"without being overtly offensive"

“This is a very important doctrine consideration in a place like China. Right now, if China was faced with internal unrest, the only capability they have would be military capability — they’d have to roll in the tanks,” Ichikowitz said.

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"Tiananmen Square's now 20 years ago, and you could do that (then). Today you can't. Today that's just inciting trauma."


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I see.  Today that's just inciting trauma.  You could do that then.  Now, though, it wouldn't even work.  Because, you see, "bring in the big guns and people are going to want to throw the big guns back at you”.  It would just incite trauma. 

This is what certain of those who should not exist mean when they say "progress," when they speak of “public security.”

via Signalfire

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is disappearing Ai Weiwei not "inciting trauma"?

Is there an appropriate level of viciousness toward public dissent?

Is there a decorum to oppression?

“Ai Weiwei [...] has been close to the red line of Chinese law. As long as Ai Weiwei continuously marches forward, he will inevitably touch the red line one day,” the newspaper wrote. “Ai Weiwei will be judged by history, but he will pay a price for his special choice,” it added. (http://tinyurl.com/3dfn87t)

No trauma here. Nothing to see. Move along......

ECW said...

Ai Weiwei, in this framework, appears to have been trauma excised.

Decorum, then, is the double declaration that a) it's your choice to keep marching, because "we all know very well where that red line may be" [a perverse echo of the "red thread" of fate] and b) that the removal will have no decorum, it will be exceptional, trumped-up, and obscene.