As most variations of history teach us, one of the greatest threats to an organized body of authority is the intellectual-activist. Of course, there’s the legitimate argument that those equipped with bombs and ill will are the most imminent threat, but what quintessentially drives any dissident – whether or not they’re the “goodies” or the “baddies” – is ideology: a system of ideas they are willing to stake their lives on.

Although my college roommate (endearingly) dubbed me “the angry one,” regarding Mainland Chinese politics, my initial reaction to Liu Xiaobo’s recent detainment abduction isn’t a simple case of hotheaded groans. Instead, I find myself generally level-headed about this situation simply because I feel like I’m not understanding a crucial aspect of it. In other words, something about this has me extremely confused and unable to fully digest the context of this particular case.

My biggest question is whether or not jailing intellectuals and activists is a viable solution in this day and age. Let’s suspend my opinions about the PRC government for a moment, as well as your own. In the past, many of the world’s greatest thinkers faced incredible persecution, and the consequences of these persecutions can be gauged in various ways. For the Man, I’d say he’d consider them more or less successful if he managed to get dissidents to sit down, shut up, whither away, and/or die. For the generations that have inherited the writings and philosophies of such thinkers, success is apparent in the fact that their ideas have survived and persisted throughout the ages.

So, when I say “viable solution,” my intention is not to be flippant or to make a moral judgment about the actions of the PRC government. In modern Chinese history and in the present, what I see is the same solution: the political resolve to silence free thinkers through means of human rights violations; my main concern isn’t whether or not the PRC should or should not be doing this or that, but rather how the this or that’s will evolve within an increasingly globalized community. I’m looking at it as it is, not as it will be or should be. How do human rights violations fit into the PRC’s desire to reform itself as a modern and international community?

Like anyone else, I would like to see a world where people are not punished for their thoughts, but as a realist, I can only wonder how the PRC government will evolve. In a twisted way, it’s almost refreshing that Liu Xiaobo’s detainment is so blatantly apparent: it’s the things behind the scenes that are the most unsettling (ie: the Patriot Act in the U.S. and whatever else is in other nations’ fun bags). Many individuals are dedicated to studying and analyzing the social, financial and political aspects of the PRC’s rapidly evolving society, but there’s not enough attention paid to how the government treats its suspected criminals, as well as what it perceives to be criminal. If anything, how a government treats all its citizens is one of the litmus tests that indicate whether or not it’s evolving towards its projected image.

It goes without saying this is a lofty subject, and I may only be thinking aloud and all over the place here, but it’s terrifying to think the only dialogue that’s going on about Liu Xiaobo and other victims is a paragraph-long briefing. I suppose this brings me to the age old question of whether or not knowledge frees us or constrains us. Within an increasingly connected world, knowledge is accessible at the click of a button, and as a world community, we are now privy to the events and going-on’s of any particular nation. But what do we do with what we know? As it is now, Liu Xiaobo’s situation seems to highlight the fact that the world is getting the feed, but has yet to process it.