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> collateral costs Read "human lives". I understand and share your sentiment regarding the fact that a chance towards a (seemingly) more liberal form of gover

• aianus 11y ago
  > The only thing I hope for is that change will come slowly, if it comes at all. That's worse than a bloody revolution. If change comes so slowly that you don't get to experience it in your lifetime you might as well have died anyways.
  • sliverstorm 11y ago
    Only if living conditions today are so bad you might as well be dead. Which is why I speculate revolutions might become rare, as progress has improved everyone's lot, even the lowest classes. Few people live in a wood-fired dirt-floor log cabin or wash their clothes in a tub by the river these days.
  • zhemao 11y ago
    There's a vast spectrum between bloody revolution and glacial change. You only need to go across the strait to see an example of quick but bloodless regime change. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Taiwan was an authoritarian one-party state under martial law. But from the late 70s on, the Taiwanese government steadily introduced reforms until it head its first direct presidential election in 1996. Today, Taiwan is a multi-party democracy with a stable economy. Certainly, it has its fair share of problems (there's been a lot of corruption scandals), but it's definitely come a long way.