Dictators (and other persons of power), children and dogs (11/03/22 09:39:30)
They will never learn to behave if the surroundings do not discourage bad behaviour. On the contrary: yielding just rewards bad behaviour. With children, diversion is a well-tested and largely successful trick. With dogs I have no personal experience - but I've seen some rather disgusting end results where the owner and the dog are equally disgusting. With dictators there is extensive literature on what does not work, or the losses needed when the situation escalates - to paranoia, or to full-scale external confrontation.
Stifling the economy has been tried before, but with limited success. This time the stranglehold is stronger. Leaks are much easier to detect now, and public opinion can make strong crackdown.
I see a generation conflict too. Reactionaries of my generation - too stupid to step down when their time is over and their ways of thinking are obsolete - against young people who never knew a world without internet, and who have to repair the wastelands left for them by the reactionaries and the silent majority.
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