On Tyranny... (Time to Stand Up for Genuine Democracy!)

 

Memoirs of a Geezer

  

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:          

On Tyranny!

(Time to Stand Up for Genuine Democracy!!)

An Excellent  Book that All Should Read, and Heed!  All Good and Thinking Americans would be well served to be aware and informed.  Read the 20 Lessons, and combat the tyranny in our own nation...  Recognize tyranny!  Redeem our Democracy! 

All of us would be wise, and well served, to read,  On Tyranny — Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder.  It informs us how to recognize tyranny and tyrants, and how easily people can fall prey to complacency and lemming-like behavior.  It is our duty as true Americans to combat tyranny and the tyrants in our midst.

Be an American; vote as an American, perhaps more importantly, as a humanist! None of us was born republican or democrat. The upcoming presidential elections should not be about repubs or dems or other political party devotees, but rather about true Americans who care about this country.  (By using our heads and hearts -- NOT manufactured fear and foreboding -- we can all make good and informed choices!)

And that brings us quite naturally to the definition of America, nationhood generally. This or any nation can only be defined, essentially and primarily, in terms of its body politic, its population of human beings, people, all of us!!  Not symbols, not one political party or another, not merely the wealthy, not any economic class.  Nor is a nation merely real estate defined by its political boundaries.  The nation is US!! All of us…. The People!!  By extension -- it is fitting to add -- we are a nation of human beings who embrace a common code of behavior, as embodied in our U.S. Constitution and canon of laws (at least most of us do!).

What about the rights of all Americans, any citizen’s right to free expression?  ”Demagogues exploit free speech to install themselves as tyrants,” to paraphrase Mr. Snyder, and tyrants try to control the press through misleading information, ignorance and lies.  Consider the oft-repeated and strident cry, “fake news.”  True patriots have long been advised to speak truth to power!  Do true Americans seek to sue major newspapers that are doing their duty, telling the truth as they see it, informing the nation’s citizens? Whether news or editorial opinion, the American Press has the right to exercise and the responsibility of Freedom of Speech, freedom of expression, freedom to expose tyranny.  

Genuine Americans are not racists or woman-hating, boorish, sex-abusive loudmouths who have been accused — perhaps legitimately — as sex offenders.  Any woman who votes for such an individual is voting against her own enlightened self interests, and should feel embarrassed and misguided in the act of political support of a demagogue, any demagogue! 

Some of us have canvassed, that is, gone door-to-door for republicans and democrats, Greens and Independents.  To be abundantly clear, we vote as Americans for the best and most caring candidates, meaning genuine Americans, authentic, thinking humanists.  How many of us are so dedicated and devoted to the principles of true Democracy to have canvassed for their chosen candidates?  A question we should all ask of ourselves!   

Try to recall the behavior of Nazi and Communist despots of the 1940s and 50s. Totalitarian regimes.  Killing or imprisoning those who did not agree with their policies, those who were not “the right kind of people” as Snyder writes, and rightly cautions American citizens to heed...

“…Hitler’s language rejected legitimate opposition: The people always meant some people and not others,  encounters were always  struggles …and any attempt by free people to understand the world in any different way was  defamation of the leader.”

What’s next?  Concentration camps!  Oh, wait, we have them at the Mexican border!

Sound like what totalitarian regimes referred to as justice? Hitler’s courts? Stalins? I mean, why would we want to hold a trial with truth, evidence, witness testimony? Apparently too many so-called public servants care nothing about due process and truth!! 

Regrettably, too many of our elected officials are bought and paid for.  C’mon Americans, let’s get back to real democracy, and elect a president in 2020 — senators and more congressional representatives as well — who truly give a damn about this country, meaning us, the people, the citizenry…. All of us!!  Not just their wealthy, the oligarchs, the plutocrats and other forces of greed and extravagant self-interest.  ("Citizens United" does not serve us, the People, but only the greed-driven, biased wealthy and overly-privileged who prefer exclusivity to inclusivity!!)  

Some chapter headings and imperatives from Timothy Snyder that we can heed:  Do not obey in advance!  (e.g. Challenge authority!)  Beware the one-party state!  Remember professional ethics!  Be extremely wary of paramilitaries!  Believe in truth!  Investigate!  Contribute to good causes!  Learn from peers in other countries!  Listen for dangerous words!  Be a genuine patriot  (Not a lemming-like follower of ignorance, fear, tyrants and their lies!).  As a Veteran, I was and am proud to have served in the US Armed Forces, but I was also aware of whom and what I was serving.    

Let’s review… To be sure we know how to identify a tyrant!  Tyrants try to pack the judiciary with like-minded stooges, you know, more lemmings who think and act as they do!  Tyrants practice and trumpet racism as their personal “religion”!  Tyrants accept no criticism of their policies and ideas, and use insults, lies, hatred of women, when necessary, even unlawful punishment to quell dissent…. Oh, and specious “flag-waving” and chanting to suggest that they are the “true patriots”!  

Of course, thinking citizens know who the true patriots really are.  Tyrants do their best to recruit “sheep,” using fear, fear mongering and propaganda to mobilize frightened citizens who will follow them, even against their own self interests!  Tyrants use religion to suggest to the gullible that they are “god-fearing” devotees of truth and justice…. Or they verbally abuse and insult certain religions to vilify those they despise, those who are not “our kind of people”!  Tyrants refer to certain populations of individuals as, for example, “shithole” countries, those nations whose populations tyrants consider inferior! 

Of course, there are other characteristics of tyrants, and truly good citizens know the signs.  Many of us genuine Americans would like to suggest that if our elected, so-called "public servants" are so enamored with Mr. Putin of Russia, why not emigrate, get directly into bed with the Russian, if indeed, as it surely seems, oligarchy, plutocracy and totalitarianism are the flags you choose to wave!! 

Oh, yeah…. One more thing! The “China Virus”!?  I guess what we are to surmise is that COVID-19 belongs exclusively to the Chinese, so what the hell is it doing here??!! (Let's all try to understand the meaning of Delusion!) 

One more observation:  all of the nation’s grocery stores are well stocked, no empty shelves!!  Another magnificent lie at the time the statement was made!!  Is it possible certain of the nation's brains were kidnapped by alien grocers?  (Some of us continue to have difficulty finding the products we need at our "well-stocked" grocery stores...  Though it could be the fault of the "hoarders' brigade" I suppose!) 

Humbly  Submitted, 08-27-2020 --  Joel K.