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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Feb-2021

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8-Feb-21 World View -- Violence feared in Myanmar/Burma as pro-democracy protests grow

8-Feb-21 World View -- Violence feared in Myanmar/Burma as pro-democracy protests grow

Similarity between Burma and Washington DC

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Violence feared in Myanmar/Burma as pro-democracy protests grow
• History of violence and atrocities in Burma
• Similarity between Burma and Washington DC
• The state of the world.
• Infographic: Refugee flows around the world

Violence feared in Myanmar/Burma as pro-democracy protests grow

Thousands of protesters in Yangon on Sunday carrying placards with image of Aung San Suu Kyi (BBC)

Myanmar / Burma is seeing its largest protests in more than a decade, as tens of thousands of protesters demanded that Aung San Suu Kyi be freed, after she was arrested by the army last weekend during an army coup. (See "2-Feb-21 World View -- Myanmar (Burma) military coup as army arrests Aung San Suu Kyi government officials")

The "problem" that the army has to face is that Suu Kyi has millions of supporters, as her party won legislative elections by a landslide in November.

To combat the peaceful protests, the army shut down the internet. The army shut down internet social media, and then the entire internet, making it difficult for international observers to know what was going on, and to prevent protesters from easily communicating with one another. However, on Saturday, the internet was partially restored, though social media is still blocked.

History of violence and atrocities in Burma

What everyone fears is the next tactic -- violence.

In October 2007, there were large nationwide anti-army pro-democracy demonstrations, led by over 100,000 Buddhist monks. These were demonstrations by the "88 Generation," triggered by an abrupt government decision to double the price of gasoline. ( "Burma: Growing demonstrations by the '88 Generation' raise fears of new slaughter")

Hundreds of activists and citizens were shot dead or burned alive in government crematoriums. Thousands of Buddhist monks, who led the protests to begin with, were gathered up and detained. Some were found floating face down in rivers.

By coincidence, Sylvester Stallone was filming a Rambo film nearby, and witnessed some of the genocide. Stallone said:

"I witnessed the aftermath—survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries, maggot-infested wounds and ears cut off. We saw many elephants with blown off legs. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific. This is a hellhole beyond your wildest dreams. All the trails are mined. The only way into Burma is up the river."

The October 2007 demonstrations occurred 19 years after the previous major nationwide demonstrations, starting on August 8, 1988 (8/8/88), creating what was called the "88 Generation," led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Those demonstrations were crushed when the Burmese army fired on students with machine guns, killing thousands. Suu Kyi was arrested and put into detention for years.

Atrocities come easily to Burma's army. Since 2011, the army has been committing atrocities on Muslim ethnic Rohingyas living in Rakhine State, as I described in last week's article. The atrocities included gang rape, violent torture, execution-style killings and the razing of entire villages, in a scorched earth campaign. Aung Sang Suu Kyi became a "useful idiot" for the army by presenting a sympathetic, tired, weary, female face to the world to deflect the horrors and atrocities that are occurring in their country, as I described in my article.

Suu Kyi appeased the army by becoming a useful idiot, just as Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler and the Nazis. In both cases there were high prices to be paid for being appeasers.

The international community is now waiting to see what will happen next in Burma. Anti-government pro-democracy protests have been growing. How long will the army wait before repeating the violence and atrocities that come as easily to them as smoking a cigarette?

Similarity between Burma and Washington DC

Nancy Pelosi has requested thousands of troops in Washington DC, armed with crew-manned machine guns like the one shown above

The problems facing the Democrats in Washington DC are similar to the problems facing the army in Burma.

The Burmese army has to deal with millions of Aung Sang Suu Kyi supporters conducting street protests. They've arrested Suu Kyi so that she can't communicate with her supporters, and they've shut down internet social media so that her supporters can't communicate with one another.

The Democrats have to deal with 74 million Trump supporters who, according to polls I've seen, overwhelmingly support Trump. The wealthy, powerful "Big Tech" companies have colluded with the Democrats to shut down thousands of social media accounts to prevent Trump from communicating with his supporters, and to prevent his supporters from communicating with each other. This kind of mass censorship is previously unheard of in America, and suggests that America is becoming a Stalinist dictatorship.

