People are rising. Freedom approaches.

Despite its nighmarish corruption and bad policies, with millions of children dying prematurely, India is better placed than most other Third World nations – nations like Egypt, China, Iran, Pakistan, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Zambia, and the like. 

A few weeks ago I made the bold (and reckless?) prediction that "By 2020 … China, Iran, and North Korea would have had peaceful revolutions and become democracies. The world will become a much safer place for everyone".

I continue to hold that belief. If the wave of higher expectations unleashed by the internet reaches out more rapidly to all corners of the globe, as it should in the coming years, then the message of freedom won't be limited to a few thousand people like me who write books, articles, and preach the benefits of freedom (e.g. my book The Discovery of Freedom which I'm currently working on), but will spread to millions of people across the world. It will then become internalised across the world. Then, with this increased demand for freedom, the day of liberation of these brutalised, unfortunate nations will finally arrive.

The 1950s were the time when imperialism was overthrown across the world, but it was quickly replaced by internal tyranny and misgovernance. Today the enemy is not the foreigner, but within each Third World nation.  By 2020, this INTERNAL tyranny may well have been overthrown across the world. 

Despite the many risks associated with the current mass protests in the Middle East (particularly in Egypt), such as that these countries could potentially go backward, I am hopeful, along with millions of Egyptians (and others across the Middle East and the world) that these nations will soon succeed in overthrowing despotism and in moving closer to genuine democracy that is UNDERPINNED BY FREEDOM.

Let me reiterate that there is no point at all in having sham democracies of the sort that Iran has, where the Mullahs impose their will on the people. That would effectively mean a mass-scale rejection of the aspirations of the people. Let every human experience the state as it should be: as a voluntary social contract, not an imposition.

My best wishes lie with the oppressed peoples of the world. Let us break the chains that our own tyrants have bound us in. Let us overthrow the corrupt and power-hungry – if necessary through violent revolution. The path of freedom is still red, with the blood of martyrs – and deposed tyrants. 

For India, I remain confident that a democratic reform could work to ensure genuine freedom in this nation oppressed by socialist incompetence and delusions for 60 years. That is why I am working on the Freedom Team of India. But this wont' work in all nations. The tyrants of China, for instance, are Hitlerian in their determination to oppress and won't listen to petitions and protests. They will wipe out anyone who protests. So they may need the Charles I treatment.