Chinese Democracy

When dissenters are silenced not by their government, but by their people, is it still totalitarianism?

China's internet is mostly made up of forums, not blogs or mainstream news like the West. A story about a woman commiting suicide after her husband's unfaithfulness went up on one of China's biggest forums, leading to a nationwide manhunt for the man and his lover. That man is still in hiding, fearing for his life.

Just to clarify: a man on the brink of divorce cheated on his wife, and she commited suicide. Tragic, but relatively common. Because of this, people all over China - in various positions, with different specialities, and specific regional knowledge collaborated en masse to track down one man and make his life hell.

This is the story of the Human-flesh-search.

Stories like this affect me deeply, because I see it as a sign that totalitarianism will never go away. Anonymous internet hordes tracked down a woman who wanted mediation between China and the Tibetan leaders and made her life hell because she was a 'traitor.' Is that the sort of online culture that facilitates democratic discussion? Is it any surprise that democracy may never come about?

The author makes it clear that this is not a few cases. "There are hundreds, maybe thousands of attempts each week for all kinds of human-flesh searches, the vast majority of which do not amount to much." When the iron fist in the velvet glove is the only form of government you have ever known, and all media and education is designed to turn you into a compliant citizen, how else are you supposed to address problems in society other than violence and terror? How must they look upon us weak, deliberative republics and commonwealths?

Maybe, to look at it in another perspective, the Chinese already have democracy. After all, the cyber-tracking of individuals by the manyfold masses is surely a sign of popular opinion, yes? Therefore vigilante justice is the ultimate manifestation of Democratic process!

Maybe those were the thoughts going through the people's heads as they harassed and vilified those that didn't agree with them.

This is free speech being used to suppress free speech. This is totalitarian rule so enforced into a culture that the culture enforces totalitarian rule. This is Big Brother taken to its logical conclusion. This is a society that polices itself.

It is Conformism refined, Vigilantism directed, Peer Pressure weaponised. It is Free Speech poisoned and it is Democracy defiled. It is a grim sign of a nation indoctrinated to toe the party line. It is wrong on so many levels it sounds like something quoted directly from a dystopian novel, but it happens monthly, weekly, daily. I am registering my strong dislike for this whole phenomenon.