I keep returning to these words from Solzhenitsyn -
"And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, polkers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you'd be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur – what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!
Solzhenitsyn is questioning the choices and actions he and his countrymen took with regard to their state. And that leads me to the questions I want to ask.
Are the choices and actions we are taking with at this point in time with regard to the state the most prudent ones? Does the threat levelled against us presently not warrant a more concerted response?
What will the generations that follow us think of the choices and actions we took in the present?
The problem is marginalism. If you are the first to strike back, you will suffer the full force of the retaliation. If you are the second, not as much, and the next resisters on will have a much easier time.
But when people are isolated and divided, they are all the first marginal actor, and so they are easy to defeat.
The best thing that can be done at this moment is to organize and break the isolation.
Microsecession as a strategy for revolution | Challenge to minarchist | How would a private road system work?
tacoface: Solzhenitsyn is questioning the choices and actions he and his countrymen took with regard to their state. And that leads me to the questions I want to ask. Are the choices and actions we are taking with at this point in time with regard to the state the most prudent ones? Does the threat levelled against us presently not warrant a more concerted response? What will the generations that follow us think of the choices and actions we took in the present?
Heavy stuff I have been struggling with for a year now.
I agree with Stranger. Organize, educate, cooperate.
If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North
taco, you just scared the s. out of me.
Till now I was going along with what seems like the AE theory of how to fix this mess, that if enough people know what's going on they won't stand for it. That all tyrants need public opinion on their side to flourish.
And you just presented a nice little counterexample. They knew they were being carted away, and I think we can safely assume they weren't rooting for it to happen, but sheer terror kept them from doing anything at all. 25% of the city? The mind boggles.
I've been mulling this over. I think I need to educate myself more first. This is proving to be extremely difficult what with work and learning a language. But soon enough I will have time to do some serious study. Then I will start to organize. Credibility will be difficult to build though.
libertystudent, that article of Gary North's about following your calling that you posted had got me to do some deep thinking. Thank you for posting it.
I believe one of my two callings is spreading the idea of freedom.
Cooperation. Everybody is polarized right now. Everyone has a defined label. Strange experience if your label is not "normal."
Scary stuff. Have you been able to introduce this at say work or in social settings without provoking hostility? I haven't tips?
"...The post-totalitarian system contrives to force life into its most probable states...This system serves people only to the extent necessary to ensure that people will serve it
Vaclav Havel
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