HIGHLAND, UT | 9 April 2008 | China’s history of violence upon its own people and those in surrounding areas is widely criticized. Tibetan protests last month turned riotous and deadly as Chinese forces attempted to quell the uprising. Protestors around the world seek to use this year’s Olympic events as leverage to urge China to relax its violence and force against “human rights.” But when demonstrations become violent in themselves, are they really helping their own cause?

“Police clad in riot gear detained 18 demonstrators, the [French] Interior Ministry said, wrestling some of them to the ground when they tried to cross the security barriers” (Reuters, April 7, 2008).

“Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq was caught in the middle of an ugly scuffle as a man attempted to wrestle the torch from her hands.
The parade was brought to a temporary halt five times in its first few miles as anti-China protesters made repeated attempts to breach security, including one man who tried to extinguish the flame with a fire extinguisher” (Telegraph, April 6, 2008).

Twenty-five were arrested there.

Today the torch passes through San Francisco under tight security measures, due to last week’s fiascos in France and Great Britain and the already mounting demonstrations there, including giant signs posted on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Key Items

• Ayn Rand bluntly proclaims: “No man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against others. (Rand, 55). Protestors who tried to wrestle the torch away from relay runners are initiating force against individuals who have nothing to do with the violence in Tibet.
• Frederic Bastiat wrote, “Each of us has a natural right—from God—to defend his person, his liberty, and his property (Bastiat, 3).
• Protestors in France or England or America against the Olympic flame are not in peril of their lives, their liberties, or their properties. Neither is the torch carrier the instigator of the violence perpetrated against the Tibetans.
• Only the Tibetans have the right to use force against the Chinese government regarding current matters in Tibet. They may ask others to help defend themselves, though they have yet to do so. (It is first within individuals’ stewardships to attempt to solve their problems for themselves.)
• Besides being immoral, violence against those in association with the perpetrator is ineffective. “Oh, OK. You sprayed a fire extinguisher on the Olympic runner and the torch. We’ll give up our violent behavior in Tibet.” 

Commentary

The Olympic Games are supposed to bring people together in an effort of peaceful athletic competition. Yet, the Beijing Olympics seem to be drawing an inordinate amount of criticism due to China’s recent ramp up of violent pressure in Tibet.

These riotous actions are similar to the violent crowds that have congregated at G7 economic summits and similar type gatherings around the world over the past decade. In a world where principles govern it must be remembered that force—any force—destroys freedom and prosperity.

This force is usually decried when a government wields it above unarmed citizens. Equally important, however, is the concept that individuals can exercise force upon one another or upon an entity like a government or other organization with just as much destruction of freedom.

Certainly the out-of-bounds behavior of the Chinese government is not to be condoned; yet, the violent behavior of individuals throughout the world is equally unacceptable. Just like one person’s breaking of a law does not give another the right to break a law, the violence acted upon one group of people does not authorize others to be violent against others, even if they are somehow related to the first enactors of violence. One who acts violently in such a manner reveals that he is as large a tyrant as those he is protesting against.

Action Items

1. Review Ayn Rand’s “For the New Intellectual,” especially pages 56-58 where she discusses her second principle of intellectual integrity, “no man has the right to initiate the use of physical force against others.”
2. Identify areas in your own life where you use force rather than ideas to get your way.
3. Resolve to win the day with persuasion rather than force.

MRFC Principles: (3, 11)

Resources

Bastiat, Frederic. The Law (originally published in 1850) Foundation for Economic Education, Irvington-on-Hudson. 1998.

Rand, Ayn. For the New Intellectual. Signet, New York. 1961.

Mulvenney, Nick. China turns patriotic wrath on Olympics demonstrators, Reuters, April 8, 2008.

Buckley, Chirs and Thierry Leveque. Protests snuff out Olympic torch in Paris, Reuters, April 7, 2008.

Leveque, Thierry and Chrystel Boulet-Euchin. Olympic flame falters on chaotic Paris visit, Reuters, April 7, 2008.

Edwards, Richard. Olympic torch relay overshadowed by protests, The Telegraph, April 6, 2008.