The Democrats are taking other steps. Joe Biden announced last week that hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens will be permitted to enter the United States freely. The apparent purpose is to send them mail-in ballots in 2022 and instruct them to vote for Democrats.

What about violence? The Burmese army is on the verge of violence as the only way to handle even peaceful demonstrations by the millions of supporters of Suu Kiy.

Would the Democrats use violence to control peaceful demonstrations by the 74 million Trump supporters?

Let's make it a little more specific. Look at the first picture at the beginning of this article with a mob of peaceful demonstrators carrying placards with pictures Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Now imagine that as a crowd of Trump supporters carrying placards with pictures of Trump, with text reading "Trump - The Real President."

Something like that could actually happen. What would the Democrats do? Would Nancy Pelosi totally freak out? On January 20, the acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli said that Nancy Pelosi had requested thousands of troops to remain in DC for months, and she wanted them armed with crew-manned machine guns. These are the guns used in countries like Burma to kill dozens of student protesters within seconds. The request was denied, but this request shows the state of mind of Pelosi and the Democrats.

We also note that Biden is ordering the army to "stand down" so that "extremists" can be weeded out. To the Democrats, all 74 million Tea Partiers and Trump supporters are extremists or cultists that need to be "deprogrammed."

The state of the world.

If you're talking about psychology and madness, it's hard to find any aspect of today's world that isn't full of madness.

You have full-scale genocide going on in China, as bad as the world has seen since the 1930s, or worse. China is also annexing or threatening to annex other regions, as the Nazis did in the 1930s.

There are huge refugee flows around the world. The number of displaced persons has surged astronomically since 2010.

America is being governed by "big tech" companies, and America is moving in the direction of a Stalinist dictatorship.

Stock prices are at astronomically high valuations, and global debt is unsustainable in the hundreds of trillions.

I find the madness of today's world personally overwhelming. To say that it's a world that is senseless to me is an understatement. I can understand how King Solomon saw a world of madness and folly and chaos.

Generational Dynamics is less about predictions than it is about trends. And the madness and folly and chaos trends are growing worse every day. These are the trends, and the trends are unstoppable. Every aspect of today's world is worse than yesterday's world. The only good news is that today's world is better than tomorrow's world.

If something can't go on forever, then it won't.

People talk about how to prevent World War III. But Generational Dynamics sees a world that needs World War III. Each day's delay means that World War III will be even worse.

Infographic: Refugee flows around the world

Infographic: Refugee flows around the world surging since 2010 (UNHCR)

Sources:

• Myanmar coup: Tens of thousands join largest protests since 2007 (BBC, 7-Feb-2021)
• Myanmar coup: What is happening and why? (BBC, 7-Feb-2021)
• Tens of thousands protest Myanmar coup, internet blackout eased (Al-Jazeera, 7-Feb-2021)
• BREAKINGVIEWS - Myanmar coup does China more harm than good (Reuters, 7-Feb-2021)
• Acting DHS Deputy Head During Capitol Riot Reveals Pelosi Demanded 'Machine Guns' to Be Deployed Against Civilians in DC (Western Journal, 23-Jan-2021)
• Defense secretary will order military-wide stand down to address extremism (Stars and Stripes, 3-Feb-2021)
• Infographic / How many refugees are there around the world? (UNHCR, 20-May-2020)
• China / Xinjiang / 'Their goal is to destroy everyone': Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape (BBC, 2-Feb-2021)

Related Articles:

• Myanmar (Burma) military coup as army arrests Aung San Suu Kyi government officials (02-Feb-2021)
• Burma: Growing demonstrations by the '88 Generation' raise fears of new slaughter (26-Sep-2007)
• Burma (Myanmar) demonstrations fizzle after violent government response (02-Oct-2007)
• Pompeo bashes China over genocide, virus, Taiwan on last days of Trump administration (20-Jan-2021)
• America and the standard Genocide Playbook (12-Jan-2021)

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (8-Feb-2021) Permanent Link
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