The right stuff
One thing that most right wing conservatives love to advocate is the policy of law and order. The truth is that most developed nations have a respectable system of law enforcement and justice. So the argument is not that there is a need for law enforcement which all sane politicians of all stripes support. The argument is that if there are any undesirable problems in the country, they can be resolved by implementing more draconian solutions. Currently, the Philipines is carrying out extra-judicial execution for drug offenders. Only time will tell what effects these killings will have on the entire country. The question that most right wing or ultra right wing people fail to answer is if draconian law enforcement will reduce undesirable effects.
The first police state that is widely known is the Spartan empire. It had strict rules for its people but it was fairly well run. That is if you ignored the state sanction thieving that its young soldiers had to perform to stay alive as well the willingness to allow the soldiers that were caught to be punished. There was, however, an uglier truth that was not commonly discussed. Sparta had a special force unit called the Krypteia. All Spartans that displayed leadership potential was required to part of it and being a member of the organization allowed one to be chosen for leadership positions in the Spartan society. The Krypteia's primary purpose was to prevent or suppress uprisings. Slaves that were troublemakers were spied upon and hunted down.
The worst part of the Krypteia was that they were allowed to hunt slave in autumn. (I suspect that the hunting season started after the harvest where there was less farming to be done.) The best and fittest slaves were especially targetted. This is the main flaw of all police states. The police will have a selected group that is above the law. Sparta was not the only place to have such exceptions. Even the famous police state, Nazi Germany was also known to its own secret police which captured and executed the Nazi party's own paramilitary wing leaders aka the Night of Long Knives.
Whenever I hear that draconian law enforcement is the solution, I worry that the person advocating the idea is either a turkey voting for Christmas or a Machiavellian scheming his way into power. It is Animal Farm all over again.
The first police state that is widely known is the Spartan empire. It had strict rules for its people but it was fairly well run. That is if you ignored the state sanction thieving that its young soldiers had to perform to stay alive as well the willingness to allow the soldiers that were caught to be punished. There was, however, an uglier truth that was not commonly discussed. Sparta had a special force unit called the Krypteia. All Spartans that displayed leadership potential was required to part of it and being a member of the organization allowed one to be chosen for leadership positions in the Spartan society. The Krypteia's primary purpose was to prevent or suppress uprisings. Slaves that were troublemakers were spied upon and hunted down.
The worst part of the Krypteia was that they were allowed to hunt slave in autumn. (I suspect that the hunting season started after the harvest where there was less farming to be done.) The best and fittest slaves were especially targetted. This is the main flaw of all police states. The police will have a selected group that is above the law. Sparta was not the only place to have such exceptions. Even the famous police state, Nazi Germany was also known to its own secret police which captured and executed the Nazi party's own paramilitary wing leaders aka the Night of Long Knives.
Whenever I hear that draconian law enforcement is the solution, I worry that the person advocating the idea is either a turkey voting for Christmas or a Machiavellian scheming his way into power. It is Animal Farm all over again.
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