Is our freedom under threat? What do you think?
Like many of you, I‘m worried and anxious about current political events. Whilst keeping up with the commodities indices and reading industry press, I was shocked to come across a report by Freedom House Freedom House | Expanding freedom and democracy. Apparently, we’ve had 16 consecutive years of declining global freedom. Only 20% of the world’s population live in free countries, whilst 38% live under authoritarian rule and the rest have restricted freedom. Reading this I felt a bit ill-educated, closely followed by an ‘at risk’ feeling.
Last year saw more coups than any of the previous 10 years with authoritarian leaders taking more power across the world. We often worry about economic recessions, but this is a democratic recession on a mass scale. This made me think long and hard about how grateful I am to live in a democratic society, but it also made me feel anxious about the future of our freedom.
I find the plight of the Ukrainian people both moving and humbling, they’re fighting for their freedom. They are doing everything in their power to keep hold of their lives (their lives from before the war), but if they lose, what does that mean for all of us, will it be one more step towards the rest of Europe losing theirs? If the 38% of the population living under authoritarian rule increases and the 20% living in freedom goes down, we all go backward.
I‘m sure we all have at some time thought of wars in faraway places like Afghanistan, Israel and Syria as “not our wars” but any war is a fight for freedom and should never be taken lightly. However, when the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the 3rd of March “I am sure this hysteria will fade away and our Western partners will get over it” it felt like a huge downplaying of the situation.
If the West does not continue to collaborate and be united, if Sergey Lavrov is right, if we back down due to the fear of fuel and food shortages, what will that mean for our future freedom?
What are your thoughts?
