This Doesn't Have to Be a Tool for Tyranny

Neuronic whips have been invented in the real world:

WASHINGTON—Test subjects can't see the invisible beam from the Pentagon's new, Star Trek-like weapon, but no one has withstood the pain it produces for more than three seconds.

People who volunteered to stand in front of the directed energy beam say they felt as if they were on fire. When they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly.

Brad DeLong treated this as a tool for tyranny:

There was a Star Trek episode set in a parallel universe--in which the United Federation of Planets was evil--in which the Enterprise had such a device. Perhaps we have shifted into it.

I disagree. First, we already have torture devices and, unlike electrical shocks, this technology can be used by individuals.

If individual store owners could use this on “protestors” throwing rocks through windows, there would be much less need for crowd control by police.