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What are dictators afraid of ?

 
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ltp-008



Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 258

PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 2:53 am    Post subject: What are dictators afraid of ? Reply with quote

What are dictators afraid of ?

China is No.one nation in the world which has brought up countless dictators, according to some Chinese historians there were about 560 emperors throughout 4,000 years' Chinese history.

What are the dictators afraid of ? Maybe this is a funny question, as a dictator or an emperor in China they had limitless power over their people, they owned the nation, and they could kill their people at will and they regarded their people as rubbish and slaves. They could have hundreds and even thousands of wives companied with thousands of eunuches castrated.Their ministers had kowtowed to these emperors when they met these Chinese dictators.

There once was a king in ancient Rome who admired Chinese emperors and he wanted to order his ministers to kowtow to him when they met him, the result was that he was assassinated soon after.Westerners has the tradition of equality and freedom, they think that you could lead us but you couldn't insult us.

Now you may know the reason why China is No.one nation which has fostered countless dictators, the reality is that not only did China bring up dictators but also extol dictators, even these dictators were invaders and conquers of China, and even they killed countless Chinese. The main reason why the Chinese extol these dictators is that these dictators became the Chinese emperors and also made their offsprings succeed to emperors . Isn't it funny?

There was an emperor called Zhudi in Ming dynasty four hundreds years ago , after he killed ten of thousands of people and ousted his nephew- then an emperor in China and became a new Chinese emperor, he began to fake Chinese history, in the historical textbook in Ming dynasty there was one emperor unwritten who was ousted by Zhudi. What was he afraid of ? The fact was that he was afraid of truth, he was afraid of the people who knew that he ousted his nephew, he wanted to make Chinese consider him as a legitimated emperor. Just like the story of the " New Costume of Emperor", you can't see the costume however you have to cheer with other people together and say that this un-existed costume is so beautiful, this is a lasting Chinese tradition in which Chinese dictators have forced Chinese to form for very long. China doesn't have prosperous and harmonious society but the dictators or the rulers of China say that China has, then the ordinary Chinese people have to follow the dictators to say the " New costume of Emperor", if not then these dictators will accuse these people of not being patriotism.

Back three hundreds years ago Chinese emperors in Qing dynasty finally found effective ways to fake history, they found literary Inquisition or " Imprisonment due to Writings " which made any writtings that were not favorable to Chinese emperors disappear and put these writers in prisons. This Literary Inquisition had made Chinese say " New costume of emperor" for two hundreds years. How happy the Chinese were?!

However at the same time when China was in Literary Inquisition, in 1789 French gave birth to the " Declaration of Human Rights" which claimed that every human being was created equally , since then China began to drop behind the Western.

In modern China from the time of the ruling of Nationalist party in mainland China before 1949 to the time of ruling of communist party after 1949 the Literary Inquisition or "Imprisonment due to Writtings" has become more and more practical and brutal , millions of Chinese people were put into prisons due to their writtings or speeches, many of them even were killed respectively by the Chinese Nationalsit government and communist government.

However on September of 2006 Taiwan of south China happened a significant historical event which was that millions of Taiwanese led by Shimingde had peacefully protested against Taiwanese president Chensuibian for more than one month around president palace.This event surprised the world and shocked the whole China. Shimingde and Chensuibian both were put into prisons for Literary Inquisition before Taiwan became democracy, after 20 years they became opponents , however they both share the common values which are that people have the rights to oppose against their governments and people have the rights to freely express their own views . These common values shared by them were the lessons which they learned throughout their lives in prisons, this is a great treasure for all Chinese.

