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Lessons For Sri Lanka As Trump
Lessons For Sri Lanka As Trump
Lessons For Sri Lanka As Trump
By Bellwether.-15/12/2016
Nationalist hate is once again rising in the West, as shown by
Brexit and Donald Trump amid an economic downturn while Sri
Lanka is taking time off from minority bashing, but how long this
ascent to human decency will last is anybodys guess.
Already the nationalists are coming out and pointing to the Trump
victory to justify hate and discrimination. A Muslim owned clothing
store had apparently been set on fire, just like Jewish shops were
burnt in Germany.
Monks that have spread Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism and hate
are again making a comeback.
It is notable that in the US, evangelists backed Trump.
In the West the recent rise in nationalism may have been partly
fuelled by the insistence on free trade in an economic downturn,
by rational politicians and bureaucrats who treats everyone
equally (read elites, the establishment) who knew the harm trade
restrictions would create and delay an economic recovery.
During the Great Depression, many countries enacted trade
barriers. Modern protectionism gained ground during the Great
Depression. In the US the SmootHawley Tariff is notable.
Trade restrictions may have helped deflect public anger, though it
prolonged the Great Depression and put more people out of work.
During the Great Recession, a conscious effort was made to keep
free trade going, which helped prevent a greater meltdown.
But it was all grist for the nationalist mill.
Scapegoatism
The first Reich is the Holy Roman Empire, which was a real empire
and not a nationalist one. The second Reich is the German empire
1871-1918 which was unified along linguistic lines.
In Sri Lanka the nationalists want to re-enact the historical glory
(Atheetha Sri Vibuthiya) centred on Sinhala-Bhuddist ethnoreligious lines.
However Sri Lankas Atheetha Sri Vibuthiya was less nationalist
than now, since Monarchs had no incentive to engage is such
tactics though inter-sectarian Buddhist conflicts did occur from
time to time.
Under a monarchy or an Empire, it is necessary for priests and
other nationalists to get the ear of the king and ministers to
suppress a minority. It is not easy.
The nationalists have to sometime work through a child of the
king and poison his mind. But instant results can be got through
the European-style popular vote.
With the popular vote it is easy for a few urban nationalist
intellectuals push the agenda to the uneducated masses,
especially to those who have no idea about liberty. It is not for
nothing that whites without a college education are the biggest
supporters of Trump, while the originators of the ideas are
themselves urban, college educated whites.
There were also slaves that opposed abolition, just like Sri
Lankans opposed neo-liberalism, which gives only half-baked
types of freedoms compared to classical liberalism.