Engine of Cruelty (Glen Allport)

Glen Allport on the cruel nature of government:

The Chinese are at it again, murdering peaceful Buddhist monks and Tibetan protestors.

Not that Chinese government cruelty is anything new; for instance, China has been detaining, torturing, and executing Falun Gong members and members of other groups for years. Thousands of prisoners have been executed for their organs (video, 5 min 12 sec), which bring huge profit to the regime. And under Mao, tens of millions of Chinese citizens were murdered by their own government.

The news about China 's assaults on Buddhists and others in Tibet last week reminded me of how jaw-droppingly cruel governments are in general. Try to imagine any free-market institution doing what China routinely does, which is to push people around at gunpoint and to murder them (or detain them or torture them) if they resist, and often even if they don't resist. Does Apple Computer do that? Does Stanford University do that? If they did, would we put up with it?

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