From Etienne De La Boetie:
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.
[More of my thoughts on De Boetie stderr]
Nazi troops leading away jewish refugees
Nothing happens in a vacuum. There are always witnesses – they’re just either silent or complicit. There was a whole nation of Britons that did not block those bobbies’ path and tell them that what they were doing was wrong.
My undying love to the activists who are trying to blockade ICE offices; they are the few who are resolved not to serve.
When the nazis started rounding up jews, many Germans rushed to loot their houses and stores, or to buy up their possessions at discounted prices. The story that “many Germans didn’t know what was happening” is bullshit – it’s a fig-leaf to try to cover the fact that a majority of them did, and stood by or profited from it.
It’s simple: not enough people said “stop.”
The problem with De Boetie’s argument is that it forces an all-or-nothing stance. For sure, if each right-thinking American shot just one ICE agent, there wouldn’t be any ICE anymore, really quickly. But that’s an all-or-nothing throw of the dice. It’s a radical option. So, people who wish to show a moderate response to radicals are checkmated and the radicals can push them into a corner.
There was some discussion of a general strike when the “child separation disaster” first began to appear on the news cycle. Now, there is open discussion that Roe is on the chopping block. If these things did not trigger a general strike (let alone a flat-out insurgency) does it mean that the fascists have more public support, or does it mean that not enough of us are saying “stop”?
When do we say “stop”? We’ve all got to rise together. I know that I’m waiting, like most keyboard-warriors, because I keep hoping the situation is going to correct itself back toward our aggregate course of national inertia. What is going to break the inertia?
During the holocaust, the British were quite shitty to jewish refugees. The picture is of british police frog-marching refugees back onto a boat and sending them to Poland. From the frying pan, right into the fire. That is not “complicity” it’s “active participation.”
One does not not notice this: [ushm] “Some were neighbors”
Unfortunately, smart tyrants tend to understand this. This is why they arrange the system so as to motivate people to serve them. Generally, it goes somewhat like this: “Do you want food? Then serve me. If you choose to take no actions and not do anything waiting for me to lose power, well, I hope you don’t mind dying of starvation first.” Occasionally, it gets even worse: “If there are any Whatever (Jews, for example) hiding in your village, hand them over immediately. If afterwards we find any of them here, then every single person in this village will get killed as a punishment for disobeying orders.”
Regarding USA: you don’t work for the ICE (or any other government agency), you don’t do anything to support the regime. You just go on with your life waiting for the regime to crumble. The problem? You are still supporting the regime. In order to prevent dying of starvation, you need some job. Which means you are paying taxes. Which means you are supporting the regime you loathe. Do you feel like stopping paying taxes? This is where the government kindly asks you whether you wish to see a jail cell from the inside.
At this point you might feel like leaving the USA, moving to another country so as to stop supporting this loathed American country. The problem? Other countries aren’t significantly better, they all suck (OK, some other countries are at least somewhat better, though).
By the way, yes, I know that there are cases where some actions (or inaction) are possible and could help. For example, it would have been possible to save some genocide victims. It’s just that I’m cynical, completely pessimistic, with no hope for humanity, and I tend to always think about various scenarios how all the good intentions can turn out to be fruitless.
Ieva Skrebele@#1:
Unfortunately, smart tyrants tend to understand this. This is why they arrange the system so as to motivate people to serve them. Generally, it goes somewhat like this: “Do you want food? Then serve me. If you choose to take no actions and not do anything waiting for me to lose power, well, I hope you don’t mind dying of starvation first.”
Yes.
We appear to be in a race to the bottom, you and I, to see who is more cynical.
That’s the problem with a general strike: It only works if it’s actually general. If it’s just a few people, they can easily be rounded up or waited out. That’s why labor unions are so important. And why governments tend to want to abolish or co-opt them.
Your pictures are the wrong way around.
Paul Durrant@#4:
I was trying to imply that the bobbies were nazis. After all, they were complying with the nazi political agenda, what else should they be called?
Yes, that’s how it starts to look like. You know, actually I don’t really want to win this time.