[Peace-discuss] The people revisited

[Ricky Baldwin]

Actually, I think people will often act if they think
it will do any good.  And that usually isn't clear at
all.

That's a big part of people not voting, for example -
I like Piven and Cloward's "Why Americans Still Don't
Vote" - and other examples, down to the big dropoff in
protestors after the invasion of Iraq, when we failed
to stop it.

I agree that there's no quick fix.  What's required is
organizing people, getting out and talking to them in
whatever forum we can, and follow-up, follow-up,
follow-up (when people take a step, we need to always
be ready to ask them to take another next step, and we
need to try to help people who have ideas and want to
take action, etc.). 

I'd be careful about generalizing about what people
have experienced, however, or about comparing
suffering.

Ricky


--- Bob Illyes <illyes at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> You're right, John. Things have to get pretty bad
> before the people stand 
> up together and act. There are situations in
> dictatorships where trying to 
> make things better is an act of suicide. These
> situations must be waited 
> out, which is what happened in East Germany.
> 
> I doubt that anyone on this list has known real
> want. Real want is being a 
> mother in a sweatshop in Latin America where she is
> fed at work but not 
> given enough pay to feed her children, and must
> watch them starve. Real 
> want is being in Iraq right now and being largely
> powerless to stop the 
> slaughter of your friends and family.
> 
> I've brought this up before, so I risk boring some
> of you by bringing it up 
> again, but we in the West think in terms of straight
> lines rather than 
> circles and cycles. Bertrand Russell wrote something
> to the effect that 
> Ecclesiastes was the most pessimistic book ever
> written. I do not find it 
> so. I agree with Solomon that there is a time for
> everything. Solomon's 
> sees clearly that we are all trapped in many cycles.
> He is pessimistic, but 
> has not given up hope.
> 
> When Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King did the
> right thing, it cost them 
> their lives. Kathy Kelly claims that making peace is
> as dangerous as making 
> war. This is not usually the case, in my experience.
> Usually, I find that 
> doing the right thing is beneficial to all.
> 
> Life has real value. People have real value. What we
> do does make a 
> difference. This is as good as it gets. There is no
> quick fix.
> 
> Bob
> 
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