[A_perfect_lady]

No ma'am, we're talking about every day conditions not how a dictatorship controls its people.

I'm sorry, but this is a debate where we seem to have no mutually agreed upon starting point. When dictators are wiping out entire neighborhoods to quell the constant threat of insurrection, the situation is obviously not "stable."

[melancholy]

When dictators are wiping out entire neighborhoods to quell the constant threat of insurrection, the situation is obviously not "stable."

When this is done, "stability" through fear is established for decades.

Hafez al Assad wiped out a whole city in Northern Syria, Hamah, with artillery and tanks. Since this happened, "stability" reigns in Syria through Assad Jr's reign as president.

This is how the cookie crumbles in these parts of the world, unfortunately.