Now perhaps you knew what the dictators are afraid of , they are afraid of equality, freedom and democracy. In order to maintain their dictatorship ruling these dictators and totalitarian regimes in the world will try their best to supress their people, limit and block the free flow of information, they clearly knew that if they are not doing so they will lose their powers immediately. However people love equality, freedom and democracy in nature, no matter how these dictators and totalitarian regimes exhaust any means to supress their people, freedom and democracy will prevail in these dictatorship countries in the near future, the evolution of civilization in the world can't be stopped by these dictators.
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asterix



Joined: 26 Jan 2003
Posts: 1654

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 9:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I found this an interesting piece.
I agree with you that all dictators are afraid of truth.
Unfortunately, all governments, even democratic ones, are guilty of manipulating the truth.
The difference is that dictatorships will kill you for telling the truth about them, whereas the democratic governments will deny it until they are blue in the face.
It's all very much like George Orwell's classic 1984, in fact.
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beancurdturtle



Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 1041
Location: Southern California

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think your conclusion is interesting and quite correct.

And asterix has valid comments as well.

When there is a lack of parity and denial of rights and truth, eventually there is some kind of revolution. This happens both under dictatorships and democracies.

One major difference is that in totalitarian regimes the human cost of revolution is typically much higher than in democracies.

I think reform is best accomplished (least human cost) at a moderate pace. So I hope market and society reforms continue, and everyone will eventually benefit from the increased prosperity in China.
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�Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.�
--Dr. Seuss
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ltp-008



Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 258

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

asterix wrote:
I found this an interesting piece.
I agree with you that all dictators are afraid of truth.
Unfortunately, all governments, even democratic ones, are guilty of manipulating the truth.
The difference is that dictatorships will kill you for telling the truth about them, whereas the democratic governments will deny it until they are blue in the face.
It's all very much like George Orwell's classic 1984, in fact.


Thank you for spending your time to read this post, it is a little longer most of people here don't want to spend their time to read this kind of post.

I agree with you that all kind of governments including the democratic ones manipulating the truth, most of politicians will try thier best to cover the truths which are not favorable to them no matter whether or not they are the elected politicians and dictators.

However in democratic countries there are freedom of speech, press and assembly, there is check and balance within the government, for instance Bill Clinton originally denied that he had romantic relationship with his intern Lewinsky, thanks to the freedom of press and check and balance in America government he finally admitted that he had improper relationship with Lewinsky.

By contrast you can hardly find that hign-ranking communist officials have romantic relationship with other women in the press, but the fact is that many of them have romantic relationship with other women, the press don't dare to report this kind of news thanks to the control of media in China, needless to say the reports of corruption of hign-ranking communist officials.
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ltp-008



Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 258

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 6:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

beancurdturtle wrote:
I think your conclusion is interesting and quite correct.

And asterix has valid comments as well.

When there is a lack of parity and denial of rights and truth, eventually there is some kind of revolution. This happens both under dictatorships and democracies.

One major difference is that in totalitarian regimes the human cost of revolution is typically much higher than in democracies.

I think reform is best accomplished (least human cost) at a moderate pace. So I hope market and society reforms continue, and everyone will eventually benefit from the increased prosperity in China.


Hi my fightting partner~ thank you for not fighting against me in this post, Laughing just kidding.

Yes there will be some kind of revolution when there is a lack of parity and denial of rights and truth.

In modern China under communist dictatorship ruling there have been many demonstrations to protest the Chinese communist goverment, the most famous one was the demonstration in 1989 Tiananmen square , the result was that the communist government cracked down these protesters by tanks, hundreds or maybe thousands of prosters were killed due to their peaceful demonstration. It is hard to imagine that this kind of cracking down would happen in democratic countries, isn't it ?

Chinese economy has improved a lot since China conducted free market-oriented reforms in 1979, the Chinese human rights also have been impoved little by little, no matter how slow they are this is a good sign for all Chinese to cheer for, remember that China is still under the ruling of communist dictatorship regime now, this progress is meaningful although at the same time some of activists for democracy and freedom in China are still being put into prisons. Now more and more people in China dare to challenge the authority of Chinese communsit government, more and more poeple work hard to make China more democratic , so in the end China will become free and democratic country in the near future, maybe twenty years, or fifty years but no longer than 100 years. Smile
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beancurdturtle



Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 1041
Location: Southern California

PostPosted: Mon Apr 16, 2007 7:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ltp-008 wrote:
In modern China under communist dictatorship ruling there have been many demonstrations to protest the Chinese communist goverment, the most famous one was the demonstration in 1989 Tiananmen square , the result was that the communist government cracked down these protesters by tanks, hundreds or maybe thousands of prosters were killed due to their peaceful demonstration. It is hard to imagine that this kind of cracking down would happen in democratic countries, isn't it ?

