by Prajna » Mon May 10, 2010 5:19 pm
People are not dumb in that way, they are dumb in that they are trying to protect things that ultimately don't matter, their current, comfortable, familiar way of life. The truth is, if they actually look, what they think is comfortable is not actually comfortable, just they haven't noticed how hot the water in their little pot has become because the temperature has been so gradually increased; that comfort is an illusion created by their minds, which long for comfort. Nor is it familiar; all that is familiar is their deepest sense of self and the illusion they have created for themselves that they know something about this world they live in.
How can they stand up for anything? If they do they could lose their jobs, their families, their friends, their future. Until the reality of their situation becomes so oppressive to them, so offensive to their sense of right and wrong that they are prepared to sacrifice all they have in order to confront those who are taking it from them bit by bit, they will do no more than wave placards.
There is no refuge in the constitution or common law while nobody will defend those principles all the way to jail and back. They are nothing but pieces of paper and concepts; flimsy, powerless things. Beneath both of them are principles but nor do those principles have any power until people are prepared to stand under them, tirelessly, fearlessly and with the utmost dedication.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, "to stand up for truth is nothing, for the truth you must sit in jail."
Gandhi didn't make salt thinking that the law would support his indefeasible human right; he did so knowing that action would be taken against him but having great faith that whatever action was taken against him would discredit those taking such immoral actions. Likewise with Thoreau: he didn't withhold tax in the hope the tax collector would suddenly see the light; he did so knowing he would be imprisoned and having faith that the injustice inflicted on him would wake people up in a way that merely writing about the injustices failed to do.
Henry David Thoreau said, "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
I don't believe that any project or organisation will change the system, only a number of individual, sovereign, utterly determined people who know enough of the truth to have the courage it furnishes them with, have any chance to change it.
Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
At present they are ignoring me. Maybe they are laughing too. When it comes to a fight I very much hope some of you will at least publicise the fight, even if you have 'too much to lose' to confront them directly. I have nothing of value to lose. I also hope that others will begin to realise they have nothing of value to lose either because then they will become unassailable and incorruptible.
If you set up an organisation then TPTB have only one front to fight on and, believe me, if they are fighting on one front there is none powerful enough to overcome them. If they are fighting 10 cases of civil disobedience, - 100, 1,000 - they will soon tire of the fight. Don't organise, disorganise, come at them from every angle, on whichever front you know provides you with unquestionable moral right. For me that happens to be the right not to engage with a lawless and corrupt state.