"Workers in Poland once chanted, “There’s no freedom without Solidarity”; by the early 2000s, the slogan had become, “There’s no solidarity in freedom.” The Gdansk shipyard, where the Solidarity movement had begun in 1980, went bankrupt in 1996. But freedom, understood as some basic control over one’s everyday life, also suffered: As Garton Ash puts it, “The locus of unfreedom moved from the state to the workplace.” ...

This was not the only disillusionment: Heroes of dissident movements in Central and Eastern Europe turned into ordinary politicians—which, in some cases, meant corrupt politicians. Even Czechs eventually tired of such a towering figure as Vaclav Havel (whom Garton Ash knew well); by the end, they no longer saw exemplary courage and integrity but only, Garton Ash writes, “theatrical gestures and moralistic preaching.”

Meanwhile, the self-restraint of Bush gave way to the hubris of his son’s America, where the financialization of everything and the trust in so-called self-regulating markets rightly discredited Western versions of capitalism after the 2008 crisis and where the belief in spreading democracy through military conquest, sorely disappointed in Iraq and Afghanistan, made Western freedom rhetoric ring hollow. The global war on terrorism turned out to be a colossal failure of political judgment; Garton Ash thinks Beijing should posthumously award al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden its highest honors for leading Washington into a decade of “strategic distraction.”

And so the downward turn began and, arguably, continues today. "

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/29/europe-history-timothy-garton-ash-homelands-eu-liberalism-memory/

On Wednesday, November 8, 2023 at 1:14:08 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:
> "Workers in Poland once chanted, “There’s no freedom without Solidarity”; by the early 2000s, the slogan had become, “There’s no solidarity in freedom.” The Gdansk shipyard, where the Solidarity movement had begun in 1980, went bankrupt in 1996. But freedom, understood as some basic control over one’s everyday life, also suffered: As Garton Ash puts it, “The locus of unfreedom moved from the state to the workplace.” ...
>
> This was not the only disillusionment: Heroes of dissident movements in Central and Eastern Europe turned into ordinary politicians—which, in some cases, meant corrupt politicians. Even Czechs eventually tired of such a towering figure as Vaclav Havel (whom Garton Ash knew well); by the end, they no longer saw exemplary courage and integrity but only, Garton Ash writes, “theatrical gestures and moralistic preaching.”
>
> Meanwhile, the self-restraint of Bush gave way to the hubris of his son’s America, where the financialization of everything and the trust in so-called self-regulating markets rightly discredited Western versions of capitalism after the 2008 crisis and where the belief in spreading democracy through military conquest, sorely disappointed in Iraq and Afghanistan, made Western freedom rhetoric ring hollow. The global war on terrorism turned out to be a colossal failure of political judgment; Garton Ash thinks Beijing should posthumously award al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden its highest honors for leading Washington into a decade of “strategic distraction.”
>
> And so the downward turn began and, arguably, continues today. "
>
> https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/29/europe-history-timothy-garton-ash-homelands-eu-liberalism-memory/

梁启超《说群》序
清光绪二十三年
“启超问治天下之道于南海先生。先生曰：“以群为体，以变为用。斯二义立，虽治千万年之天下可已。”
...
以群术治群，群乃成；以独术治群，群乃败。己群之败，它群之利也。何谓独术？人人皆知有己，不知有天下。君私其府，官私其爵，农私其畴，工私其业，商私其价，身私其利，家私其肥，宗私其族，族私其姓，乡私其土，党私其里，师私其教，士私其学。以故为民四万万，则为国亦四万万，夫是之谓无国。善治国者，知君之与民，同为一群之中之一人，因以知夫一群之中所以然之理，所常行之事，使其群合而不离，萃而不涣，夫是之谓群术。天下之有列国也，己群与他群所由分也，据乱世之治群多以独，太平世之治群必以群。以独术与独术相遇，犹可以自存；以独术与群术相遇，其亡可翘足而待也。彼泰西群术之善，直百年以来焉耳，而其浡兴也若此。今以吾喜独之质点，而效人乐群之行事，是犹饰西颦于嫫眉，蒙虎皮于羊质，是以万变而万不当也。抑吾闻之，有国群，有天下群。泰西之治，其以施之国群则至矣，其以施之天下群则犹未也。”
https://www.xuges.com/xdmj/lqc/hj/023.htm