Is the world really turning dark?

By Michael Breen

Everywhere these days, it would seem, the conversation among people who follow news turns on a troubling question: What is going on?

Like, Brexit. Why would the electorate in one of the world's most wealthy and stable countries vote for a historic change of national strategy without any idea of where it would take them?

Trump. How could the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan turn the dial of political discourse in the nation that shaped the better values of our age down so low?

Terrorism. We know war is horrible, but what is this zombie stuff, driving trucks into holidaymakers and staging kamikaze attacks on shoppers? How do people turn off their conscience for this cause? Actually, what is the cause?

When you don't know why things are happening, it's hard to see an end to them. This makes the future look very dark. It is as if the safe life we know is tumbling downwards. Perhaps this is how the empire of modern democracy crumbles.

But, are things so bad?

I don't think so.

Consider the expansion across the globe of basic liberties. Even as recently as 1975, most of Africa and Asia, half of Europe, and parts of Latin America were ruled by dictators. Now, 60 percent of mankind lives in democracies where citizens have guaranteed rights and a say in how they are ruled.

Evidence and common sense suggest that this trend is continuing, not shrinking.

Economic growth in China is certain to lead to democracy there, as it did in Taiwan and Korea 30 years ago. It will not come without a struggle and could even lead to a partial breakup of the country, but democracy will come because it is universal, because the examples are in everyone's face, and because the Chinese people will not put up with less.

There are some other autocratic holdouts, such as Belarus, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Swaziland, Vietnam and, of course, our own beloved North Korea, but otherwise most non-democracies in the world are the countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa where most of the population is Moslem.

And it is in this context that the rise of Islamic terrorism is best understood.

The process by which Moslem-dominated countries, like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan, for example, become democratic is the same as for any other country ― and it involves religion giving up its control over politics and accepting its rightful place as a choice for the individual citizen.

The Islamic State and other such groups represent the passionate resistance to democratization. Its fans are trying to uphold a pure and true form of the faith to prevent what they see as pollution of God's will by the secular and the sinful.

As ghastly as any such claim to virtue may seem, given the cruelty with which they resist, such a view may explain why many of the young people flocking to its cause actually appear sincere and devout and unlike the serial killers that we imagine them to be.

But, despite their devotion, they will lose. They will lose because the 99.99 percent rejects what they offer and they lack the means to force anything on us. Their destiny is to be a bad memory.

So, in this explanation, where do Brexit and Trump fit it?

I see them as part of a similar march toward democracy, but one that is most apparent in countries that we already see as free.

The most notable change in democratic countries in the last ten years is the way in which people receive their news, understand it and exercise their say in how they are governed. Before that, news was delivered to the unwashed masses by elite trained professionals working for media that varied from the irresponsible to the serious and highly credible.

As with all elites, there was an element of abuse in the way this news was delivered. For example, if a politician said something stupid or a celebrity accidentally showed her knickers getting into the Bentley, the journalists would be sure to deliver this important news. Claiming the moral high ground, media happily destroyed public figures, often for doing what they, the reporters, did in private. Such was the Washington game.

Social media has changed this type of power abuse. Now, we have a community of people with shared values. We share articles from the professional media but are no longer so influenced by them.

What we are seeing is a sudden huge increase in participatory democracy. That the choices made might be sudden and even bad does not damage the greater good. Even if the UK leaves Europe and even if Americans elect Trump, balance will be restored the next time around.

The point I am making here is not to be blasé about the immediate issues. But it is that they are contradictions taking place in a world that is getting better.

The world is of course imperfect but the march of democracy and the right to life, liberty and individual happiness is going in a clear direction.

A much brighter world lies ahead.

Michael Breen is the CEO of Insight Communications Consultants, a public relations company, and author of "The Koreans" and "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader."