From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Sat Jan 18 2003 - 20:11:12 MST
> A prime example is Nigeria. This is a country whose
> freedom is being eroded. Right now they cannot even
> host a beauty contest. Freedom of speech and freedom
> of the press are functionally gone. Im a big fan
> of democracy, but I can scarcely blame the minority
> for fighting like hell against the oppression and loss
> of freedom. spike
The tyranny of the majority is alive and well, and armed to the teeth.
I'm a big fan of representative government in preference to, say,
living under a Bokassa or an Amin or a Pol Pot, but I stopped being
a big fan of pure-d "democracy", applied willy-nilly... about 25
or 30 years ago.
Without a bunch of norms of fair play, or checks and balances, or
both--in other words, without some sort of "governor", in the
steam-engine-flyball-valve-sense--democracy winds down/up as "Let's
you and me kill Fred and take his stuff" pretty durned fast. Not
quite as spectacular to see the steam engine throw intself apart
as it is to see a boiler explosion, but it's bad news just the same.
Absent "meddling by outsiders in our sovereign internal affairs",
(attempted) insurgency is a predictable consequence, as is blood feud,
as is genocide. This stuff is happening in many places in Africa, as
well as elsewhere. I would have picked Rwanda as a perfect example
of democracy gone rotten, but there are plenty of examples to choose from.
A pity most outsider meddling is of such desultory quality.
Also a pity that in such extremity, simple platitudes about arms control
fall dully on the graves of the slaughtered minority--always. Machetes.
Hundreds of thousands hacked to death with machetes.
Oh brave new world, that hath such democracies in't.
ObExtro: This is not a g*n thread.
MMB
It takes a village to burn a witch. Oh, and remember to put her head in a bag.
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