That's what all the dictators say. "We need to maintain stability, so keep doing what we tell you. Don't you dare even question us - for the sake of our society, of course."
Actually, its the other way around. Don't even dare to mention stability or you get lynched in the West.
Ask people in Rhuanda/Burundi what happened when their dictator president got shot down. Or in Somalia. Or how the real situation in Iraq or Afghanistan is. Sometimes stability actually is paramount. It's even empirically measurable and relates to average household income. But I don't want to bore you with science on the topic. There are many books and papers on the topic. And its not just theory, I am living in developing and "unfree" countries for many years to see the practical part as well.
Stuff's not just "black and white" -- there is a lot more to it.
A few good reads on the topic are F. Fukuyama "Trust: Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity" and P. Collier "The bottom Billion" and "Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places".
Ask people in Rhuanda/Burundi what happened when their dictator president got shot down. Or in Somalia. Or how the real situation in Iraq or Afghanistan is. Sometimes stability actually is paramount. It's even empirically measurable and relates to average household income. But I don't want to bore you with science on the topic. There are many books and papers on the topic. And its not just theory, I am living in developing and "unfree" countries for many years to see the practical part as well.
Stuff's not just "black and white" -- there is a lot more to it.
But that wasn't the topic of this debate anyways.