Governments and repression

jamesd@netcom.com:
Obviously most people do not call MIT a government.
And if MIT built some prison cells under the Admin building and started locking people up in the dungeons for long periods, then people would call MIT a government.
Hezbollah, Hamas, the IRA, the Khmers Rouges lock people up. You may not believe it but there are those who accept their 'rules' under the threat of violence. I suppose 'most people' call _them_ governments? I'm amazed at the way some of you keep screaming about the violence of governments. Maybe you need to experience some _real_ repression. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "Clean the air! clean the sky! wash the wind! rishab@dxm.ernet.in take stone from stone and wash them..." Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA

On Wed, 31 Aug 1994 rishab@dxm.ernet.in wrote:
jamesd@netcom.com:
Obviously most people do not call MIT a government.
And if MIT built some prison cells under the Admin building and started locking people up in the dungeons for long periods, then people would call MIT a government.
Hezbollah, Hamas, the IRA, the Khmers Rouges lock people up. You may not believe it but there are those who accept their 'rules' under the threat of violence. I suppose 'most people' call _them_ governments?
I'm amazed at the way some of you keep screaming about the violence of governments. Maybe you need to experience some _real_ repression.
I see. It's the ole "It's worse in other places so quit bitching." Sure, it's worse in a lot of places. This is the U.S.A. (or it is where I am). We use most of the world's resources and we are leaders in quite a few technologies (or close to it). That doesn't mean that when things are getting shitty here I have to tolerate it because "it could be worse" or "you could live under a REALLY repressive government." I don't want to live under ANY repressive government, period.

rishab@dxm.ernet.in says:
Hezbollah, Hamas, the IRA, the Khmers Rouges lock people up. You may not believe it but there are those who accept their 'rules' under the threat of violence. I suppose 'most people' call _them_ governments?
I would refer to most governments as being no more than large organized gangs, differing from the Mafia or Hezbollah only in so far as they have convinced large numbers of people of their legitimacy.
I'm amazed at the way some of you keep screaming about the violence of governments. Maybe you need to experience some _real_ repression.
The vast majority of people killed in acts of violence this century have been killed by governments, often their own. I am no less concerned about being killed by non-governmental force, but the governmental forces stop me from doing things to lower my risk of being killed by non-governmental forces. Perry
participants (3)
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Al Billings
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Perry E. Metzger
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rishab@dxm.ernet.in