Because they don't possess what he will deign to recognize as freedom, their choices and preferred modes of life are inauthentic and thus do not merit respect. His 1995 book Jihad vs. McWorld is largely given over to excoriations of McDonald's, not because that corporation fails to meet the demands of consumers in America and throughout the world but precisely because it does. I don't mean to suggest that Barber is dissembling when he declares a passion for democracy. Love is elevated and ennobling but, as we all know, it can be blind. In the throes of passion one is inclined to see the beloved object as one wishes it to be, not as it really is.
Love frequently is possessive, demanding reciprocation and exclusivity.
When spurned it lashes out vindictively. Benjamin Barber courts an electorate that persistently rejects his embrace and instead obdurately holds onto its own affections. It thereby shows itself unworthy to be the object of devotion of so ardent a lover. These two volumes are a disparate pair. Once one gets past the rabble-rousing, the essays in A Passion for Democracy offer nuggets of keen historical insight and every so often connect with a sharp dart to the complacent regions of liberal capitalism.