What is at stake

I really wish people in America and all the liberal democracies would stop talking about liberty as if it didn't matter. If there is any one movement that should offer some reminder that it does, the '89 protests at Tiananmen should be the one.

China, 20 Years After Tiananmen Square: Liberty Has Many Faces

My favorite story:

"Li Yi, 11

Rising seventh-grader

Li Yi yearns for the kind of freedoms familiar to most kids. 'In my eyes, freedom means that parents don't force me to do something I don't want to do,' he said.

Yi loves to paint. He dreams of one day designing clothes or buildings. His parents, however, think the apparel business is too hard. There could be many years when Yi would receive no orders for his clothes. "They don't think I draw well," he confided.

Instead, his parents want him to graduate from a good university and join a big, stable company. But that doesn't interest him.

'I want them to understand what's in my mind,' he said."

Acton was right. Power corrupts. But before it does, we're not all that different.

For those who take the courage of those kids for granted, fuck you very much.

For everyone else, real progress this way lies.