In Natan Sharansky’s book, The Case For Democracy, Sharansky outlines a test for a free society, the town square test:

If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society. We cannot rest until every person living in a “fear society” has finally won their freedom.

Both George Bush and Condolezza Rice have endorsed this test, but one person, an everyday 17-year-old British citizen, Lulie, has put it to the test in modern day Britain by showing her support for Israel.

You can read her story and the results here.

hat tip solomonia

Perhaps there is something wrong with the test. Does it expect too much from people? Or do the results really show that we live in a fear society, that the reason the silent majority is silent is out of fear of a violent threatening minority?

If you found Lulie’s wearing of the Israeli flag “asking for trouble” or that she deserved what she got, or you feel she had no right to do what she did, perhaps you prefer the freedom to do this:

or perhaps you fear (or support) those who celebrate Arab violence and intimidation :

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or you show compassion and understanding towards those who bless the mass murder of approx. 12 million European civilians on racial, ethnic, and biological grounds:

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Hmm, it’s not difficult to decide, is it?