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Re: Global Crossing & Hurricane Electric looked other way ?? said by amigo_boy:For example, in Latin America it's not uncommon to have annual demonstrations, often violent. Or, for labor sectors to shut down the country. Or, to walk through the main airport and find demonstrators disrupting operations (for better working conditions). It's all accepted as part of how society works. That it's better than "staying in line, and waiting for the authorities to take care of something." For someone who has seen those demonstrations first hand, your entire statement speaks volumes of how ignorant you really are.
Those demonstrations do NOTHING but give the governments the excuse to crack down and beat the crap out of protesters and rarely help the situation. | |
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1 edit | said by moonpuppy:Those demonstrations do NOTHING but give the governments the excuse to crack down and beat the crap out of protesters and rarely help the situation. But, your contention is that, if commoners were less "uppity" (stayed home, engaged in calm discourse), things would be better. That's largely how dictatorships arose in the 70s - 80s (with US assistance, I might add).
Your argument could have (and was) applied to the US founders too.
Mark | |
| said by amigo_boy:But, your contention is that, if commoners were less "uppity" (stayed home, engaged in calm discourse), things would be better. That's largely how dictatorships arose in the 70s - 80s (with US assistance, I might add). Your argument could have (and was) applied to the US founders too. Mark Not my contention at all.
The fact is the more violent a crowd becomes, the easier it is for police and the military to justify their actions whether it be tear gas, attack dogs, water cannons or bullets (rubber and real.)
The second a crowd turns from peaceful protests to rioting the tide of public opinion turns away from them. | |
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| said by moonpuppy:The second a crowd turns from peaceful protests to rioting the tide of public opinion turns away from them. I don't disagree with that, as far as it goes. It's the old adage that the definition of a terrorist or patriot depends on who won (and, by extension, how popular the rebellion was). Just a few years after the American Revolution some whiskey makers felt put upon by taxation. Using the same rhetoric of the founders just a decade earlier they rebelled in what came to be called Shay's Rebellion.
The public was horrified. It was the leading cause for calls to abandon the relatively libertarian Articles of Confederation for the Federal Constitution. Backers of the AoC defended (or at least poo-pooed) Shay and his men. But, their side lost. We ended up with a relatively colossal government from the *very* same people who used Shay's arguments against the British.
OTOH, if nobody ever tests popularity (or even encouraged to discuss it, and consider their right to test it) you end up with a populace who is largely apathetic, disengaged, content.
If we applied the same mindset which pervades our society today (you have to play by the rules) we wouldn't have had the original Revolution. However, that doesn't mean I want to see anarchy, or every nutjob blowing up federal buildings. Just saying there's a certain level of passion and critical thought that we've lost. (And, I see expressed in countries we tend to look down upon.).
Mark | |
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