|
There certainly seems to be a correllation between national poverty and genocide, as is shown by examples like Rwanda, Sudan, Nazi Germany, etc. Germany is an interesting example, however, in that the genocide continued after Germany made an economic recovery. Wartime "patriotism" probably accounts for this as much as anything, but the fact remains that even the worst genocidal campaigns can continue under healthy economies. Thus, I feel that economics cannot be used to stop genocides, particularly those that have already begun. I agree that some genocides are directly the result of economic insecurity and poverty, but there are many ways to inspire a group of people to anihilate a different group. Racism, it seems at times, comes easy to humans.
__________________
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. ~John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
|