DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)

Contact: Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org

LESSONS IN DEMOCRACY

September 14, 2008

Please post this to any lists the subscribers of which might be interested to learn more about democracy.


Announcing the launch of a new website, http://www.lessonsindemocracy.org

The objective of Lessons in Democracy is to provide a straightforward, short, yet comprehensive guide to what may be termed “the organizing principle for human society.” It is designed for the common man and woman. We want to educate the people of the world, so we, meaning humanity, can finally escape from our historical legacy of conflict, repression and dictatorship.

The education comprises twenty 2-3 page lessons, for a total of 50 pages. It should take only a few hours to read. For this small amount of effort, you will attain an understanding of democracy that at present few people on earth can match.

If you are from a country that is not yet liberated, winning your freedom is your first priority. But, you should still be preparing to install democracy when the day comes, and there is a lot that you can do now. The first task is education, to learn about the democratic system. You should also be preparing for reconciliation, between the different groups in your society, and to prosecute the regime for war crimes, by formally documenting its atrocities.

If you are in a country that is already democratic, you may well wonder why it suffers so many intractable problems. Democracy is complicated and it has innumerable pitfalls, all of which can lead to serious difficulties. The solution here again starts with education, to learn to recognize these pitfalls, and to understand the different ways through which they may be managed.

Please forward this announcement widely. We will be attempting to contact pro-democracy groups for every country on earth, but if you know of anyone who might find the site of interest, please let them know. We are particularly interested in suggestions, or assistance, on how to alert teachers and students in civics and government, at both the high school and university levels. (If you are a student, please tell your peers.)

We are also looking for translators for the lessons into other languages. Our highest initial priorities are Burmese, Thai, Chinese, Korean and Arabic. In addition to posting such translations on the website, we have the goal of narrating the lessons and then broadcasting them into countries that are not yet free.