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A Time for Resistance
A friend e-mailed me this morning, "Do you think events taking place in Wisconsin might be as important as what's happening in Cairo, if the media really got the word out? Might it be the spark to halt the Tea Party Express?" Another friend e-mailed, "It's possible that this labor strike in Wisconsin could become our Uncut." (In response to Britain's draconian public spending cuts, citizens there formed UK Uncut, a Twitter-organized movement, to protest wealthy tax evaders. If the rich paid for their fair share of taxes, the movement argues, the pressure on the state budget would diminish or disappear.)
Wisconsin's Republican governor and Republican-dominated legislature are moving to destroy organized labor, moving to abolish democratic rights that were the essence of the New Deal, and treating working-class Americans as though they were meaningless in our country's mosaic. Meanwhile, those who are responsible for the catastrophic financial crisis are riding high--and in the name of deficits they largely caused, they insist that those who worked a lifetime to build and own their homes, to send their children to public schools, to have security in their retirement years, to have decent medical care--that those citizens should pay the price for budgetary crises in honor, dignity and decency.
There are some who still respect the contributions of working people: Contrast what Governor Walker is doing in Wisconsin with the constructive steps the new Democratic Governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, is taking to address the same problems. But there are too many cheerleaders for fiscal austerity roaming our political landscape, abetted by a mindless mainstream media's suffocating consensus.
However, as the events in Cairo, and now Wisconsin, show us, this is a moment of extraordinary possibility. It is a time for global, nonviolent challenge to anti-democratic forces, wherever they may be--forces that have enriched themselves while promising stability based on coercion, suppression of rights and profound corruption.
This remarkable moment is captured in a small book by Stéphane Hessel, a 93-year-old distinguished French diplomat, leader of the Resistance, survivor of Nazi concentration camps and drafter of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Published last October in France, Hessel's "Indignez-Vous!" (which could be translated as "Get Angry!" or--my preference--"Time for Outrage!") and its message of resistance and nonviolence became a publishing phenomenon--unexpectedly reaching the top of France's bestseller list and selling close to 2 million copies.
We are proudly publishing Hessel's 4,000-word manifesto in the next issue of The Nation.
"Time for Outrage!" forces us to ask how we can look at today's trends and not be angry. Hessel calls on the young, in France and around the world, to engage actively in defense of human and economic rights. His fervent advocacy of nonviolent activism captures the spirit of the revolutions in Tunisia and Cairo. It has also moved women marching in Italy to protest Silvio Berlusconi's barbarism to display the book’s title on placards. It is a spirit that now animates brave and defiant workers, students and their allies all over the world.
In rousing language, Hessel reminds us: "The motivation that underlay the Resistance was outrage. We, the veterans of the Resistance movements and the fighting forces of Free France, call on the younger generations to revive and carry forward the tradition of the Resistance and its ideas. We say to you: take over, keep going, get angry! Those in positions of political responsibility, economic power and intellectual authority, in fact our whole society, must not give up or let ourselves be overwhelmed by the current international dictatorship of the financial markets, which is such a threat to peace and democracy."
There is a new spark in the world and in our country--lit by citizens of conscience resisting forces that would trample economic justice, decency and dignity.
"To you who will create the twenty-first century, we say, from the bottom of our hearts,
TO CREATE IS TO RESIST.
TO RESIST IS TO CREATE." Stephane Hessel, October 2010
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128 Comments so far
Show AllThank you for this article. It's time to address the injustice of wealth distribution.
In the past 30 years, 90% of the US population has lived with stagnant wages while 10% has seen an enormous growth.
personally i am not in the least impressed with kvh
she is a progressive - whatever that means - its just a word and as all words in amerikan politik - its a code for notions like: frozen, inarticulate, reactive, meek, at times laughable and so on
the lexicon in politics is so over - left, right, centrist, progressive - makes me sick
in the 60's timothy leary foresaw and wrote about his vision of social development in amerika and he saw a very small elite (1 % of population), serviced by 7-8% of population as their doctors, bankers, and such. lastly he foresaw the vast majority living as he put it - like rats without employment, assets or homes
and today we are well on the way to this fascist reality
the bankers, oligarchs and their war machine is amerika, the rest of us are so much flotsam and jetsam. and who cares what happens to flotsam and jetsam
i am just waiting for the drug crazed and brain injured psychopaths in the army and national guard, fresh back from iraq and afghanistan, to be unleashed on demonstrators
then incarcerated in the fema prisons - most of which by the way are equipped with crematoria
http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm
http://labvirus.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/fema-concentration-camps-locations-and-executive-orders/
kvh can go and get a pedi because i don't see her out in the street dodging bullets
do you?
