Understanding terrorism

[mricytoast]

Originally Posted by bargalunan

I’ve found Star Wars 2 and 3 excellent in showing how a democracy can give birth to a dictatorship :
You look like a good democrat (Palpatine) waiting for your hour and wanting to be a dictator, you need an army that obey without thinking but that your folk would refuse :
Create, use or strengthen an existing problem (separatists, terrorists) --> Use the full powers given legally by the parliament in promise you’ll defend fatherland and give them back after the problem is resolved (better when you buy senators before) --> Bring the solution (clones army) --> eliminate your former friends and actual enemies (Jedi) in accusing them of betrayal --> transform the Republic in an Empire under general applause --> eliminate your actual enemies and former friends (separatists) --> keep the power as a life emperor under terror when you’re the last one. --> Be careful of your pupil !

First thing I thought of there was Julius Caesar (Although whether he was going to stay a dictator was a question). Or, for that matter, any supposed "free" country that becomes a dictatorship. I think our good friend the Naturalist in Master and Commander said it best... "... Authority Corrupts". And in all honesty, it does. Oliver Cromwell: fought for freedom against the monarch, right? Ended up being a dictator. Stalin: Okay, negative picture here for a negative guy, but it's the same principle. And it isn't a democracy, but, he took power from the powerless to just be plain wicked.

I know it probably does sound fictitious and unrealistic. But it's happened before in history. It sounds conspiracy theoristic, but that's generally how such coups of liberty take place. slowly and surely. First it's unwarranted searches on subways, then its unwarranted searches on the streets, then it's unwarranted searches of homes. See the general direction? I find it quite scary that we are voting away our freedoms. Or rather, those lovely senators and represenatives are voting away our freedoms. I think our good friend Ben Franklin summed it up best when he said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".