Hostess baked products and you and your 18-wheeler are our only hope.
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Kenneth
Dave, my friend, that is a false dichotomy.
Your question could be both glaring obvious and glaringly dumb.
By the way, Dave, Marin County is suffering from a debilitating shortage of Hostess baked products and you and your 18-wheeler are our only hope. · Feb 6 at 8:52pm
Thanks for the morale boost, Kenneth. By the way, with my Dad on board the truck with me, there is no promise that said shipment of Hostess products would arrive intact.
Jul '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Scott, Ricochet's Code of Conduct prohibits profanity.
Please refrain from any further use of the "W" word.
Edited on Feb 6, 2011 at 9:06pmOct '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Neoconservatisms mini revival.
Jul '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
Dave Carter
Kenneth
Dave, my friend, that is a false dichotomy.
Your question could be both glaring obvious and glaringly dumb.
By the way, Dave, Marin County is suffering from a debilitating shortage of Hostess baked products and you and your 18-wheeler are our only hope. · Feb 6 at 8:52pm
Thanks for the morale boost, Kenneth. By the way, with my Dad on board the truck with me, there is no promise that said shipment of Hostess products would arrive intact. · Feb 6 at 8:58pm
A mini-donut jones, eh? Tragic. Thank God it's just your dad.
Oh...um...Dave, is that powdered sugar on your pant leg?
May '10
Re: Turkey and the Fear Society
John Marzan
Neoconservatisms mini revival. · Feb 6 at 9:18pm
Interesting article. Surprising he put Jeane Kirkpatrick in the true-blue neo-con camp, though; she seemed too pragmatic to fit that description as well as a Wolfowitz.
Kenneth
Scott, Ricochet's Code of Conduct prohibits profanity.
Please refrain from any further use of the "W" word. · Feb 6 at 9:05pm
We'll go with W.........z, then. Actually, I'm torn on the guy (as to whether he's right or wrong, that is, not whether he's a very good man; he is). Hitchens, in Hitch 22, has a spirited defense of him (blowing up the liberal portrayal, mostly).
And Hitchens....There's another guy I'd like to hear from at length on Egypt.