you make an interesting point. from what i see, a poweful threatening ruling dictatorship only makes matters worse -there was a criminal study done in nairobi in the early 90s...many criminals cited a feeling of powerlessness in the face of a burgeoning ruling authority (be it the govt, police, president-for-life or army...) as a reason for them taking up violent crime.
in many hollywood movies - a cop mistaken for a civilian normally tells the thugs 'are you crazy, i am a new york cop, you dont want trouble with us....' and generally the thugs let them go.... the opposite is true here, if a car jacker for instance, realizes he has hijacked an off duty cop - more often than not, the cop will be tortured and shot. On 10/31/06, Kragen Javier Sitaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
But your speculations about human nature, and about safety happening only as a result of powerful threats of violence (as in a dictatorship), are clearly unfounded --- many of the rest of us on this list live in places that your post confidently asserted couldn't exist! So maybe your point of view on the role of violence in human affairs, in particular in deterring random violence, should be taken with a grain of salt --- by yourself as much as the rest of us. I think this carries over to the terrorism discussion as well.
