Out in the Streets

ISSUE #109

[The following is excerpted from On Tyranny, written before the new rules of the pandemic. My highlighting of this passage is by no means meant to indict any who cannot march due to higher susceptibility to COVID-19. Wear a mask, wash your hands, be mindful of the health of others].

"Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.

For resistance to succeed, two boundaries must be crossed. First, ideas about change must engage people of various backgrounds who do not agree about everything. Second, people must find themselves in places that are not their homes, and among groups who were not previously their friends. Protest can be organized through social media, but nothing is real that does not end on the streets. If tyrants feel no consequences for their actions in the three-dimensional world, nothing will change.

The choice to be in public depends on the ability to maintain a private sphere of life. We are free only when it is we ourselves who draw the line between when we are seen and when we are not seen."*