KVH is a talker, not a walker. Egging others on from behind the crowd. These types never puts their paychecks in jeopardy.
In fairness, its the same with conservatives. They're all entertainers & celebs first, citizens second.
... however, conservatives DO manage to show up en masse at state rallies, at anti-government and anti-health-care rallies on the steps of the U.S. capitol, and at voting booths pretty much every November like clockwork.
While progressives, or radicals, or lefties, or whatever you want to call them, seem to be in conspicously short supply at each of the above (... the recent labor rallies at the Wisconsin capital being a rare and heartening exception).
You may consider conservatives to be "citizens second", but they seem to take themselves very seriously, and manage to turn out in numbers that attract serious attention.
As Woody Allen once noted, 90% of success is showing up for work.
I agree. Conservatives do indeed turn out en masse. Why? Well... I can only surmise its because they are focused on fewer subjects, not inundated by several dozen (look at CD today.) And, unlike the Left, they are simply inspired.
The Left is merely the left wing of the ruling faction. We all know it. Same foreign policies (warmongering and empire building abroad) and at home, worse than the Right in their use of force and death (Ruby Ridge, Waco) as well as a general suppression of civil liberties. And the worst when it comes to general thievery and criminality. (See TBTF banks and general giveaways)
When democrats take office in D.C., you can always look forward to more growth of the ever increasing police state and a general endangerment to the citizenry as well. They are the worst. The democrats handle the citizenry at home and republicans crack more heads overseas. Generally speaking.
If you're truly a progressive, there's good reason to be apathetic. You've got nothing. There is no Left. Except of course in the minds of the Professional Left like KVH and the rest of her peers. They get paid for keeping their core niche in place. The reality is there is no leadership, there is no focus, there is nothing but the ongoing deciphering of political policy, theory, and other brainy-zany-wonkiness that poses as a "left". e.g. all talk and no walk.
My opinion. That's just how it looks to me.
Well said, and I agree. Although I would not call KVH and progressives "the Left."
I am referring to people who call themselves progressives, and to various groups such as PDA, DFA, DSA, Moveon, Code Pink, the Green party. People who are not right wingers, but who support Capitalism and frequently side with or are sympathetic to management, the bosses, the owners, the landlords, the investors and are frequently antagonistic to the general public and to the working class in various ways.
Sure, DONNY, leave out the part about who gets the use of the media's megaphones... leave out the incessant mantras of the likes of Glenn beck and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh... and the millions of ears (and minds) they reach!
IF there were anything remotely akin to a level playing field operating on the plane of communications, otherwise known as the PUBLIC'S airwaves... and IF there was anything akin to TRUTH being discussed so that citizens could connect the wars abroad with the poverty at home, the derivatives scam that opened the nation's vault to bankers (Oceans, what, 15-style?)... then lots of people would be out in the street.
It's interesting how you left out the fact that people like the Koch brothers secretly fund astro-turf organizations that provide just enough data to lure people in, while simultaneously convincing them to aim their wrath at the targets (Acorn! Teachers! Feminists! Muslims!) LEAST responsible for the crap passing for policy today!
You've been on this site long enough to connect the dots. The question is why you don't appear to want to, and therefore what agenda YOU are serving. Blaming the Left is just so vogue these days, but an honest person might look into all the factors that operate together to bring events (or a lack of them) about.
KVH never needed a paycheck. She was born with millions.
Nothing personal, Medmedude--maybe you *are* the most radical of posters in your personal endeavors. Maybe KVH has no physical courage: I do not know nor much care.
This will be an extended rant, but I intend it for all the ad hominem arguments that I read on CD and elsewhere: they are just lousy arguments.
Let me qualify this: were KVH a candidate for something, anything, it might be valuable to know what moral courage to stand by her word she may or may not have, and so it is worth repeating that our politicians are lying scum because this is relevant to decisions that we make; likewise, it is particularly worth repeating that most commercial media is lying scum and that The Nation has the weaknesses that it has, at least inasmuch and insofar as readers might take The Nation's word for something on faith, as authority.
