當年今日
關於我們

Tacitus trap |Chan Kin Man

蘋果日報 2020/09/03 08:17


The government has already fallen into the Tacitus Trap. In his book The History of Tyranny: Power and the People in the 20th Century(暴政史:二十世紀的權力與民眾), Xu Ben gives an account of the Trap: When public power falls short of public credibility, feedback from the society about anything the authority says and does is always negative.
No matter what Carrie Lam’s administration says and does, most of the people either totally negate it or question the motive behind and its capability of implementing it. Is the massive COVID-19 test aimed at collecting people’s DNAs, which are to be sent to China? Will the test induce higher risk? Regarding the coroner’s inquest on the death of Chan Yin-lam, some citizens have even questioned if Chan’s mother is a substitute, and if the deponents are threatened and bribed into making choreographed deposition.
The mounting distrust of the authority will bring about a filter that screens out facts at odds with preconceptions and cherry-picks those in line with convictions, finally solidifying into an ideology. Under the tyranny, the lack of transparency in government operations, the domineering officials and the execution of power that deviates from the established system and common sense are all culpable for undermining objective thinking. To protect themselves, the people have to advance carefully every step of the way and be sceptical about every move the government makes.
Take the 7.21 incident as an instance. Lam Cheuk-ting, having gotten in touch with the police before arriving in Yuen Long, had his head badly injured and covered with blood after being beaten up on camera. Now he has become a victim turned defendant indicted for rioting . The police even said the two sides in conflict were well-matched in strength. Inasmuch as swearing black is right is the new normal of the government, it is no longer necessary for the people to objectively assess what the officials do at every turn. Consequently, the Tacitus Trap has come into being. What is more ghastly is the tyranny does not mind the people harboring suspicions, and even crave conjectures sprawling across the society to establish a kind of cynicism, so that the people hold everything in contempt, which at the end of the day is conducive to the sustainability of the tyranny.
Tacitus was an historian who was apt at pointing out how a dictator manipulates political tricks: disguising, deceiving, sabotaging rule of law, promoting bankruptcy of morality among the masses, leveraging human desires and greediness, wielding violence, turning the people sycophantic and skilfully manipulating common language, etc.. He and a lot of succeeding academics found out that apart from violent crackdown, pillars of a tyranny also include surveillance conducted by secret police, fear contributed by people snitching on each other, and wrecking the spiritual world through bribing, incorporating people into its own forces and materialism. Having seen the rule of the Roman Empire was still based on people’s cowardice and hankering after ease and comfort, and that together they were depraved, Tacitus pointed out the correlation between autocracy and human nature.

Vigilant about being exploited by tyranny

Xu Ben also depicts the complexion of human spirit under tyranny: The entire society falls into a state of apathy, numbness and servility, predominated by violence and fear. In such a society, everyone looks the same: mediocre, dimwitted, amoral and supine. In this society, conduits for expression are clogged; lies are plentiful; bad money drives out good money. Why are people mediocre and dimwitted? It is because the tyranny wants absolute obedience, about which those who issue directives and those who take them on do not have to think; all of them finally become dumb. Why are they amoral? It is because they are greedy and terrified, snitching on each other. Why are they supine? It is because the regime clamps down on the civil society, leaving them high and dry; being unable to turn the tables, the intellectuals stand aloof. Eyptians are a good example. They are a nation that had used to be fond of chatting and joking, yet turned silent under the rule of Hosni Mubarak, who was reticent. Tacitus said degeneration of morality, which makes people supine, has magical power. In the very beginning, the lifelessness is sickening. Yet, as time passes, people are reluctant to part from it. Maybe cynicism provides people with an excuse for inaction.
As Hong Kong has just been pulled into an era of tyranny, people’s human spirit is not as rotten as that yet. However, we have to be on full alert for the dictator, who would make good use of human evilness to sustain its reign. While under democracy cynicism helps shape a psychological distance that facilitates reflection on what happens around and criticism of the authority, it can also be leveraged by a tyranny to make people sceptical about everyone who prioritizes and everything that gives way to spiritual values, for the purpose of divide and rule. Recently, the issue of incumbent legislators staying on or quitting has turned from a debate about principles and strategies into criticism of pro-democracy lawmakers entrenching themselves in the positions without doing anything constructive, which is just what the tyranny hopes for.
(Chan Kin Man, co-founder of Occupy Central Movement)
Click here for Chinese version
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE
To download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play