Crackdowns do happen on peaceful protesters in the US - again, there is a difference in human cost. At the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, over 1,000 people were detained and held in confinement by the police, without charge, for up to three days on an abandoned pier in New York City. I know someone that was held there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Convention_protest_activity

I think the last time protesters were killed in the US was on May 4, 1970 a student at Kent State University in Ohio. As asterix said, it happens to some extent in all countries. It's a crime in either case in my mind. But I agree with you, it's a far greater crime to kill thousands of protesters as was done in China.
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�Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.�
--Dr. Seuss
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misuvija



Joined: 07 Feb 2007
Posts: 27

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 7:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, for thousand years in China the governments were a dynasty. They represent the Chinese culture and Chinese history. This situation is similar in others countries around the world. You talk concerning the dictators afraid about equality, freedom and democracy. I do not believe that, I�m totally disagree with that ideas, I believe the totalitarian regimes are sustain in the fear of the people, unyielding rules and very powerfully army. What do you think about my position?
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ltp-008



Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 258

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

beancurdturtle wrote:
ltp-008 wrote:
In modern China under communist dictatorship ruling there have been many demonstrations to protest the Chinese communist goverment, the most famous one was the demonstration in 1989 Tiananmen square , the result was that the communist government cracked down these protesters by tanks, hundreds or maybe thousands of prosters were killed due to their peaceful demonstration. It is hard to imagine that this kind of cracking down would happen in democratic countries, isn't it ?

Crackdowns do happen on peaceful protesters in the US - again, there is a difference in human cost. At the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, over 1,000 people were detained and held in confinement by the police, without charge, for up to three days on an abandoned pier in New York City. I know someone that was held there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Convention_protest_activity

I think the last time protesters were killed in the US was on May 4, 1970 a student at Kent State University in Ohio. As asterix said, it happens to some extent in all countries. It's a crime in either case in my mind. But I agree with you, it's a far greater crime to kill thousands of protesters as was done in China.


There are some kind of crackdowns in democratic countries, but it is rare that people are killed due to their peaceful demonstrations, in democratic countries people are allowed to protest the wrongdongs of their governments, however in dictatorship countries such as China, Cuba and North Korea people in these countries are not allowed to protest their government although the constitutions allow the people have this right.

People in the States often protest its government, for instance you can insult Bush or Clinton, you can protest Bush administration 's policies and so on, however in China almost all demonstrations are forbidden except for pro-government assembly. So there is a huge difference between the dictatorship countries and democratic countries when it comes to the freedom of speech, press and assembly.
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ltp-008



Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Posts: 258

PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

misuvija wrote:
Hi, for thousand years in China the governments were a dynasty. They represent the Chinese culture and Chinese history. This situation is similar in others countries around the world. You talk concerning the dictators afraid about equality, freedom and democracy. I do not believe that, I�m totally disagree with that ideas, I believe the totalitarian regimes are sustain in the fear of the people, unyielding rules and very powerfully army. What do you think about my position?


I am not sure whether you read this thread carefully, I admit that Chinese people have lived under the dictatorship regimes for thousands years, it is indeed a Chinese culture, this cuture was fine before French gave birth to the " Declaration of Human Rights" in 16 century, however when human found that human being was created equally , then dictatorship ruling began to drop behind the civilization world, this is the main reason why China has fell behind the world for very long. People in nature desire for freedom and democracy, dictartors' armies and brutal rule are no longer powerful enough to control people who have the spirit of freedom and democracy, so in the last two centuries many dictators in the world give up their sole power to their people such as Great British and some of Europe countries and some of Asia countries such as Tailand and Nepel, and these countries became constitutional monarchy which are widely accepted by the civilization world.
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