What about the written piece, the writing itself, the actual expressed opinion that is or is not stood by? Do these things not have some value distinguishable from the identity of their authors?
In this case, is there nothing odd about criticising in writing in a written forum a written piece for being writing or even just *just writing* in a written forum, or even a writer writing in a written forum for devoting time to writing? Does it not seem possible that someone who actually is on the street cannot write, does not write, has no time to write, or has not been able to make the connections necessary to distribute writing effectively to a wide audience? Take it as you will, if I ever have the choice, when I haul my tail out onto the street, I would like someone to write about it. I would also hope that the writing be judged on its merits and not by the moral condition of someone involved in authorship or publication.
If the beast at our chariot is not Pegasus nor centaur, but a plain pony, can we not judge her work from whether the cart moves well in a likely direction, and not whether she's brindle or bay?
For what it may be worth coming from the likes of me, medmedude, kudos on the left-right observations.
Your cowardly and pointedly anonymous correspondent,
b.
hey b - i'm not sure what you are trying to say but if your test is whether the cart moves or not as you say - well its not moving - let that be her judgement - which is what i think i was trying to say
it aint moving and she aint gonna move it
Anyone citing Dr. Leary is OK by me. Thank you, medmedude, for another good post.
Notive how KVH never mentions her friend Obama.... you know the guy she promoted through her magazine, The Nation?
Here we go again on a devious ride with Katie Scarlet O'Hara vanden Heuvel.
Here she uses the tearing down of the corrupt Egyptian machine to try to get more people to keep it going in the U.S.
Welcome to the Washingtonian Carnival of the Status Quo!
The background music is always the theme song of Democrats Good, Republicans Bad, Republicans Bad, Democrats Good!
So many variations on a theme! Not.
It is meant to be hypnotic.
The problem is that it is the music of a Merry-Go-Round, which goes in one direction, but never really goes anywhere, and the only hope we have is if we can get off, shake off the dizzy-ness, and walk away from the corruption which is the power source which keeps it running.
The ride grinds on and on, puffing out plumes of toxins and lubricated by blood.
p.s. The "vanden Heuvel" prize will be awarded to the person(s) who exhibit the greatest dizzy-ness and can't get off the ride.
p.p.s. The title is true.
I think you are a little hard on KVH as she did not mention D/R. We know they are good cop/bad cop and one in the same with a few dems left who are defending the working class and America's economy and greatness.
I've been thinking for last 10 days and beginning to express it in comments. We need to wake up and get angry be outraged. We need to express our outrage over and over again and turn the Tea Party people to our side at least on this issue, we can have our differences on other things that they are working people also. The working people should not be against the public employees and unions. If it were not for the unions and our ancestors who organized unions and fought and died for the rights of decent working conditions, decent hours, wages, child labor laws et al we would all be worse off over the last 100 years. We cannot let their hard work and fighting for the working man be for not. We cannot let the ruling corporate elites who would like to make America a third world nation. These people are not patriotic and they do not care about the American economy or the greatness of our values. They have our military industrial complex protecting and supporting them around the world while they pillage the resources of other nations and those nations who are run by dictators reap the wealth which is not shared with the people and that is just hunky dory with these wealthy corporate elite. They do not create civil societies, they create unrest around the world and create hatred of America aroun the world. There only motive is more and bigger profits for themselves and there coherts; they care nothing for human rights and the people of the world let alone the American worker and people old and young.
Hello, damn man, are you crazy? Tea Party supporters, and The Republican Party supporters are real confused, crazy and violent. If you tell a Republican Party supporter and Tea Party Supporter that we need to overthrow the capitalist system in America and nationalize large corporations, they would label you as an anti-american rebel. The Republican Party and Tea Party people are real backwards, they live in the 1950s, i suspect that most Republicans and Tea Baggers never been out of USA, and never been to a college. They are real closed minded
.
Do you really think you are fooling anyone with this act?
"Theme song of Democrats Good, Republicans Bad, Republicans Bad, Democrats Good!"
Interesting interpretation, but IMO way too simplistic. I read it: "Republicans are a completely lost cause; Democrats still include many good eggs and still have the potential, as a party, to be pulled back to the left."
