I heard this growing up continually, from parents, grandparents, teachers, bosses. It is an accepted trope in all militarized cultures. It is designed to mold three distinctive types of ‘citizens’: Those who like to dominate, those who want to be dominated, and the scapegoats who will respect this relationship, or flee it without disruption.
In the late 60s a slogan was crafted for it: “Turn on, tune in, drop out” was a counterculture-era phrase popularized by Timothy Leary. In fact, this was not at all countercultural, it fit in perfectly with the culture, with the explicit and stated attempt to get the ‘rebels without a cause’ hippies to stop protesting all the wars.
Here Larken Rose explains how it still operates in politics, but we could make the very same arguments across all sectors of society, from the families, to the schools, to the corporate structures. Even Christianty promotes it through the narrative of Jesus as scapegoat dying for the sins of humanity. It’s a forceful and deliberate message warning off those scapegoats by entrenching from childhood what will happen to those who try to disrupt the cornerstone authoritarian relationship between the State and its Citizens.
How does one inadvertently ‘become a cheerleader for evil’?
Larken:
“When somebody does something you didn’t want them to do, and you’re making excuses for it, you’re already selling yourself out. You’re already betraying yourself.”
Here he is pointing fingers at both the Republicans and the Democrats, but it happens in families too. It happens in churches. It happens at jobs. And it is why evil is winning in the modern world.
Mob mentality. Authoritarian worship. Stolkholm syndrome.
What is the antidote? Moral courage!
It’s rare, but it’s real. It is unstoppable and unbreakable. And, unlike so-called imaginary ‘viruses’ it is contagious. Like another silly slogan from the period: ‘Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.’
We don’t stay down. We refuse to allow evil to triumph. We find a way. We will always find a way.
No matter how many times I’ve been thrown into the scapegoat role of “get out the way” have I blindly obeyed such a ludicrous command. I may step aside to rethink, regroup, reboot, but the sidelines are no permanent home for the conscientious objectors in a system requiring so much cooperation with evil in order to function.
Like minds are out there, everywhere, you’ve just got to poke around.
Thanks to Corbett for a lot of poking around to uncover this marvelously inspiring article documenting all the acts of sabotage against the system happening right now.
It’s Happening! Coordinated Labour Strikes Target Arms Shipments | The Corbett Report
“On October 30, dockworkers at 113 ports in 22 countries engaged in a coordinated strike under the banner “Dockworkers do not work for war!” Workers around the world joined the action to protest against the ongoing war in the Middle East and the subsequent militarization of ports in service of the war agenda.
The strike was originally organized by dockworkers in Italy, France, Greece, Spain’s Basque Country, Turkey and Morocco, and the call to action quickly spread around the globe. It even expanded to include strikes, protests and actions in solidarity by other labourorganizations and activist groups, including the Unione Sindacale di Base in Italy, which called for a 24-hour general strike in Italy in sympathy with the dockworkers and their cause, and the Global Sumud Flotilla, a pro-Palestinian campaign group that is devoted to breaking Israel’s blockade on Gaza and that has vowed to “execute coordinated, strategic actions on the water” to support the dockworkers.
Countries with labour unions and dockworkers participating in the strike include . . .”
