“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
― Leonardo da Vinci
Recently,
a diary appeared which characterized the emotional responses of critics of the current Obama Administration's policies. This brief response is my first diary of this nature. The diarist framed the discussion around the "shock," "anger," "surprise," "tearing hair out," "naivete of privilege," "Obama haters," and various other emotions and motivations disparagingly attributed to Obama critics, who have been vocal about certain alarming policies of the administration.
The diarist rationalized this characterization of critics with the premise that these developments are hardly new in the long view of history, which I will get to later.
And my response is this is utter bullshit: People should be outraged, and should be responding to the horrible policies and authoritarianism with an appropriate form of protestation.
Krishnamurti:
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
Responding with outrage to these events is completely
normal. If we are to raise the issue of abnormality of human response, then it is fair to question, as well, the
lack of normal human response to perpetual war, drone assassinations, extrajudicial rendition, torture, massive surveillance on innocent civilians, and the ever creeping erosion of civil and human rights. That there are people who incessantly refuse to acknowledge the healthy human concerns regarding these unfolding events is rather unsettling and disturbing, to say the least.
The diarist belittled these normal human responses, and even alluded to immaturity as an explanation of the "shock and outrage" that the diarist "outgrew" in her "20s," making crystal clear that she thinks these responses are beneath her, as if unworthy of a mature, normal person, thus relegating all critics to the level of pubescent, overindulged, privileged children. After infantilizing the critics, she has the unmitigated gall to call for an end to divisiveness, as if that is a province about which only she is worthy of pontificating, the rest of us being far too emotionally and intellectually underdeveloped to understand.
What's important is a healthy response that acknowledges the wrongfulness of the policies that allow these awful developments. It comes down to either responding in protest in some way, disinterest, or supporting the bad policies. People will naturally vary in temperament, but what is urgent and vital is that they protest the injustice. And if all some can manage is to attack the protestations, then I question with every fiber of my being their motivation and rationale for being more disturbed by the protestors than the policies and actions which they protest.
And what is the diarist's entire premise used to bash the outrage? She simply states that these horrors have been ongoing for a long time:
My point is that this is nothing new.
In other words, none of us should be outraged that the violations of constitutional protections are occurring, or set our "hair on fire" over the various abuses currently going on our behalf by our elected officials. We're just over-privileged spoiled brats who get our panties in a twist over innocent people being blown to bits (you know, its a "privilege" to worry about war crimes committed in our names) or of massive intrusions by Big Bother in our private lives. Why fucking worry? After all, if we're not doing anything wrong, what is there to fear? And this has been going on for eons, anyhoo. What's the sudden shock all about (i.e., now that Obama is President) as if some of us haven't been equally shocked at all the other egregious acts during our lifetimes?
Howard Zinn, a well known historian who wrote The People's History of the United States has this to say about normal human response to historical developments:
Howard Zinn
“But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.”
Thank you, Howard Zinn, for offering an alternative historical view, and for honoring the ability of the people to be passionately "moved" in witnessing injustice. You knew history as well as anyone, and wrote it from the perspective of the people, rather than the elites, and you wisely understood that becoming inured to horrors of tyranny would not offer hope to changing the trajectory of human history. You didn't tell us to "calm down" or ridicule us for "outrage," or accuse us of overreaction, but instead you told us about countless moments in history in which people were not content to be complacent, and how they rose up and fought against corruption, wage slavery, racism, exploitation, illegal wars, and elitist hegemony. We miss you.
“It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.”
― Benjamin Franklin
“I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”
― George Carlin
.
“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
― Albert Einstein