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The Land of the Silent and the Home of the Fearful
By Dave Lindorff
I was a speaker last night at an anti-war event sponsored by the
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, Progressive
Democrats of America and Democrats For America in Lincroft, NJ, near
the shore. It was a great group of activist Americans who want to see
this country end the Iraq War, turn away from war as a primary
instrument of policy, and start dealing with the pressing human needs
of the country and the world.
Yet even in this group of committed people, one woman stood up
during the question-and-answer session and said, “I want to get
involved in writing emails to members of Congress urging them to cut
off funding for the war and other things, but if I do that won’t I end
up getting put on a `watch list’” or something?”
I told her the short answer was yes, she probably would. In George
Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s America, no one is safe from such spying, and
even from harassment, as witness Tom Feeley, the man behind the website
Information Clearing House, who had armed men invade his house at night and threaten his wife complaining about his First Amendment-protected effort to publicize important stories on the Internet.
But I also told her that it didn’t matter. She should defend her
freedom of speech and her right to petition for redress of grievances,
just as she was defending her freedom of assembly by attending last
night’s event.
The only demonstrably true statement George Bush has made in his
sorry eight years in office is that the Constitution is “just a
goddamned piece of paper.” While it wasn’t the point he was making,
when he reportedly shouted this at a couple of Republican members of
Congress who were questioning the constitutionality of some of his
actions, he was right that the nation’s founding document is only worth
the parchment and ink it’s composed of, unless people use it and defend
it.
There is a remarkable and palpable fear abroad in this land—not a
fear of terrorism, but a fear of speaking up, a fear of being labeled
as “different” or as a “troublemaker.”
People will lean over and whisper their opinions, if they think they
are anti-Establishment, as though someone might be listening. People
write me after some of my columns run, praising me for my “courage,”
though why it should be perceived as requiring courage to merely write
something in America is beyond me.
The worst thing is that every time someone says she or he is
afraid, or acts afraid to speak or write what she or he is thinking,
five more acquaintances become equally scared and silenced.
The corollary, though, is that each time someone forgets or ignores
or rejects that fear, five people gain courage the do the same thing.
Now I’m not saying that there aren’t people monitoring, and
reporting on, what we say. I know our government is busy doing that. I
assume that my Internet activities are being monitored by the National
Security Agency. I assume my phones are tapped. I assume there was some
agent or informant among the fine people at the church last night. But
these Stasi wannabes have no power if we don’t let them frighten us
into silence and inaction.
What I find discouraging is the widespread acceptance, even on the
left, of this effort to intimidate us, and the pervasive attitude of
fear that has grown up around us. I spent a year and a half living in a
truly fascistic society in China, where there are real, concrete
threats to life and liberty faced by those who stand up and say what
they are thinking, and yet sometimes I think that ordinary people I met
in China were braver about stating their minds than many, or even most
Americans are. I’m not talking here about saying things like that you
think the Post Office is dysfunctional, or that you think federal
bureaucrats are corrupt or that taxes are too high. I’m talking about
questioning the system, or challenging the war, or protesting military
spending. Chinese people would tell me all the time that the Chinese
Communist Party was a corrupt gang of thugs or that you could not get
justice in a Chinese court. Chinese people are closing down factories
that short them on their pay. They have rallied in the thousands and
burned down police stations when corrupt police have raped, killed and
then covered up the death of a young girl. They have marched in massive
impromptu protests at the theft of their homes through eminent domain.
If you want to see where we’re headed here in America, check out
the workplace. There, we Americans have, through years of collective
cowardice and unwillingness to stand together in organized labor
unions, allowed our constitutional freedoms to be almost completely
erased. Today, an American workplace is more akin to a police state
than to a democratic society. Say what you’re thinking on the job, and
you’re liable to lose it. Wear a shirt that says something the boss
disagrees with, and you either remove that shirt or you are unemployed.
Even that final refuge of free speech, the bumper sticker, can get
workers in trouble if the wrong one shows up in the company parking
lot. That loss of will and of freedom has in no small way contributed
to the loss of jobs and the decline in living standards of American
workers.
It’s time for all of us to put a stop to this creeping usurpation of our liberties.
The anxious woman who asked her question came up to me after the
meeting and said proudly that she would not be afraid, and would start
signing on to protest letter-writing and emailing campaigns.
We need lots more like her.
__________________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist and columnist. His
latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and
now available in paperback edition). His work is available at
www.thiscantbehappening.net
digg_url = 'http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35723';
digg_title = "The Land of the Silent and the Home of the Fearful";
digg_bodytext = "By Dave Lindorff\r\n\r\n I was a speaker last night at an anti-war event sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, Progressive Democrats of America and Democrats For America in Lincroft, NJ, near the shore. It was a great group of activist Americans who want to see this country end the Iraq War, turn away from war as a primary instrument of policy, and start dealing with the pressing human needs of the country and the world.\r\n\r\n Yet even in this group of committed people, one woman stood up during the question-and-answer session and said, “I want to get involved in writing emails to members of Congress urging them to cut off funding for the war and other things, but if I do that won’t I end up getting put on a `watch list’” or something?”\r\n\r";
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I have noticed throughout
I have noticed throughout my life that people do become afraid as the situation they are seeing gets worse. So many people now are doing this kind of "speaking out" for the first time in their life. If you grew up in the 50's, all you heard about was the fear of Communism. Maybe they remember those kind of things and it adds to their fear. For instance, in the sixties during the Vietnam War, I was always speaking against the war. Family members said I didn't sound patriotic and they never wanted to continue the conversation.
