It is possible -- and God knows we should already have done this -- to passively mass sufficient a body of convinced citizens on the steps of power in Washington and refuse to move until we are assured of decent governance. But after eight long years of treacherous war, constitutional abuse, and political bullshit, not even the peace biggies can get beyond their various organizational turfs and actually unite to suffer the inconveniences, discomfits and risks to do this. They, we fully deserve the abuse we suffer, and it will endure, no, get worse until we finally take on the challenge.
The alternative -- to sit on our backsides and complain -- accomplishes nothing but to encourage our abusers. But despite the general pacifist persuasion and my specific abhorrence of violence, history advises that if one day it becomes so intolerably oppressive, a small group -- much smaller than today's peace-talkers and sign-wavers -- may likely rise in revolution. It doesn't take many. The Russian Revolution was sparked by a single company of cadets from the local naval academy.
What follows is not necessarily a solution. In Russia's case it was a decade of civil war followed by decades of political repression. Revolution always promises but does not guarantee the hoped for results.
A possibly worse scenario is that the family of decent governments may finally get fed up with our international misbehavior and decide to put it to an end, a result, for us, very likely to be no better than the revolution's.
What then are the alternatives? (1) Doing nothing, with the abuse to escalate. (2) Passive but Massive and Enduring Presence at the seat of power. (3) Revolution. (4) Foreign intervention.
Somehow we must get it through our thick skulls, our whining larynxes and our inert backsides: OUR SITUATION WILL NOT GET BETTER JUST BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE THE NICE AND PROPER THING TO HAPPEN.
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