Aside from sporadic nuisances and disruptions caused by small groups of protesters in several areas, Hong Kong was spared a “blackshirt” storm on Wednesday. The threats of large-scale protests and violent rampages failed to materialize as the Legislative Council debated the proposed national anthem law.

This was a pleasant surprise to most Hong Kong residents but a great disappointment to the political zealots who had called for a general strike to protest against the National Anthem Bill as well as the national security legislation to be enacted by the National People’s Congress for the Hong Kong SAR.

Some of the credit should go to the police force’s active strategy to head off potential threats. But the calm day Hong Kong witnessed on Wednesday — in contrast with typical days in recent months characterized by violent rampages — signals that reason may have finally prevailed again in Hong Kong, a city that had been gripped by emotion and irrationality for months since June last year.

Most people in the city should have now realized the “blackshirts’’, who have wreaked havoc on the city and terrorized its people for nearly a year, are not fighting for democracy, freedom or rights, as they claim.

They keep mocking democracy and freedom by repeatedly infringing other people’s rights and freedoms including the basic right to freedom from fear and harm; they keep belittling the rule of law, the foundation of democracy, by breaking every law that stands in their way.

Most people should have realized Hong Kong has no future if these political zealots, whose behavior borders on anarchism and terrorism, are allowed to have their way.

The battle cry this time — “fight against the proposed national anthem law and the national security legislation” — failed to rally as many supporters as such calls to action used to.

Conceivably, most Hong Kong people accept that it is not too much to ask them to respect their national anthem as well as other symbols of sovereignty. They have no difficulty realizing it is pure nonsense to claim that asking a citizen to respect a symbol of sovereignty is a restriction on individual freedom. They have no difficulty understanding that a sovereign state has not only the power but the constitutional responsibility to safeguard national security, and that every responsible citizen is obligated to do the same.