When the liberal world leads in a repressive direction, the illiberal world follows

Repression is all the rage in the liberal and illiberal world, these days. The trend towards strict dress codes in Iran is just one of a number of incursions on liberty that are so popular all over the world, these days.

Iran launches new crackdown on unIslamic fashion

It is our fears leading us rather than our thoughtfulness, and our callousness rather than our compassion, that makes all of this possible, in the liberal democratic world as much as in the more illiberal, less democratic world.

As long as aggression is glamorized as the means to save the world rather than a tool with limited utility in our dealings with the world, this trend will go on. The Chinese, the Iranians, the Russians, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Americans, the British, the French. All of us. We'll all keep reinforcing this ugly direction the world has taken until we face up to its legacy.

Why is it so hard for people to take seriously the notion that loving your neighbor and feeling something genuine for them, even when they act poorly, is the only decent way to live? How long does that message have to be with us before we learn to take it seriously? Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, King. All of the of the most important teachers in the world have taught this lesson. And we perpetually ignore it out of our hubris that we have outthunk them.

This story isn't about Iran, alone. This story is about a bigger trend all over the world to scare people and for people to scare one another into more repressive, defensive stances in the world, rather than to engage it with more decency, thought, and confidence in our liberal values.

If the liberal democratic world wants the rest of the world to know that liberal values are stronger values, then they need to embrace them and the freedom and learning that comes with them and stop fearing them and leading the world like those values only matter insofar as they get us what we want. Liberal democracy is not about power or repression to get what we want. Liberal democracy is about freedom for people to live lives that they think worthy. And those are the values we need to lead with if illiberal governments and cultures of the world are to see in starker contrast just how ugly and repressive their behavior is.

Love,
Ben