I'm watching the crackdown on Mormonism (old style) with interest
as this has repercussions in diplomatic circles where the common
accusation is North Americans moralize excessively outside their
purview, but hey Utah is within DC's jurisdiction, as is Arizona and
so on, so yes, an internal affair (China hasn't said much,
officially,
trying to set an example of holding one's tongue -- but then many
tribal nations have officially seceded already, so it gets messy...
basically a loose federation is all we've had to begin with, kinda
fragile).
Anyway, abuse of a minor by a predatory adult is definitely in need
of a community response and the idea behind the police action
was apparent lax enforcement in the face of an all too common
domestic relations situation (not saying this sect was a major
urban area, just that polygamy is an orthogonal crime i.e. isn't
synonymous with child abuse in many cultures any intelligence
community deals with daily, given the varied anthropological
patterns humans have cultivated over the centuries and millennia,
a real zoo I can tell you).
Anyway, I think it's unfortunate in terms of timing that this became
a full scale cultural battle against a well established North
American
lifestyle for some people, rather than a domestic relations case
involving just a few bad apples, as now we're taking attention off
human rights problems the USA had sought to capitalize on else-
where, in order to regain some traction as a champion (vs. a
hypocritical imperialist, a prevalent view today).
Also, there seemed some real advances against prejudice against
Mormonism in the recent presidential campaign. We knew this
had always been a tension, so why make it a public spectacle
now of all times? Wasn't there a smarter way to handle this? Maybe
there'll be less of a hero attitude in future interventions of this
kind?
Hard to know, not my department. I bet the FBI is abuzz with water
cooler chatter about it all, given echoes of Waco (so far this is way
way less ugly, but still ugly enough).
Kirby
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