I've written many many emails to Congress, local reps, etc. and I don't know if I'm on a watch list or not. But my desire to help this country by writing about my concerns during the past five years has, at least, helped me feel like I'm helping out a little. I know that I've even talked to different people during these years that have helped me see that my emails have helped clarify the problems. Our local representative, Sam Farr, is always sending me email updates about everything he does now. He especially knows I'm totally against this Iraq war and lets me know what he's done about it.
I urge people to not be silent about how they feel and write your Rep. or Senator. Being silent will be your worst enemy.
Fear
I'm not so sure we all fear anything. I'm worried that we aren't paying attention enough and things get slipped by us. We follow now. After all, more people listen to the judges on "American Idol" than listen to their local candidates. More vote there also.
The problems in the workplace can be directly linked to the successes that the labor movement has had over the past century. Their "radical" ideas and fights are now law and protected rights of workers. Those who have never witnessed, or studied, the labor movement cannot fathom why it was needed in the first place. The problems now in the workplace are minute to those of onehundred years ago.
Our lack of couriousity about the past, present and future is tied to an attitude of entitlement that our grandparents and parents created through their successes. Our young adults, those under thirty-five, have never really lived through a recession, at least a deep one.
That group has grown up with a popular sentiment that, and I'll paraphrase Reagan here, government isn't the solution, it's the problem. Well, that's not quite right. Yes there are problems that government causes, but those laws, rules and regulations are there because generally, a buisnessman screwed someone or a lot of someones, and a law was passed to protect all of us.
This current energy crisis is a prime example of this thinking. The 70's ushered in a new thinking about gas milage. Government regulations were in place to require manufacturers to have high milage plans in place. We were making progress toward that until Ronald Reagan came into power. He had a let the market decide attitude and milage plans were scrapped. We then got the "don't worry, be happy" attitude from him and boom... SUVs up the wazzo that get 15 mpg. Here government was correct and the market was wrong. People won't make hard choises without help from their leadership. Businessmen will always choose profits over morals. The moral thing to do is to produce smaller, efficient cars, but the consumer and the producers, decided to go for comfort and style over substance. Now gas is $4 a gallon.
We are a nation of followers today. So, if the leader says be scared, we're scared. If the leader says stay calm, we'll hunt down the international criminals who attacked us, we'll stay calm and hunt. If the leader says it's UNAMERICAN to disagree with his policies we tend to follow in lock step and those who disagree are radicals.
I suppose I am a radical. I don't watch reality tv. I read as much as I can and I look at actions by government with scepticism. I don't trust government. However, I trust business less. At least I have a hand in choosing the government.
So, I think we react to what we are directed to react to. Each political party has a sophisticated media arm--propaganda wing, spin doctors, call it what you like, it's thought control. We buy into it on a collective scale. No one wants to be an outsider. There isn't any frontier to emigrate to anymore, so we have to conform.
Fear of the "authorities"
If you regularly write letters to your local newspaper or to someone elses local newspaper, if you write smart-assed comments on national blogs, if you write letters to elected officials, or if you speak up at city council meetings, then you are most defintely on a "list." The point is, if the authorities have made you afraid, then they have already won, and you might as well sit on your front porch and wait for them to pick you up! I say screw them! They can't arrest all of us!
A la lanterne les aristos! A mort les aristos!
I think there's no absolute
I think there's no absolute answer to why people are afraid to speak up in this country. I listed only one example and that was about the fear of communism in the 50's. But there are many more reasons. The young people today have grown up in a different world. A world of easy come, easy go. A world of reality t.v. as one person mentioned. They certainly didn't appear to pay attention to what's going on in the world!
People today don't pay attention to things unless its colorful or in your face. So why should they pay attention to politics and start speaking up for their rights? I've been very surprised to see so many young people involved in politics now! Maybe they have paid attention after all!
During the course of history it seems that people don't notice much until it starts getting so bad they can't help but notice. Then they start asking how to help, maybe. Sometimes they do ignore it all.
But for the most part, human nature seems to take its course and people are what their own generation has become... by following in each other's footsteps... for good or for bad.
Change It--Don't Leave It
The absolute stupidity of far right wing "thinkers" continues to amaze me. Protestors are judged unfairly as being anti-American. The Ann Coulter, Rush Limbough, Sean Hennity, form of ignorance abounds. The Rush followers take glee in identifying themselves as "ditto-heads". I guess this means that they really have no mind of their own. If Rush said he was going to jump off a bridge, they would likely say "ditto". Callers to the pompous Sean Hennity always congradulate him for being a "Great American" ( This makes me want to gag) He in turn replys that they too are a "great American". I often wonder how he determines that they are? For all he knows he could have a serial killer on the line. Bumper stickes which say, "America Love It Or Leave It" are just plain stupid. It implies that there is nothing wrong about America and if there is---it's best to ignore it.
Senator Kerry was a Vietnam war hero! However, he like so many Vietnam veterans saw our ivolvement as wrong. I too served in Vietnam but I never supported the war. Protest sould not equate with treason. If our Founding Fathers had not protested, we would still be colonies of Great Britain. The GOP is good at instilling ignorance in the electorate and preying on their fears. There is no reason to belive that they will not conduct their campaign in another slime ball fashion. Let's hope that some of those "red state" folks have woken up by now and that they won't be fooled for a third consequtive time!!
Lists
Regarding being on a list, I just remembered I'm on at least one list that I know of. That would be the Democratic Party list. A year or so ago the person that called me said I was "listed" as a "staunch" Democrat. They are keeping a database with descriptions of the people in the Party as a way to mail out better ads.
The Republican Party has always kept lists and now the Dem Party does too. Not to mention, maybe even the Progressive Democrats. When you register on a computer website, you're on a list.
If you think that your country comes first and you want to speak up about the problems, then you can't be afraid to be on a list. This country will have to work together as a huge team to turn these big issues, we all face, around.