[Peace-discuss] Restore Habeas Corpus

[Laurie]

Well, I guess it all depends on how one wants to generate their personal
pleasures and pains.  Your approach is your approach and I will not deny you
engaging in it; but it is not mine.  Nick said that he was getting
frustrated using that approach; I offered my approach as an alternative.
Being a cynic and pessimist who does not like to waste energy on lost causes
or extreme long shots as a matter of principle, I find that when something
nice does happen I am pleasantly surprised; whereas if I were an optimist
and one who is willing to beat one's head against a wall looking for that
tiny hole, I would be constantly disappointed and frustrated to the point
where it would not be good for my mental health or sunny disposition. :-)

While hopelessness and inaction may very well support the established order
and result in strengthening the forces of oppression, ineffective optimism
also supports the continuance of the established order and does nothing to
hinder the forces of oppression; it also leads to personal frustration and
depression which will plague and oppress the optimist on a personal level so
as to render that optimist mentally castrated and physically exhausted.  The
burn-out from engaging in intellectual and ritualized exercises that rarely
produce anything of consequence is dysfunctional activism.  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net [mailto:peace-discuss-
> bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of Stuart Levy
> Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:30 PM
> To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Restore Habeas Corpus
> 
> On Thu, Sep 20, 2007 at 12:16:44PM -0500, Laurie at advancenet.net wrote:
> > One could be glib and say "give up and sit back and enjoy the
> destruction
> > and coming extinction of the human species and planet."  It is a very
> > alienated and anomic response; but it may be the only reasonable
> response in
> > an irrational world made up of humans.  You could be a Don Quixote
> type of
> > figure who continues to fight the good fight for the sake of fighting
> the
> > good fight even though you stand no chance of winning; but in the
> words of
> > Sancho Panchas, "whether the stone hits the pitcher or the pitcher
> hits the
> > stone, it is going to be bad for the pitcher."
> 
> Well... a year or so ago on WEFT, as I think Aaron and Carol were
> interviewing Mayor Laurel Prussing, she mentioned her mosquito
> theory of political action.  You just keep beating your body
> against the screen, and mostly get nowhere, but once in a while
> there's a hole just big enough to squeeze through...
> (and then I suppose you get a chance to be a pest, though
> she didn't go that way).  I love this.
> 
> Granny D has said much the same thing -- that openings are rare,
> but we must keep working and be ready for them, as when they
> arise we can make an enormous difference.
> 
> I absolutely subscribe to this theory.  Its corollary is that
> hopelessness is a great way to support the forces of oppression.
> 
>    Stuart
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