If the U.S. contiues on its current course, our Congress continues to be an ineffective...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

...counterforce against BushCo (war continues, no impeachment, we attack Iran), and if the required mass citizen rebellion is not forthcoming, will you, or have you already, reach(ed) a point of letting political activism go and turn(ed) you attention/energies to survival in, or escape from, the new totalitarian state?

And secondly, If so, will/do you still consider yourself a patriot? In other words, can this be done without becoming the proverbial "good German?"

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

1. Kick for larger sample. nt.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. Kick for larger sample. nt.

[blm]

3. I'll kick for you.

You speak an uncomfortable truth for all those who think politics is just a favorite sport. Expect a small response. The gamers don't like to be made uncomfortable.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

5. Thanks. nt.

[southern_belle]

4. k & r

This is something more people need to be thinking about - before it's too late! :grouphug:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. I agree -- not so easy to sort it out either. nt.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

7. Repuke money-mongers SUCK!!! Democrats are KICKING ASS. I'll be around to,...

,...fight for my kid, my family, my community, my nation if the money-grubbing Republicans can't remove themselves from the EVIL-NEOCON-DOERS long enough to protect their own people and nation.

[scarletwoman]

8. As a kid growing up during the "Cold War", I used to wonder what it was like to be an ordinary

Soviet citizen. What it was like to live in constant fear of the secret police, what it was like to live in a country without the freedom I *thought* was the natural birthright of all Americans.

And I would also think: Well, they still get married and have children, they still find some way to survive. They still go to work and go home at night have their families around them.

I figured they probably had some way to maintain some kind of "normal" life, somehow -- no matter how fucked up their government was, life has to go on. People fall in love, get married, have kids, do what it takes to survive -- even if it's on minimal terms. I imagined that ordinary Russian people still somehow managed to sit around the dinner table together and laugh and love and share their joy and pain, no matter how "evil" their government was.

Over the past several years I've come to think of us as being in a very similar situtation -- ordinary people doing their best to survive under the rule of a police state. I figure it's no less survivable than life in the U.S.S.R. Not pleasant -- certainly not the optimal state for individual expression and freedom -- but survivable on basic human terms.

So, in answer to your first question: yes, I have made a conscious decision to focus more on simple survival than on "political activism" -- because I believe that our political institutions are hopelessly corrupt and largely useless.

In answer to your second question -- no, I am NOT a "good German". I pass on the truth to my children and to anyone else willing to listen -- and I will do so until the end of my life. In a time of great darkness and ignorance and lies -- such as our present time -- the most subversive act of all is to preserve and pass the truth on to the next generations. Preserve what is most precious to an enlightened humanity any way you can, so that it may survive this time of darkness -- and, in time, it will flower into daylight.

sw

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

10. Thank you for your thoughtful and uplifting post. nt.

[scarletwoman]

17. I appreciate your OP, which inspired my response... (nt)

[Faux pas]

9. IF it really comes to that, I'll be a survivor first and a fighter second.

Yes and yes was my response.

[JTG of the PRB]

11. Yes and yes.

My first instinct will be to survive. If push comes to shove, it will be time to fight.

I just hope that if things really go THAT terribly that we won't be fighting alone...

K&R.

[BeHereNow]

12. Who made that beautiful art in your OP?

That is a gorgeous figure drawing.
BHN

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

13. It is nicely done, and I'm sorry to say I don't ...

...remember where it came from. Probably a Google image search, but I don't remember what word(s) I was searching on. Sorry. If it comes to me and I can find it again I'll PM you.

[BeHereNow]

14. Thank You Kindly!

BHN:yourock:

[Lars39]

15. I imagine the time to assimilate has passed for a good number of people.

Truth be known,given what we know about their grandiose plans for record-keeping, probably all of us that speak out.

[razors edge]

16. Load up the stores,

and hold the fort, as I can not leave my non-custodial children without child support and fending for themselves.

Besides, this is My country, I served in the military with pride, and will serve again with pride when the time comes.

I'll see some of you at the barricades, just before I break them down and force the vote in the old fashioned way.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. From Gandhi

“There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible.
But in the end they always fall. Think of it. Always." - Gandhi

[scarletwoman]

19. I've thought about that quote alot over the past several years, but it gives me no comfort.

Because as I look over the sweep of history, it seems to me that, yes, tyrants fall -- but new ones rise up every time.

The faces change, their methods may change; but in the end, there are ALWAYS those for whom the pursuit of personal power overrides every consideration of simple human decency, and they ascend to power again and again, in every place, in every time.

sw

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Which is why I'm an Anarchist.

I agree totally with you. No matter how power is attained, even "democratically", Lord Acton's axiom kicks in.

I believe it is up to us, the individuals, to resist the the accumulation of power which will inevitably lead to it's misuse and the obligatory "sacrifices" of others to keep it.

Reliance on "leaders" is simply another way to allow the growth of new despots, new bosses, telling us they will "save" us by enslaving us.

[LWolf]

21. Other:

I don't really think of political action in terms of being a patriot.

Political action is to benefit the planet and the living things we share it with, not just one party, one nation, one continent, or one species.

I don't have to be in U.S. territory to be politically active, but I won't give up ground to fascists unless I have no other alternative.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

22. Well said. When I look at pictures from obiting satellites of...

...our planet, I think of how ridiculous all the artificial political boundaries that have been drawn are, and how we humans all around the globe let our leaders get away with fencing us off from each other. A great shame.

[LWolf]

23. It's a pretty effective tool, that.

The tool of separation, of feeding and growing the "us" vs "them" polarity which, in the end, keeps us captive.