Teallaura
September 1st 2007, 01:59 PM
I admit I have not read any of Rummel's work yet (yes, there are new books on my To Buy list) and that I'd never previously considered the separation of governmental murder intended to exterminate a culture, nation, or people (genocide - not all inclusive list) from governmental murder not intended to exterminate - what Rummel calls 'democide'. It makes a tremendous amount of sense however.
Here's the Wiki on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide Wiki links to Rummel's own website* (http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html) which I have only begun to wade through.
One of Rummel's conclusions is that freedom/democracy save a tremendous number of lives in that democide is incredibly rare in such nations (apparently an inverse relationship). This is one of those 'duh, of course, why didn't I think of that' things that seems to blatantly obvious once someone else puts it into words.
Anyway, I'm just beginning my research into his work but I thought I'd share what I've found thus far and maybe have a dialog with others who find the concept interesting.
Note: This thread is not for debate! We can start another thread for those who wanna argue about it. This thread is for discussion only.
This means you. :brood: Yes, you. You know who you are...
* Be aware that this website contains some material that may be disturbing (and should be if you're human). There are pictures of murder victims (not many). Not for the squeamish.
Here's the Wiki on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide Wiki links to Rummel's own website* (http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html) which I have only begun to wade through.
One of Rummel's conclusions is that freedom/democracy save a tremendous number of lives in that democide is incredibly rare in such nations (apparently an inverse relationship). This is one of those 'duh, of course, why didn't I think of that' things that seems to blatantly obvious once someone else puts it into words.
Anyway, I'm just beginning my research into his work but I thought I'd share what I've found thus far and maybe have a dialog with others who find the concept interesting.
Note: This thread is not for debate! We can start another thread for those who wanna argue about it. This thread is for discussion only.
This means you. :brood: Yes, you. You know who you are...
* Be aware that this website contains some material that may be disturbing (and should be if you're human). There are pictures of murder victims (not many). Not for the squeamish.