Bring out the Big Tent

Hong Kong seems transfixed with the symptoms, not the cure

Hong Kong is adrift in uncharted waters. The uncommon tear-gas tango being played out on the city’s streets poignantly shows it has been a fast and brutal slide from the high life to high dudgeon. 

As with the 2014 “Occupy”, a mass seemingly disciplined movement has dribbled into a meandering leaderless display of angst with no clear long-term aim. Small fringe groups repeatedly break off from peaceful marches like malign free radicals roaming the city’s financial arteries seeking futile confrontation. The government has curiously all but abdicated the stage creating an even bigger leadership vacuum. And a once professional police