Well, I don't know. Athens got conquered by Sparta, with oligarchy installed, but bounced back to democracy within a year, lasting until the more permanent conquest by Macedon. The USA and Confederacy both had elections in the middle of civil war, the USA and UK maintained elections in WWII. Iceland's Althing has run a long time, through famines.

~David D.G.

In fact, the Internet alone allows for the mass dissemination of information unlike anything that Tom Paine or Frederick Douglass could have imagined. Any effort by countries such as China to censor this platform is an exercise in futility, as I would imagine that it's impossible to silence a worldwide, multimedia network.

This is why I never understood the concept of censorship: in the short-term it works like a dream, but it always fails in the long-term, especially once ideas spread. History has proven this time and again. The only true way to achieve absolute subjugation of a populace, as Ebon mentioned, is to control their thoughts (Orwell and "thoughtcrime" comes to mind), though even in today's world this proves exceedingly difficult.

Good post, and a necessary one.

America has survived as a democracy because it quickly produced a wealthy and powerful upper class whose interests have always been to let no one person attain absolute power. Even when the democracy was as corrupt as it was during the slave trade, or as corrupt as it is now because of oilmen, it always stayed a democracy because there was plenty of money to be made out of it.

We like to wag our finger at other countries who are coping with natural resource problems that are simply mind boggling when we've never dealt with anything similar ourselves. If we used American standards for when it's okay to invade other countries in order to secure a resource for reasons of national security (i.e. to steal it), then China should have invaded every country on earth by now. If we used American standards for how much freedom we're willing to give up when a couple terrorists fly a plane into some buildings, then what we really should be asking is why Americans have become so weak and pathetic since the days of Washington instead of why the Chinese don't have a real democracy yet.

One remarkable fact about human history is that every tyranny, every dictatorship, every autocracy - without exception - censors speech which criticizes its rulers or otherwise upsets its preconceptions.

Resisting......urge....to bash......Dubya.......