"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people."
V’s maxim is clearly related to Thomas Jefferson’s “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
and to a similar maxim that says that “Democracy consists of the people watching the government, not the other way around.”
The quote above has been shuffled out several times already today. What no one seems to have noticed is that the government in Iran clearly is afraid of its people, and it is reacting as governments always do under such circumstances: it has sent its soldiers and police out onto the streets with sticks and guns. Apparently this isn’t such a desirable state of affairs after all.
The basis for a stable democracy is not fear on one side or the other, but mutual trust on both sides.
