In liberal democracies there are costs to
defying the authority of government but in
reflection of their political values citizens
are free to speak as they will of their opinion
as the governed. Granted there is a price to pay
in the sense of being regarded as anti-social
misfits, ingrates and the worst slurs of all racists
and homophobes, placing government critics
in the realm of unsavoury company and that
irrespective of their actual personal values. In
dictatorships on the other hand there are those few
whose principles cannot be the least compromised
by concerns of personal dignity besmirched for
those are not the instruments of punishment meted
out to the unworthy citizen who campaigns against
corruption, exploitation, racist belittlement and
violence. For these stalwarts their sense of caution
for fear of retribution stands resolute against the
fervour of their condemnation of the autocrats
and tyrants who wage external war and violate
human rights at will, praising and inciting terror
groups who do their will as ancillary defense of
the indefensible. Moral outrage leads these people
of conscience to shunt aside fears in favour of
broadcasting to the world the outrages of their
leaders, whom the world soon enough discovers
have been executed by firing squad or hung, or
beheaded or crucified as penance for decrying evil.
And the world shrugs looking elsewhere in a fit of
boredom for its latest titillating, unusual events.
No comments:
Post a Comment