An opinion with which you're welcome to disagree. But if you disagree, you're more or less obligated either to propose a viable alternative that has some reasonable chance of actually happening, or resign yourself to our inevitable descent into decades of fascism and plutocracy. I'm not a big fan of the latter option.
So I'm still waiting to hear the "viable alternative". Whining to each other on lefty web sites doesn't count. Nor does urging Nader to run again (based on the success of that strategy over the last 16 years). Nor does waiting for America's soccer moms and NASCAR dads to rise up in some kind of spontaneous revolution against the Powers That Be (that may happen some day far, far, in the future, but there will be real hell to live through to make it that far).
So: I'm eager to hear The Plan.
No one is obligated to come up with this so-called "viable alternative" you are demanding. Asking that question is a ruse, a deception.
What was the "viable alternative" to slavery?
What was the "viable alternative" to women being denied voting and property rights?
What was the "viable alternative" to workers being exploited in the factories?
The viable alternative is fighting back and stopping those things. Always.
Your "opinions" and "ideas" about this are irrelevant. What is important is which side you are on. You side with the rulers - sure, a kinder gentler version as represented by the Democrats - and will say anything to advance the interests of the rulers.
You are simultaneously saying that you oppose us, and that we should see you as a friend. That won't fly anymore.
Still "eager to hear the plan?"
BA,
Very good...lol!
If a 93 year old man who has lived through the horrors of Nazi occupation and been part of the courageous Resistance can find reason for hope, reason for outrage, and reason for non-violent action to better our world, I don't think I'll get on Medmedude's nihilistic bandwagon. I personally am very impressed with Katrina van den Heuvel and can't wait for this week's edition of the Nation to arrive. The demonstrations in Madison are showing us that the middle class in the American heartland is waking up to the efforts to manipulate and exploit them. The Governor and his bosses from the corporations overplayed their hand, in trying to manufacture a crisis and ram through their union-busting agenda.
Old Blue....thank you. I feel the same.
Where was this sorry hack during the last 20 years when DEMOCRATS were taking whacks at organized labor?
..
Indeed!
Oops. You asked an embarrassing question. You will never be invited back to any swank parties now, or be able to move in the better circles that KVH moves in.
Ms. vanden Heuvel believes that it is time to resist by speaking out and protesting against our government. These are certainly very wise and noble sentiments. Perhaps Ms. vanden Heuvel can take the time to explain to people like Hillary Clinton and the Secret Service and the police that people in this country certainly have the right to do this without getting roughed up the way Ray McGovern did when he had the temerity to express his displeasure toward Hillary Clinton and her bellicose policies by turning his back to her when she recently gave a speech which, without a trace of irony, praised the protesters in Egypt for speaking out against their government.
I will have a lot more respect for Ms. vanden Heuvel when she tells the members of the mass media what McGovern had gone through when he took the time to resist by speaking out against his government when he exercised his First Amendment rights in the supposed land of the free.
Visiting Prof.
Extremely well said. Your essay deserves to be printed in such media outlets as The New York Times,The Washington Post and The Nation. Unfortunately it is quite doubtful if this will happen given the fact that these institutions would not like to hear such criticism of both parties even though your analysis appears to me to be right on the mark. Given the fact that The Nation is generally loath to publish letters which vigorously condemn the policies of the Democrats, at least in comparison to the Republicans, then one must conclude that The Nation is a progressive magazine in name only.
VP,
Bravo!
Thank you for spelling it out so well, V.P.
Jill,
Thank you.
Once again, your analysis is accurate and clearly stated.
Notice the Democratic party apologists scrambling to get ahead of events, to get out in front of the parade and steer it back safely into the fold? It is disgusting opportunism.
The author has been fighting against those who called for resistance for years, and arguing for working within the system and for the lesser of two evils. Now she sense which way the wind is blowing, and wants to own the resistance and claim to be with us. Such self-serving hypocrisy and cowardice.
Seize the Time; many voices will, Must, become One voice to stand against the oppressors be it Egypt or amerika !
We need a radical reorientation. We need to change a world economic system that only works in favour and only benefits the richest 1% of the population. We need to create a system that benefits the large majorities who didn’t get any share of the great productivity increases of the last decades. We need a policy and a system that works on the basis of the general advantage of the whole world society and its natural environment. The present system, which works for the advantage of a small global financial oligarchy, is bankrupt. This system, presided by a corrupt and incompetent financial aristocracy, has shown that it cannot serve the equitable development of the world society.
