Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1808-1890) was a French critic, journalist and novelist who became famous for his memorable quotes. One of these, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” reminded me today of the institutionalized inhumanity that has been justified by totalitarian dictatorships which believe that human rights are given by the state and so can be constrained, manipulated, or even eliminated at the will of the state.
This philosophy of government, often associated with the institutionalized atheism and Marxism of these regimes is contrary to the concept of “inalienable” rights as part of Natural Law and from God as John Locke espoused in the 17th Century and which were central to the themes of the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, written by our Founding Fathers, 100 years after John Locke.
The U.N. Declaration of Human Rights makes no mention of inalienable rights, from either Natural Law or a supreme being, which makes it not surprising why the U.N, has been a weak advocate for human rights since its inception in 1948. More explanation of this phenomenon can be obtained by looking at the permanent members of the U.N, Security Council, which include China and Russia.
Along with many others, the countries of Russia, China, Myanmar, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the Philippines, certain African nations and Venezuela are well known violators of human rights, with state-sponsored starvation, mass imprisonment, illegal executions, genocide, assassinations of dissidents and interference with parental control of their childrens’ lives, including their religious education.
Sanctions don’t seem to work because, ultimately, free governments are intimidated from complete dissolution of trade with offender countries, including the intimidation of multinational corporate profits, considered more important than human dignity. Until corporate profits are not priority, and until the World Bank and IMF stop manipulation of international opinion and support of the importance for financial stability of totalitarian states, nothing will change.
Right now, China is suffering a shortage of U.S. dollars which is making their economy quite fragile. Cessation of future military and industrial U.S. sales to China could go a long way to breaking the back of the Chinese police state, including 18 billion dollars in aircraft sales and 14 billion dollars in machinery.and medical equipment.
The monstrous history of Mao Zedong murdering 60 million of his own people in China during the Cultural Revolution seems to have long been forgotten, as well as the 20 million Russians murdered by Joseph Stalin during and after the Russian Revolution. Millions have died at the hands of the governments of North Korea and Cambodia, at least 1 million in Eastern-Central Europe, 1.7 million in Africa, 1.5 million in
Afghanistan and over 150,000 in Latin America. Most of the murders described above were done in the name of Marxism. Note that these numbers are citizens killed by their own governments, not from war itself, which is a number in the millions as well. These numbers also do not nclude the 6 million Jews exterminated by the Nazis in World War II.
The U.S. Lend Lease Program (1941-1945), gave 697 billion dollars worth of planes, ships and weapons to its allies, including China and Russia at the time. In addition, Russia did not declare war on Japan and invade Manchuria until after the U.S. dropped the atom bombs This support for China from the U.S. allowed China to promote the communist revolution there. The U.S.and its western allies were ordered not to interfere with Russia’s invasion of Eastern Europe despite complaints from General George Patton. It seems obvious that China and Russia could not have been successful without Lend Lease. We continue to do business with all of these countries, despite some benign sanctions in certain cases.
It has become obvious that Russian Federation (heir of the U.S.S.R) under Putin is more intent than ever on global expansion of Soviet power, no better exemplified than it’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and its intimidating behavior towards Ukraine. Also, there was recent media praise for the Soviet Union’s assistance in ending World War II, despite Russia’s non-aggression pact with Germany from 1939-1941.
Many believe that Russia saw a war with Germany as a way to destabilize Eastern Europe for Soviet takeover after the war which is exactly what happened. Lend Lease was another example of misguided attempts to end the war without realizing the long-term effects on the spread of communism that it provoked both from China and Russia.
It seems that unless there is a unified AND comprehensive
agreement of both government and industry to end global
human rights violations, there will be continued erosion of
human freedom and propagation of human suffering. Unless
our generation creates change, things will remain the same,
and likely will only get worse for mankind. Whether it be the
end of the Syrian atrocities against its own people, the release
of millions of imprisoned Uighur Muslims in China, Western
governments’ support of democracy in Hong Kong, or the end of
the genocide against the Rohingya in Myanmar, we must begin
to change history with a grassroots revolution in courage.
CMD 19-12-17