Thursday, 28 May 2009

Care to exercise a little freedom?

“So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannise will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” ~ Voltaire

It might seem odd to some for a religious person to quote Voltaire, but then I put his views of religion in the context of his time and place in Europe. The modern observer may also quite rightly point out that religion is still being hijacked by tyrants and terrorists. Anway, I consider the above statement true regardless of any other views the person held, and highly relevant today. In the context of the approaching European Elections (and as Europeans we have had our fair share of tyrants) it would be irresponsible of us, no matter how angry we are with the high percentage of politicians who have let us down, to reward tomorrow's tyrants with our apathy today.

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