P.J. O'Rourke talks about the attitude of freedom and the important things that get confused as "promoting democracy". Excerpt:

"People must, of course, feel free of physical and economic oppression. But first they must feel free of ignorance.

People need to be able to look around, people need to see. Even people who are locked in a room are more free in a room with the lights on than they are in a dark room — where they're bumping into each other and the furniture.

There's power in the Attitude of Liberty — a sense that one has some knowledge, some understanding, and therefore some control, if only control over one's own ideas.

The strength of America is not economic, military, or diplomatic. The strength of America is an idea — an idea of a place where people have information, understanding, and control over their lives. Once, during the civil war in Lebanon, I was stopped at a Hezbollah checkpoint by a teenager with an AK-47. When the young man saw my American passport I was subjected, with a gun muzzle in my face, to a twenty minute tirade about "great American satan devil." I was told that America had caused war, famine, injustice, Zionism, and poverty all over the world. Then, when the boy had finished his rant, he lowered his gun and said, "As soon as I get my Green Card I am going to Dearborn, Michigan, to study dentist school."

Information is the source of citizenship. Without information no one can even attempt to build a civil society. ..."

Full article can be found here at the World Affairts Journal and is an interesting read.