Yes, "a population is guilty of their regime's actions".
No, that isn't an excuse to do ethnic cleansing. The reason you think the one follows from the other, is because your unstated assumption is: "the only way to solve problems is to kill people. If anybody threatens me, I can only be safe by killing them, since I can't change their minds or compromise with them."
<starving, poorly educated people do not revolt>
I'm sure, if you give it 30 seconds of thought, you can come up with 20 counter-examples to this. And 200, with a few minutes Googling. Truth is closer to 180 degrees the other way: it is well-fed, well-educated people who are the least likely to revolt. They have a stake in the status quo.
Although even they can be induced to revolt, even deliberately sacrificing their own lives, if they are sufficiently insulted and humiliated. Like the young Palestinian woman suicide bomber, who had just graduated from law school.
But the general pattern is, those who do not benefit from the Existing Order, are the most likely to overthrow it. |
