Here is some insight in Realpolitik by the German philosopher Hegel (1770-1831), one of the most formidable thinkers of the nineteenth century. The following quotation is from his Philosophy of Right (1821) and has bearing on Toronto's G20 Summit:
In times of war, for example, various things which are otherwise harmless must be regarded as harmful. Because of these aspects of contingency and arbitrary personality, the police take on a certain character of maliciousness. When reflection is highly developed, the police may tend to draw everything it can into its sphere of influence, for it is possible to discover some potentially harmful aspect in everything. On such occasions, the police may procede very pedantically and disrupt the ordinary life of individuals.
Source: G.W.F. Hegel, Elements of the Philosophy of Right. Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought, ed. Allen W. Wood, tr. H.B. Nisbet (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 261 (Section 234).
For other comments on the G20 Summit, please see my "Response to the Prime Minister's Christmas Message," Jan. 2011)
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