standing up to fight and resist now has a price and it's paid today.
going along to get along may reduce the present price, but it also means that you're going to be put in the same position again and again.
so which is the long-term good?
the calculus of playing a game one time vs repeatedly can be very different.
if we teach the state that short term threats yield acquiescence to long term authoritarianism, how ought we suspect that it will act going forward?
as a society, we failed this test badly. so there IS going to be another, likely sooner than people think.
sure, "if now, then hardships" but "if not now, when?"
if we'd put 30 million people in the streets last march, how much of this would never have happened and how much less prone to recurrence would our society currently be?
if the response is not instant and overwhelming next time, then we'll have earned an authoritarian new normal.
consider the trade off:
standing up to fight and resist now has a price and it's paid today.
going along to get along may reduce the present price, but it also means that you're going to be put in the same position again and again.
so which is the long-term good?
the calculus of playing a game one time vs repeatedly can be very different.
if we teach the state that short term threats yield acquiescence to long term authoritarianism, how ought we suspect that it will act going forward?
as a society, we failed this test badly. so there IS going to be another, likely sooner than people think.
sure, "if now, then hardships" but "if not now, when?"
if we'd put 30 million people in the streets last march, how much of this would never have happened and how much less prone to recurrence would our society currently be?
if the response is not instant and overwhelming next time, then we'll have earned an authoritarian new normal.