The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Difference between revisions
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* The Syrian civil war started with the opposition armed with whatever weapons they could get against the army, who ruthlessly gunned down anyone who opposed Bashar al-Assad's rule and [[Moral Event Horizon|deployed chemical weapons and incendiaries against civilians]]. Over time, the opposition became more and more radicalized, and terrorist groups began co-opting the revolution for their own purposes. Things started getting bad when reports started coming out of the rebels using [[Child Soldiers]], [[I'm A Humanitarian|eating enemy soldiers']] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syrian-civil-war-the-day-i-met-the-organ-eating-cannibal-rebel-abu-sakkars-fearsome-followers-8617828.html hearts], and performing [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2616694/Horrifying-scenes-Syria-Islamic-extremists-CRUCIFY-two-fighting-against-Muslims.html crucifixions]. As of 2015, almost all the secular and/or moderate rebels have been killed or otherwise neutralized, and the [[Evil Versus Evil|major anti-Assad forces left are the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front]] (which is al-Qaida's official branch in Syria).
* The [[wikipedia:Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]], aka ISIS, ISIL and "the Islamic State", starting in 2014. A extremist Sunni Islam army seeking to carve out a fundamentalist Islamic state—the "Islamic Caliphate"—from both Syria and Iraq, it quickly became known for the breathtaking brutality with which they did practically everything in the public eye, from wholesale sex slavery of the women in their conquered territories to the online propaganda videos of Western hostages being beheaded. As of this writing (late 2014), they are still active but are being seriously damaged and hindered by airstrikes from a coalition of nations, in response to which they appear to be ''escalating'' their atrocities.
* Aside from the fact that all parties have a strong temptation to cross [[The Laws and Customs of War]] in any conflict, a Revolutionary regime will always be at best a plurality for "The People" is something of a charming myth, you will seldom find the majority of a nation wanting the Revolution's platform, many will be neutral and many under suspicion of duress. Furthermore the traditionally accepted source of legitimacy is gone because the Revolution just destroyed it and therefore the new regime will often fall back on trying to rule by terror. All regimes rule by terror to some degree of course; we call that "law enforcement" but there is a difference between a fairly civilized structure which makes some effort to separate the guilty from the innocent and a regime of brutalism. Furthermore before it gains power a revolutionary faction is likely to use terror against dissenters as there are always likely to be a considerable amount of people who wouldn't dream of voting for them in an honest election. Finally of course the Revolution will likely be tempted to [[Cycle of Revenge|take revenge]] on those they connected to the Old Regime or for that matter on anyone vaguely connected to a category of humanity that the revolutionaries assigned them to.
**For that reason nationalist revolutions often have more chance of stability then universalist ones; their claim to legitimacy is set by the mere fact of the nation they rule over. An [[Those Wacky Nazis|obvious exception]] comes to mind and they were not alone. On the other hand equally arguably one reason they went so crazy was that the traditional sources of legitimate authority had disappeared.
***For similar reasons most revolutions, even those that start by appealing to the "brotherhood of man" end up falling back on nationalism. It is simply to good a way to get support and even the worst dictators can [[Genghis Gambit|get support]] by claiming foreign threats. If they are "lucky" as in Stalin's case they will even be [[World War 2|telling]] [[Enemy Mine|telling the truth]] in that regard.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Civil Unrest Tropes]]
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