Just because they can

Posted by Marc Hodak on September 28, 2007 under Collectivist instinct | Comments are off for this article

While people in advanced countries initiate mass protests over the possibility of a company being able to fire an employee, or equate WalMart’s employment practices with human rights abuses, or call the toe-tapping of a confused Senator a national scandal, it kind of returns some perspective to watch the military leaders of a country like Myanmar draw the blinds on it’s nation and begin a rampage of intimidation and murder against its own people.

The moral equivalence of the latter event with the former is part of the deconstruction of Western civilization, like the notion of economic violence used to describe consenting adults making informed choices for mutual economic gain. Notwithstanding that deconstruction, the West is at least leaving behind the practice of mass violence against its own people, while the junta in Myanmar shows us the most vivid example of coercion, revealing the essence of government.

Of of the few virtues of democracy is that it at least diffuses government power; tyranny of the majority is slightly better than tyranny of a ruling family. So, like Churchill, I’m far from a fan of democracy, but I’m happy when the klieg lights shine upon cynical, arrogant rulers trying to have their way with unarmed civilians, monks no less, simply because they can. The bright lights make them stop and hide their faces, at least for a moment. The Burmese generals are desperately trying to keep that light from shining in their dark corner of the world. But it’s too late. Their legitimacy is gone. All that is left is their brute force, and there aren’t enough guns to stop the rise of a people against a government that has lost the sanction of its victims.