The global financial oligarchy will not change by itself. They have the power, a power that they use irresponsibly and irrationally. They are in fact the only real citizens of the world, in the sense that their decisions about the trillions of dollars that move around the world economy every day change our lives in crucial ways — the lives of billions of people who have no say at all on these changes. This is why we need a global movement for citizenship.
Citizenship is the right to have rights (Hannah Arendt). Large majorities in both rich and poor countries are not really, or not fully, citizens. We are not real citizens, in the sense that we don’t fully enjoy the rights that we would have the right to have, if we were citizens in the full sense of the word.
Real citizenship for all is an aspiration that can unite and mobilize those large majorities of the world that have been impoverished, relegated and despised during the past period of wild extension of unbridled, global capitalism. We need a global, regional, national and local struggle for citizenship.
These aspirations to real citizenship of the excluded and ignored parts of world society are in this moment functional to the needs of the world economy. The world economy needs in this moment a well designed, large demand push in order to avoid an indefinite prolongation of the present crisis — that is, an indefinite, long term stagnation or depression. The US economy cannot play any longer the role of great creator of world demand through its huge debt accumulation and its enormous trade deficits. What is needed now in order to avoid a new protracted Great Depression is a systematic world redistribution of incomes and financial and other resources towards the impoverished segments and regions of world society.
Addendum:
Basic citizenship rights, recognized by UN conventions as basic human rights of all humanity include the rights to:
• life and liberty,
• the right to an adequate standard of living, that is, a standard of living adequate for health and wellbeing, including food and housing. In other words, poverty is a violation of a basic human right
• social protection in times of need, (that is, social security and unemployment insurance are human rights)
• health care is also a basic right — the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health,
• it is a basic right to have a work, that is, the right to work and to just and favourable conditions of work, are human rights
• education and access to information are basic human rights
• as also the rights to participate in the political process and in cultural life,
• the right to physical security and integrity is an important right, that depends in fact on the fulfilment of the other rights).
the problem in America is basically most of us were in the top 1% - at least when compared to worldwide incomes- and the ones that weren't Thought they were - hence we didn't give a shit when the min wage in Egypt was 4 cents an hour - or 3 million people died in one year in Mozambique due to a US sponsored civil war - that was Their problem - not ours according to their firmly entrenched myth that the USA were the "good guys"
Now that we're falling out of the 1%, Americans by and large don't know whether to feel like failures, blame the government,etc
we've kept our heads in the sand too long allowing the foxes to raid the henhouses as long as it wasn't OUR henhouse -
now that it's raiding ours, by and large we haven't figured out how to react......
GIABO
Jorge: You are a visionary humanitarian. Thank you for an excellent post. I agree with most of it, and I believe that by the year 2020, this type of global incentive will have taken root. Its fruit will provide a better world for those who survive the complex challenges of the next decade.
Letter to the Editor, =Nation=
I feel the need to repeat my recent comments here on CommonDreams.
A world-wide cohort of people - of whom Robert Reich is representative - believe these global tremors of rage, violent resistance to authority, and possible revolution represent the onset of an ECONOMIC EARTHQUAKE.
I disagree with that assessment. I insist that economic activity is a secondary characteristic of human behavior that derives from SOCIAL CONTRACT. In the last 100 years astonishing advances in science, and unbelievable changes in applied technology have more or less mooted the original range of Social Contract. Most of the material benefits and control advantages of this phenomenon have gone to the Upper Class. The result is a PHILOSOPHICAL EARTHQUAKE, as our species goes through a landmark Existential Crisis.
Here is a peculiar hypothetical, involving a dyad contract, just to trigger some reflection and make a point.
Marriage is based upon verbal contract, stated in the presence of witnesses, and given Social Sanction by clergy or other commissioned persons. Among the vows, classically, is that of sexual fidelity. This circumstance has existed for uncounted thousands of years - with attendant social problems, laws and mores.
Okay, suppose that the Marriage Event now involves the wedding guests observing the ceremonial, surgical implant of the RAT. The RAT is a microchip that detects sexual activity when the GPS indicates the sex partner is not the licensed spouse. The signal will dispatch a helicopter drone fitted with cameras and which circles the location until the Fidelity Police arrive, armed to the teeth, at the Sleazebag Motel. "Trying to have a Matinee with your secretary, were you? Gotcha. These things really work?"
