I have rewritten this book and I have now published it in hard cover, soft cover, and as Never Again: Ending War, Democide, & Famine Through Democratic Freedom Although it is labeled a factual supplement to my Never Again Series of novels, it is also a supplement to this website and my blog. See the synopsis and the Table of Contents. The book is downloadable FREE in pdf.
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To promote freedom for everyone is to promote a better life for all ----This book |
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I have changed my estimate for colonial democide from 870,000 to an additional 50,000,000. Details here.
Thus, the new world total: old total 1900-1999 = 174,000,000. New World total = 174,000,000 + 38,000,000 (new for China) + 50,000 (new for Colonies) = 262,000,000.
Just to give perspective on this incredible murder by government, if all these bodies were laid head to toe, with the average height being 5', then they would circle the earth ten times. Also, this democide murdered 6 times more people than died in combat in all the foreign and internal wars of the century. Finally, given popular estimates of the dead in a major nuclear war, this total democide is as though such a war did occur, but with its dead spread over a century.
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* Copyright January 17, 2001. This book may be downloaded in part or in whole for personal or educational use. It may not be used for profit or republished in any form without the express permission of R.J. Rummel at rummel@Hawaii.edu.
I am especially indebted to Judson Knight, who with great care and good humor edited a draft of this book. I had no intention of writing this book when he contacted me about this web site, and the resulting interaction between us finally led to what you read here. I hasten to add that I alone am responsible for whatever misdeeds appear here, especially since it is several versions beyond that which he edited.
Humanity now has a practical cure for foreign and civil war, genocide and mass murder, famine and mass hunger, mass impoverishment, and gross gender and economic inequality. Our accumulated scientific and scholarly knowledge, and the results of vast social and economic experiments involving billions of people over three centuries, now enable us to claim, with even more confidence than saying that orange juice is good for you, that we can create perpetual peace, long life and secure lives, abundant food, wealth, and prosperity.
This is no dream, no utopian claim. This is the well-established fruit of the free market and human rights, of democratic freedom. The knowledge of this exists among economists and political scientists working on these problems, and even some of the highest officials, such as former President Clinton, knew of, and acted on, the most surprising claim that freedom is a cure for war. However, as incredibly important as this knowledge is, it is widely unknown by the public, including the major media, and most professionals outside the relevant research areas.
In Saving Lives, Enriching Life: Freedom as a Right and Moral Good I intend to communicate this knowledge to the public in a way that they not only assimilate it, but understand why they have a right to freedom, and why freedom is so powerful in saving lives and enriching life.
I have packaged the various threats to human life against which the freedom of a people protects them by the idea of human security. Human insecurity then involves:
Though the various chapters of this book and an appendix providing new systematic statistical analyses of 190 nations for over 70 variables, I will show that freedom is a solution to all these threats, that democratic freedom produces human security
What Themes Run Through This Book?
There are several themes on which the chapters will focus and that I will repeat through out the book. These concern the power of freedom to end or lessen threats to human security and to drive human and economic development. These are: