implications of phrases

what up with Majid Rahnema's line, "to flower in goodness,"? and this dichotomy of inner and outer freedom? does anyone else see this as problematic? i did like a lot of what this author had to say, it just all went strangely toward the end (p.127-9). i'm wondering also why this term, "fear-power"?

The Oxford American dictionary uses this sentence as an example for the definition of democracy: "capitalism and democracy are ascendant in the third world," and this sentence as an example for imperium: "it was the high noon of the imperium, an age when there was something empowering about being American."