National and other Constitutions are being reduced to the status of quaint VOWS. Present living proof of that is SCOTUS, whom many Americans regard as the wheel men in the heist of our Democracy, rat-a-tat-tat. See also =U.S. Justice v. The World= by Glen Greenwald.
The goals of social rebels, from Egypt to Wisconsin, are well intended and admirable. But they could amount to Pillow Punching if they are not grounded in the principal phenomenon that divides Humans from naked Great Apes - Social Contract, the point of which is to ameliorate or forestall CLASS WARFARE.
21st century Capitalism has precipitated deadly Class Warfare. We must stop using other terms for this donnybrook - and we humans must decide what we are going to do about it.
Trylon
Cogent as always. Call them out. It's time everybody. And WI is not settling down, we're spreading the word and most of those that work for wages around me see it's class warfare now. I've even had some teachers apologize for not being more concerned about our working conditions and benefits until now, saying support staff were the bigger people for not rubbing their noses in it and backing them up now. The police and troopers and fire/emt's haven't been suckered by the exemption either. SOLIDARITY!
Very inspiring, netminnow. Thanks.
This is like saying 2 plus 2 equals 5, for flexible definitions of 2.
A stitch in time gathers no moss.
It is time to ask what resistance begets. Resisitance as an age old solution to dominance and plunder, as such it breeds only the child of dominance and plunder. You can see how history proves that resistance is merely a part of dominance and plunder for you will not find a time that resistance led us anywhere but right back to an ascendant of dominance and plunder. This has led inevitably to a better world than times past and to argue anything other is foolish, but the cost of that bettered world for humans has been an earth that is destroyed in the process of our current social patterns. If we cannot change the frame of creation through destruction, be it the creation of the those who overtly dominate and plunder, or the creation of those who work to destroy that which dominates and plunders but then end up trapped by their own creation of destruction as a way to create which leaves them birthing the new era of creation through destruction which leads to ever stronger stages of plunder and domination. If we cannot recognize yet with all our knowledge, learning and wisdom, what it is we are all trapped in and therefore must challenge the destroyer within, and change forever humans path of destruction, all we will beget is an ascended humanity dying on the surface of a destroyed earth. We must learn now to recieve and give through the power of love and passion for ourselves, for this earth and leave behind forever the evil that calls it's self by so many names, and wears so many masks that it's illusion is that it is not what it is, when it is always what it is.
Leea....wonderful post! Very insightful. I'm afraid however that what you seem to be describing is the macrocosm, i.e., the society...as a reflection of the microcosm within our human bodies. We act out externally the same way our cells and immune system acts internally. When the environment becomes toxic, the antibodies work to destroy the offending organisms. The big solution of course, is to end the plague of homo sapiens. . Of course, transcendence is another solution.
Your post has gotten me thinking again in that "global visionary" way that makes some posters here grind their teeth!
Thank you Inanna for the compliments. It is challenging to see both the good and bad that humanity has wrought in their time and maintain a stance of resolute trust that in the end we are not half as bad as nor half as good as we would often like to believe.
The visionary is in us all and those who don't see their's grind teeth when others do.
Without resistance to tyranny, and the re-establishing of cooperative and communal systems and communities, the human race would not have survived.
Yes, it is "an age old solution to dominance." It is also what is right, what is necessary, and what must be done. It will be done, because the alternative is death of the species (some here favor that.)
The fact that tyranny re-emerges is not a legitimate reason to submit and fail to resist it. You are counseling surrender and slavery under the guise of peace. Slavery is not peace.
It is time to recognize what inward focus begets, what obsession over original sin and interior emotional states in lieu of tackling the difficult job of changing conditions in objective reality begets, what complacency and submission to tyranny begets, not what resistance begets.
Love is defending my working class brothers and sisters, who are under relentless deadly assault. Love is defending the weak and persecuted, the victims of this murderous juggernaut.
Love is having the courage to stand between those with murder in their hearts and their Innocent victims.
Hmmm...well said Two Americas. I will have to reconsider my point of view. To me, the human race keeps proving how power wins over truth. This world seems so hopelessly lost right now. The individual has choices of course....but I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall in regard to the build up of protest across the globe. I keep thinking of "many martyrs." I hope I'm wrong. I'm not sure what transcending this world looks like but when an organism is trapped between a rock and a hard place, the only way to go is within.
