In 2005, economist Thomas Friedman wrote that the world, for economic purposes, was flat. In other words, that technological advances were such that a guy in Afghanistan could compete with a woman in Iceland for the dollars of a tweenager in Canada (my poor attempt at illustrating his point). If you haven't read the book by now, go read it to make the writing of this blog entry easier for me.
I now argue that perhaps, barriers to entry into tyranny have been removed and when it comes to torture and extrajudicial killings, the world is also flat. Today, the thought crossed my mind that maybe, the same way economies have flattened, so have cultural and political values. I came to this conclusion because I saw several governmental entities engage in torture with impunity, but noticed that only some have been called out for that torture, while others weren't. I have also seen that extra-judicial killings happen regularly in the U.S. without being called extra-judicial killings; a term only used when similar actions occur in countries we consider undemocratic. In other words, public discourse in the U.S. deflects from the lived realities of Americans and their similarities to folks in other parts of the world, the fact is that today you can be tortured with impunity or killed extrajudicially by a democratic government, a military dictatorship, a theocracy, all or any.
To illustrate, today Otto Wambrier passed away. He was the kid who snuck into North Korea, was charged with a crime, given a one hour trial, quickly found guilty and was held for approximately 17 months by the North Korean government. He was returned to his family in a coma and passed away today. Today is the day the U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Ziglar v. Abbasi, et.al. This was the case brought by several men for having been detained and tortured for anywhere from 6-8 months by the Federal government and they were seeking restitution. These men had not been arraigned, had no trial and were simply held and tortured by the U.S. government. The U.S. Supreme Court said that was okay.
Yesterday Charleena Lyles was shot by the Seattle police after she called to report a burglary. She had no arraignment, no trial, she was just executed...and Friday, the officer who murdered Philando Castile was acquitted. Castile had no arraignment, no trial and his execution was swift. Had either of these murders occurred in the global south, or in a dictatorship, they would have been condemned as tyrannical.
As Friedman argued for economics, I argue the same for tyranny; barriers to entry have been removed. The U.S. Constitution, and constitutions generally, used to be democratic documents that once prevented undemocratic behaviors and protected against tyranny. But that barrier to entry into tyranny has been re-envisioned and effectively removed, so that whether you are in North Korea or the U.S., El Salvador or the U.S. you can experience tyranny with impunity wherever you are, under whatever form of government you are under. It is time to remove tyranny altogether and the only way to do that is to forget how we label actors and instead condemn the acts.
I now argue that perhaps, barriers to entry into tyranny have been removed and when it comes to torture and extrajudicial killings, the world is also flat. Today, the thought crossed my mind that maybe, the same way economies have flattened, so have cultural and political values. I came to this conclusion because I saw several governmental entities engage in torture with impunity, but noticed that only some have been called out for that torture, while others weren't. I have also seen that extra-judicial killings happen regularly in the U.S. without being called extra-judicial killings; a term only used when similar actions occur in countries we consider undemocratic. In other words, public discourse in the U.S. deflects from the lived realities of Americans and their similarities to folks in other parts of the world, the fact is that today you can be tortured with impunity or killed extrajudicially by a democratic government, a military dictatorship, a theocracy, all or any.
To illustrate, today Otto Wambrier passed away. He was the kid who snuck into North Korea, was charged with a crime, given a one hour trial, quickly found guilty and was held for approximately 17 months by the North Korean government. He was returned to his family in a coma and passed away today. Today is the day the U.S. Supreme Court issued their decision in Ziglar v. Abbasi, et.al. This was the case brought by several men for having been detained and tortured for anywhere from 6-8 months by the Federal government and they were seeking restitution. These men had not been arraigned, had no trial and were simply held and tortured by the U.S. government. The U.S. Supreme Court said that was okay.
Yesterday Charleena Lyles was shot by the Seattle police after she called to report a burglary. She had no arraignment, no trial, she was just executed...and Friday, the officer who murdered Philando Castile was acquitted. Castile had no arraignment, no trial and his execution was swift. Had either of these murders occurred in the global south, or in a dictatorship, they would have been condemned as tyrannical.
As Friedman argued for economics, I argue the same for tyranny; barriers to entry have been removed. The U.S. Constitution, and constitutions generally, used to be democratic documents that once prevented undemocratic behaviors and protected against tyranny. But that barrier to entry into tyranny has been re-envisioned and effectively removed, so that whether you are in North Korea or the U.S., El Salvador or the U.S. you can experience tyranny with impunity wherever you are, under whatever form of government you are under. It is time to remove tyranny altogether and the only way to do that is to forget how we label actors and instead condemn the acts.
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