Der amerikanische Soziologe Benjamin Barber, ein ehemaliger Berater Präsident Clintons, hat vor wenigen Wochen in Istanbul einen rasanten Vortrag über Islam und Demokratisierung gehalten. Dies sind die Schlussätze:
„In the end, the plurality of democracy mandates that the indispensable condition of democracy is empowerment. And that those who would ‚help‘ others learn liberty, learn to leave them alone. As T. E. Lawrence wrote a long time ago, ‚better to let them do it imperfectly than to do it yourself perfectly: for it is their country, their way and your time is short.‘ If democracy means anything it means the right for people to make their own mistakes. To practice their own religion. To pursue their own forms of self-government. I know, I know. That takes time. It can compromise rights. It sometimes allows patriarchy to persist and affords religion the chance to subvert as well as support democracy. But that’s how it is, and history suggests the alternatives, however well intended, are usually far worse. Just ask George Bush.“
Der wusste schon, dass es nichts werden konnte mit der Demokratisierung des Nahen Ostens: T.E. Lawrence, der den Arabern half, das Osmanische Joch abzuwerfen, im Jahr 1919
Der Linke Barber landet also in letzter Instanz bei T.E. Lawrence, dessen kaltschnäuzigen Satz er zitiert (ohne dessen Befreiungstheologie zu debattieren).
Das ist schon eine interessante Wendung:
„It would require a separate essay to suggest how deeply perverse the typical American understanding of democratization is when it comes to ‚helping‘ others achieve liberty. The problem begins with the illusion that others can be helped, that democracy can be ‚given‘ or liberty ‚gifted‘. No people have ever been liberated from the outside at the point of a gun. An invader may overthrow a tyrant, but cannot create a democracy by doing so. Overthrowing tyranny produces not democracy but instability, disorder, anarchy, often civil war; it tends to lead over time not to democracy but to a new tyrant. President Bush alludes again and again to World War II, but the victory of the Allies over the Nazi regime did not produce democracy. It took re-education, the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and the European Community to do that.“
Benjamin Barber, entspannt und desillusioniert in London.