Beacons of hope

DPF seems to think that my comment about the Soviet Union having once been a beacon of hope was some sort of endorsement. Hardly - like DPF, I think that it was a murderous totalitarian despotism whose passing should not be mourned for an instant. At the same time, I recognise the fact that, in the 1920's and 30's, it really did seem to hold out the hope of a better society to a great many people in the west, and was looked to as a model to be emulated. Stalin finished that, though the seeds of its downfall were present right from the beginning, both in the bloody manner in which it came about, and in an ideology which followed Rousseau in thinking that people could - or should - be "forced to be free".

But I guess that sort of recognition of historical fact is just a little too nuanced for those who can't go beyond "communism = bad"...

As for the US, Just Left lays out why the United States was a beacon of hope: the values espoused in the US Declaration of Independence, and its constitution, of freedom, equality, and tolerance, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". As Jordan says:

The real reason America fires so many hearts in praise and anger is that the values it claims to stand for speak to everyone, and usually to the better part of people.

Unfortunately, a majority of voting Americans no longer seem to believe in those values anymore. Quite apart from the election of Bush and endorsement of his policies (more on that later), they also voted to ban gay marriage in eleven states. The US is no longer a beacon of hope or freedom - it is a nation of theocratic bigots.