Udo's Techblog

Disclaimer: I know, this blog has to stop descending into matters that aren't really tech-related, but on the other hand it seems I have given up on delivering a focused message a long time ago. Anyway, Obama won, stuff happened and I need to vent a few things before finally moving on.

I believe in the promise of true democracy. Being a self-governing people does not mean the biggest and loudest group gets to push their ideas on everyone else, instead we have to struggle against selfishness to make the best choices for all of society and that includes every person living in it. Sometimes it is easy to forget that every single voice matters - but it does. Democracy is an idea that remains fundamentally unfulfilled and it requires, it mandates us all to never stop trying to improve ourselves and the world we live in.

I believe in freedom. For a society to be free, all of its people have to be free as well. Freedom includes a number of concepts that allow each and everyone of us to choose the life we want for ourselves, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of others. But freedom is not just a cumulative list of bullet points, it also implies a host of things that we need to be free of, such as inequality, oppression, violence and persecution.

As a scientist and humanist, I also believe that everyone has the right to make decisions for themselves, that includes the right to have an abortion - but more importantly it also requires access to contraceptives, starting with science-based comprehensive sex education. I believe that, in order to progress as a society, we need to make science our top priority. I believe religion has no place in science, and it should not play a role in the spending of public funds, or any other government activity for that matter. In order to be free to exercise freedom of belief (or non-belief as it may be), we need to be free from any form of state religion.

I believe privacy is a natural right. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe every child has a right to a science-based education. I believe you should have the whole array of medical services available to you, regardless of your financial status. And yes, I believe that free access to information is just as much a self-evident right as the ability to exchange knowledge and opinion online.

As such, it should come as no surprise which candidate I supported in the US presidential election. I happen to think McCain is a decent guy even though the style of his campaign has been anything but exemplary. But the truth is, it doesn't really matter how nice (or heroic) John McCain is, or even how incompetent Palin might be or how horrible a job George Bush might have done. In the end, the Republican party platform itself remains the complete antithesis to every conviction I have outlined above.

America now has elected someone for president who I hope not only stands for those values, but will start to reverse the trend of the last years that marked a clear departure from the ideals of a free people. In a sense, America has the luxury to go back and forth between extremes, one election can steer the country either back to the dark ages or towards radical progress. Here in Germany, there is no party that clearly represents my democratic values, just as there is no party to represent the values of Sarah Palin. There is only endless bickering, we are stuck in meaningless exchanges and at the end of day, nothing is accomplished besides perfecting our new rightless surveilance state. We live with a political landscape that does little else besides keeping us busy, so we don't notice that our democracy is dying before our eyes. For German politicians, status quo is a way of life, and this is reflected in the media as well. But, like many countries, we just subscribe to changes coming from Washington DC. If America makes a swing towards democratic values, so will Germany. In time.