Protests continue on and appear to be heating up with even monks involved in very aggressive acts of resistance. Things are looking like 1988 all over again. And what is perhaps most remarkable is that people do this in spite of a long history of brutal crackdowns, hunts for activists, phone tapping, and all manner of atrocities. Power and respect to the people.

The question at the end of all this is: will the Burmese government collapse, or did it exist from the beginning in a nation that had collapsed? If the later is the case, and I think there is good reason to believe it is, then further chaos in the country might only strengthen the government, not weaken it.

Could it not be said that governments that rule without the consent of the people thrive on opposition?