Hawaiian Lyric of the Month (May/Jun 2004)        "rise for justice the day has come, for all our people* to stand as one"
                                                                                   "defend our birthright to be free, give our children Liberty, e ala e." - IZ (E Ala E)

(*Not the "our people" intended in the song, but as mentioned in Morality: Individual and Social's Part One: Morality and Group Identity, listed below here, people's level of inclusion and identification of "us" differs. My "us" is infinite, my "them" is non-existant. Sometimes the world surprises you and freedom and democracy actually dramatically increase for some, defying the overall definite erosion. Putin did not invent "managed democracy", he merely gave a name to a process already well underway all over the globe in most republics. Wherever people are manipulated to not wish to want to vote, that it will not matter, the parties in power can only benefit from this and, keeping a low profile about it, try to increase such feelings behind the scenes, and smaller groups get greater powers. Over 30% of Bush's supporters after the 2000 election declared in a poll  by the nation's most reputable pollster, that they did not care if he actually won the election, they wanted him to be president anyway. With numbers like that, and often around 50% or more not voting at all in many countries, democracies in anything but in name only are an endangered species, if not extinct yet. Democracy's lease is up for renewal every election, and fewer and fewer people every decade bother to renew that lease. What people declare they would fight and die to protect, they are easily made to give up, and are giving up on more levels than they realize, merely by allowing those forces that benefit from enhancing their apathy, to control them.)