Week 5 (How Do States Repress?) Flashcards
What does Aristotle tell us about what a repressed, or tyrannical, society consists of the following four characteristics?
1.)A public that focuses largely on economic issues
2.)A public that is depoliticized
3.)A public that spends their leisure time on amusement
4.)A public with little sense of community and widespread loneliness
Aristotle described Tyrannies as “ruled by one”
1.) A public that focuses largely on economic issues
Aristotle despised commerce, regarding it as a life unfit for a free citizen and considering, for example, ‘retail trade’ as an ‘unnatural’ occupation in which people use each other for profit. So much did Aristotle dislike commerce that if a people came together only to further prosperity, Aristotle refused to call such an association a city-state (polis), since a polis must have a higher goal than wealth.
2.)A public that is depoliticized
In a repressed society, few care about or are passionately involved in the practice of politics in a deep, meaningful way. Life is characterized by widespread political apathy. According to Aristotle, tyrants, while they last, control their subjects to some extent by encouraging in them a similar love of wealth, they play upon this love of wealth to confine people to their private affairs, thus leaving no time, opportunity, or desire for them to attend to public matters.
3.)A public that spends their leisure time on amusement
According to Aristotle, Tyrannies fill leisure time with amusements, so people will not focus on political matters
4.)A public with little sense of community and widespread loneliness
According to Aristotle, because tyranny is a political order that has lost all community, relationships within tyranny are marked by selfishness, exploitation, suspicions, and ultimately loneliness.
Tyranny in modern democracy (Canada)
1.) a June 2023 FP Canada survey, which asked around 2000 Canadians: “In general, what tends to cause you the most stress in your life?” 40% said money.
2.)For the federal elections that occurred between 2004 and 2021, an average of 60% of all eligible. voters aged 18-24 and an average of 45% voted.
3.)Consider the results from the 2021 Canadian Leisure and Reading Study… 78% spend leisure time on amusement like watching TV, movies, and videos
4.)the following statistics from before the COVID-19 pandemic for Canadians aged 45-85 - 10% report feeling lonely often or always, 25% reported they lacked help when they needed it, 15.5% reported lacking a reliable confidant
Ronald Deibert and Spyware as a tool of repression
among democracies, spyware technology has become an irresistible tool that can be deployed with little oversight against journalists and political opponents.
Although much scrutiny of mercenary spyware firms has concerned their contracts with national government agencies, many firms market to more than one client in a given country including local law enforcement, and there is little to prevent them from selling their technology to private forms or corrupt individuals.
Spyware has become a central component of a broader menu of surveillance tools such as location tracking and biometric identification
Sean Yom and how dictator communities lead to repression
authoritarian states under duress can band together, share ideas, circulate strategies, and stick by a collective identity in ways that mimic democracies, particularly seen during the Arab Spring.
Leaders extended the reach of censorship onto cyberspace and used deliberately vague language to give state authorities extreme leeway to prosecute chosen targets.
