On Tyranny Lesson 13: Practice Corporeal Politics

I've been meaning to get back to this video series. The lesson here is one that was definitely practiced by numerous people in South Korea during what was my morning and then lunchtime and was essentially their overnight hours, when ordinarily most folks would have been asleep. This coup woke people up - literally - and got them outside, taking a stand, and making a difference. We see the same thing happening in the republic of Georgia as its ruling party is becoming ever more subordinate to Russia and ever more authoritarian. 

Dr. Snyder is right that there is something to be said for unplugging - turning off the computer, putting away the cellphone, and being physically present, whether at a protest or civic organization meeting or whatever. The people you meet are not ones selected by an algorithm which turns out to be a good thing. He may well be right that the time many of us spent in social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic paved the way for the crisis we faced toward the end of 2020 and in the first days of 2021 toward the end of what was now Trump's first term. I will say that even during the pandemic, there was something to be said for getting out and showing up for Black Lives Matter protests - there were a couple even in my city and they were well-attended. I met a lot of fired up young people who reminded me of what I was like once as a young adult. Attending Democratic Party meetings and going to events sponsored by organizations that might not even seem political on the surface is also helpful as we meet people we might never have otherwise and we get a chance to form friendships that turn out to be highly valuable. So yes there is something to be said for getting away from the electronic devices and TVs to go outside and interact with other people. The networks you build may turn out to be quite valuable later. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ozymandias

When I think of our current era and all of its dictators and would-be dictators, there is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that rings as true now as it did when he wrote it:     I met a traveller from an antique land,     Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone     Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,     Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,     And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,     Tell that its sculptor well those passions read     Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,     The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;     And on the pedestal, these words appear:     My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;     Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!     Nothing beside remains. Round the decay     Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and ...
Read more

Desantis still wants to be Mussolini when he grows up

The Florida governor dictator has been working like madness to kill a ballot initiative that has already been given the go-ahead and which is already on actual ballots, weeks before election day. He is desperate to keep that 6-week abortion ban in place. It's the same ban Trump supports. The tactics Desantis uses are disturbing and anti-democratic: sending secret police to ballot initiative signatories, threatening media outlets that run ads in favor of the initiative, and even cooking up an excuse to invalidate any votes for the initiative. Read more here . What we are witnessing in Florida as is the case in other GOP dominated parts of the US is best understood as follows: GOP politicians don't care about the give and take that comes with governing. They want raw power to rule, period.
Read more