So-called freedom and democracy could only exist under rational conditions—when everyone possessed rational emotions, long-term vision, and sufficient wisdom. This was what the Goddess of Wisdom had taught Salomon. She had personally described to him how she had witnessed Socrates' death, then demanded that he read the Apology of Socrates and The Republic.
The real reason Athena had come to despise the city named after her was not Socrates' atheism, but that the Athenians had rejected his reverence for truth. Before Salomon's mission to promote truth, reason, and science was complete—before the elevation of the soul had been achieved—the overwhelming majority of people simply did not possess long-term vision or sufficient wisdom. In modern society, capitalist democracy had effectively become nothing more than a pretext; every noble aspiration had been twisted into self-righteous rhetoric and private gain.
When the Latverian Royalty was providing money for European and American financial conglomerates to exploit the people, it was an "important partner," and no one had any right to meddle with "the choices of the Latverian people." But once the chain of interests broke, Latveria would become a place "under the terrifying rule of dictators, where the air was thick with oppression and everyone lived in fear." If Victor von Doom liberated Latveria and gave its people prosperous lives, then that was how Latveria would be portrayed by the Western media. Yet that was not the most fatal problem. Media slander alone was no great concern. Salomon had already explained in detail the predicament they would face after liberating Latveria—food embargoes, blockades on high-tech industries, social media smear campaigns, CIA infiltration, and the incitement of organized rebellions. Even if the City of Immortals displayed its nuclear weapons and formidable global strike capabilities, preventing Europe and the United States from accusing Latveria of possessing