Where the Axe Is Buried

by Ray Nayler

In the years that followed, they would come to understand the truth—that the days when protests worked, and authoritarian regimes dissolved before the determined voices of freedom or melted away against the inundations of resistance, were gone. Once the regimes had been emptied of ideology—once power became about power alone—there was no breaking them. They had no morality. They did not become disgusted with themselves and turn away from killing. Their will did not break, no matter how many protesters they had to arrest, beat, or kill. They had no conscience, and so they were not stung by guilt. The only thing they feared was the loss of their own power. They understood the simple rule, proven time and again: to hold on to power, never give up power. The regimes had learned, from watching how other autocratic systems were toppled, that compromise was death. They made no reforms. They promised nothing. They simply jailed, beat, harassed, and killed as many people as was necessary.