The Powers that Be are always the empire (in an empire).
Empires are not democracies.
An empire can afford to have Serbs, and Croats, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs; Japanese and Ainu.
So long as each group believes that to try and rise against others is to be destroyed; by a groups which is not the object of their ire, then peace (in a general sense) will be the order of the day.
The empire doesn't care that the Christians hate the Jews, that the Lutherans hate the Catholics.
What it cares about is they don't have unrest. So long as the various members are quiescent, there will will calm.
A democracy has to have a different sense of idenity, and one that isn't based on fear of the gov't coming in and beating the snot out of you; because you disagree with policy.
Rather peace and order rise from a sense of shared identity.
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Date: 2007-03-11 12:19 am (UTC)Empires are not democracies.
An empire can afford to have Serbs, and Croats, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Sikhs; Japanese and Ainu.
So long as each group believes that to try and rise against others is to be destroyed; by a groups which is not the object of their ire, then peace (in a general sense) will be the order of the day.
The empire doesn't care that the Christians hate the Jews, that the Lutherans hate the Catholics.
What it cares about is they don't have unrest. So long as the various members are quiescent, there will will calm.
A democracy has to have a different sense of idenity, and one that isn't based on fear of the gov't coming in and beating the snot out of you; because you disagree with policy.
Rather peace and order rise from a sense of shared identity.
TK