Reply To: On Tyranny Lesson 20: Be as courageous as you can
Well, this is certainly a most sobering read but it absolutely fits. The “politics of eternity” is driving the bus in the U.S. at this point and with cruel and disastrous effects. I struggle, though, with the idea that the only two options are death (or willingness to risk it) or acceptance of tyranny; that it is a binary choice.
This sentence I can accept. “History permits us to be responsible: not for everything, but for something.”
“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.” This is a quote from an 1853 sermon by Theodore Parker, an abolitionist minister. It is the origin of the one often quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. (NPR 9/2/2010.)
The abolitionist and civil rights movement accepted neither the politics of inevitability or of eternity. Those who participated accepted responsibility for something. It is certainly true that some died for their efforts and almost certainly decided to participate accepting that risk. Still, deciding to be responsible for something is closer to what I can envision.
I am also reading this: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-to-think-and-act-like-a-dissident-in-trumps-america
And signed up for the Hands Off April 5th rally in ABQ.