You make a good case for "standing up" for what is right. That idealism is courageous and I applaud it. I'm looking beyond it tho. This repetition of conquer/be conquered, that the human race performs endlessly, just spins in circles. I envision the expulsion of mankind from these spirals of futility as a release from slavery.
Perhaps it is too esoteric a concept in the face of imminent revolution once again, but where is the end? Our human bodies experience the end as death. We, however, do not really know...what happens to the life force of the human? Is it released? If so, into what? The final end....release... is the end game. Transferring that analogy of what happens inside is manifest outside.....what happens to "release" mankind from the spiral of conquer/be conquered/conquer/be conquered? That's where I was going with my post.
I hope you will consider what I am about to say.
It is only in the heart of the empire, among those close to the tyrants and indoctrinated to defend and support the tyrants that we ever hear people expressing these "it is all hopeless, because we keep coming back to the same place" ideas, and do we hear the calls for looking inward to discover ultimate answers to the supposed futility of human life.
But the struggle against tyranny it is not futile. If it were futile, the human race would never have survived. Yes, it is an ongoing and never-ending struggle. That is because life - all life - is an ongoing and never-ending struggle. The yearning for an escape from that is a yearning to be free, to escape the bonds the tyrants have on you, and it then gets twisted into a yearning to escape life itself.
It is not the struggle that makes people weary or stressed, it is not the struggle that is the problem. It is avoiding the struggle, denying it, that wears people down, and it is their powerlessness to control their own lives that stresses them.
This is not idealism. This is an attempt at accurately perceiving and describing reality.
It is when we have surrendered, when we have submitted, when we refuse to engage in the struggle that we then muse about the afterlife, and what it all means, and why it is all so futile. It is the position of the abused and captive person. The solution is to end the abuse and captivity, not to say 'what is the use? They will just capture and abuse me again. It is an endless cycle" When we have no control over the real things in pour lives, we turn to mysticism.
Would we fail to intervene to save or protect a child's life until and unless all risks to all children for all time could thereby be eliminated by our action? Would we say "what's the use? Children will always be at risk?" and therefore fail to act?
Two America's, you write as though you think you have escaped mysticism, but the fact that you define life as a 'struggle' is a great red flag that you are as human as the next human. Mysticism as a way of percieving the world is a by product of the human journey it's sign post is struggle, strife and suffering. Acceptance of that state rather than evolving beyond that state is our present problem. Speaking for myself in this rare moment where I speak only in consideration of self, I ask you, what struggle? Life as it is never was a struggle, and never will be, and the fact that we misconstrue it as one, never made it so for anything living on this planet but us humans. Moving beyond this human condition of struggle to one of peace is our saving grace. We will either save ourselves from struggle and it's toxic byproducts, or we will strangle in the deadly air we create.
Living and working on the farm, I can assure you that life is most definitely a struggle. Not once in a while, but always. Millions of people around the world are struggling every day to survive. All animals and plants are struggling to survive. If you think that the wild critters are living in peace and harmony, free from struggle, you have not been very observant.
It is only among the relative few, the fortunate, those who have the luxury of being able to take their comfort and security for granted, that the idea of moving beyond this human condition of struggle to one of peace seems logical.
Millions are struggling and suffering in order to allow the few to imagine that life need not be a struggle.
Stuggle is a human word created through civilization. I live on the farm and I find peace to be the best reality to do all my work from. When I think of the few who you think don't struggle, I actually think they struggle and suffer the most. People judged as poor and living in the worst conditions according to those who you think don't suffer or struggle, are also found to often be the happiest and most peaceful people. You must not live amongst nature on farms nor observe nature much at all. Struggle is not the main theme of this giant web of life though, at times what we observe could be called struggle if you wish. Or you can call it the way of life. I find the assumption that a few people don't struggle at all nor suffer because they are ultra-wealthy to be an absolute illusion and falsehood. These people are never happy and never have enough. No level of wealth or production satisfies them, they are the sickest among us. They bear the burden of becoming powerful enough to have to lead our current human mis-adventure. Desiring comfort and security as easily becomes a bane as a blessing. You are too quick to decide what is real here. It is your reality.