When activists burn buildings and vandalise statues civil society is no longer civil and strong measures are required to restore law and order.
The broader implications for society during times of unrest have been the subject of philosophers and writers for decades.
In 1949 George Orwell described a Dystopian Society:
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.
And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
The Party, in Orwellian terms is the tyrannical State. The rioters on TV represent tyrannical mass.
Let’s be clear. The BLM protestors are genuine activists with an unquestionable cause. The criminal provocateurs and agitators amidst however remove the right to lawful assembly, detract entirely from the original cause so the Party must reach for the greater good.
At the individual level, the four police officers have been charged with the murder of George Floyd. The Party has called upon well-established criminal justice legal principles for this to happen. But it seems this is not enough for some in the mob.
German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said:
“The mob is the most ruthless of tyrants.”
