Currently viewing the tag: "State"
“When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the southern cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches, the southern cross begins to bend, the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of time upon the dial of the universe, and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the lookout knows that the midnight is passing and that relief and rest are close at hand. Let the people everywhere take heart of hope, for the cross is bending, the midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning!” – Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act
I figured I’d post another quote from someone who was once charged (and convicted) of sedition. Arundhati Roy and Eugene Debs are exactly that type of “good citizens” that governments like to repress.
“When George Bush says “you’re either with us, or you are with the terrorists” we can say “No thank you.” We can let him know that the people of the world do not need to choose between a Malevolent Mickey Mouse and the Mad Mullahs. Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness — and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling — their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, if you very listen carefully, you can hear her breathing.”
- Arundhati Roy, “Confronting Empire“, Speech at the World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 27 January 2003
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Who is Arundhati Roy?
Arundhati Roy is an extremely talented Indian novelist, essayist, and social justice activist. She has received numerous awards, including the Booker Prize, for her works such as the God of Small Things, as well as for her social justice advocacy. Her most recent work, Field Notes on Democracy: Listening to Grasshopers, is available from U.S. socialist publisher Haymarket Books.
Socialist Politics:
Recommended Readings
