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I’ve said this a thousand times and I really believe it. The concept of human rights is really only possible in a stable society. Rule of law is the best outcome possible, but if you’re living in a place where gangs disappear hundreds of people every year, because eventually everyone either flees or takes the law into their own hands. And I’d say really, this is probably the best thing, long term for the people of El Salvador— a stable peaceful society in which a real liberal society and real democracy and real human rights can happen.
Most government functions are tools anyway. Human rights are a great carrot, a thing government can grant when there’s a generally stable society in which one can generally expect to live without having to worry about crime. Liberalism is another fruit of a stable civilization, as it requires such a thing to exist before the society can get away with deviance from the norm. Even democratic institutions are dependent on a stable peaceful system where you can reasonably expect that the losers will accept their losses and— actually exit stage right.
Most of us, unless we read a lot of history have a mistaken notion that human rights and liberalism and democracy are the cause of our prosperity. History says otherwise. Most of human history is real raw power struggles between elites, brutal regimes that tortured people and would barely give the pretense of a trial. The reason the American revolution happened when it did was that the West had enough law and order built up that something other than an autocratic king could run things. The colonies were filled with law abiding, church going, hard working English people. You could walk down the streets at night without fear of being mugged. Of course a civilization filled with law abiding citizens who worked hard and believed in morality could form a stable republic — the stability allowed the social trust that made it possible to believe that George Washington would actually step aside if he lost. Of course such a people could conduct trials and worry about a guilty man being sent up the river by mistake. Crime wasn’t all that common.
Of course civilization thus far has had a 100% failure rate. Every great civilization has eventually failed and either dissolved in chaos for a time or got conquered by somebody stronger.
'human rights' being used to justify the Iraq War is one of the great ironies . When human rights are used as a pretext, run away.
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