Docility in the Face of Tyranny is Insanity

"Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."


-Malcolm X


I was having a discussion with my Pakistani friend the other day. He was having great difficulty understanding how Americans react to what is going on in America today. In most countries, if an inept son of the gentry seized power under questionable circumstances, led the country into war without pretext, and <mis>led the country from one disaster to another, they would be striking, bombing, rioting in the streets against the tyrant.

Of course, I tried to explain to my friend about how Americans have a faith in their system that amounts to the same type of magical-thinking people typically give their religion... as if the chapter and verse of the Constitution has divine power.

Many Congressional Democrats have made just such responses (and continue to), unwilling to realize the game has changed (with unfair actors) with a Republican group who will lie, cheat, and steal their way to power at every turn. How can anyone count on 2006 when every district has been computer gerrymandered across nation to keep the Republicans in power? How can we have confidence in a system where corporations and the 'armies' of the faithful plunge millions of dollars into the coffers of the neo-fascists? How does anyone react when we face yet another defeat at the polls this Fall?

What did we do in the past? Many of us have protested, written letters, signed petitions, and even passively resisted. Most were lucky to get even 30 seconds on the evening news, or face-time on C-SPAN with their protests.

While I am not advocating violence, I wonder if it isn't time to escalate pressure on this regime. Why not direct confrontation concerning those 'free speech' zones? Why not other direct confrontation? Why not general strikes to protest the ongoing war and the looting of the American Treasury?

Or, are we sheep? IF so, line-up the butcher will be coming for you shortly.

and I wonder, how Paki is your friend?

He is from Pakistan that makes him about Pakistani as one can get... Technically, he is Punjabi (family is from Lahore)... If you know Pakistan, it is a multi-ethnic country. :shrug:

... in the UK, "Paki" is considered a racist slur. Not for its inherent meaning, but thanks to its derogatory appropriation by racist groups.

But it's a bit like the N-bomb to us.

of way that rappers used the N word... but still, it would be best not to use it...

But even though hip-hop artists use the N-word, it would be different if I dropped it into conversation.

as a brown woman. :evilgrin:

Oddly, "Pak" is OK as an abbreviation - the best curry house in my neighbourhood, Pakistani owned and run, styles itself as "Indo-Pak", and some headline writers use it ("Pak clerics condemn X", "Pak leaders visit Y" etc.).

Please don't worry, I wasn't accusing you of anything!

considering Pakistan's unhappy history of autocratic military governments, corruption and suchlike. Pervez Musharraf may be about as benign as military dictators get, but he is still a military dictator.

I doubt if we even know all of the attempts.

The only reason he stays in power is that the politcal consensus is that whoever would replace him would be that much worse...

But it tends to be the radical Islamists who attempt assassination, not the liberal democracy movements. Not a good analogue.

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“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.”

OR

“When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.”

and Voltaire - “Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them”

Or even better - James Madison - “If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy” and “The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”

Should we call them prophets?

More prophetic folks:

Hugo Black - “The Framers knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.”

Clarence Darrow - The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.

Aristotle - A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.


George Washington - Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.


While I am throwing quotes out - I will give you my mostest favorite one:

George W. Bush - Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

are far too willing to let the corporate media sell them fascism. I wish I had more confidence in our objective thinking skills and concern for Democracy. We are a Nation that will put our homes at risk in order to buy any cheap junk the TV sells.