Common Sense for the 21st Century

 

III. Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs (Common Sense) Lyrics or, paraphrasing an excerpt of Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776)

In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other expectation with the reader, than that s/he will divest her/himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer reason and feelings to determine for themselves; that s/he will put ON, or rather that s/he will not put OFF the true character of a person, and generously enlarge one's views beyond the present day.

Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between the MAGA inclined as opposed to everyday Americans. Women and Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of debate must be closed. The appeal was the choice of a would be king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge for steadfast nonviolent confrontation.

Save for the American Revolution in the 1770s, the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, a kingdom (or even a constitutional democratic republic), but of a continent; yea of the balance of terrible hegemonic ferocity between the common good of the people or the even more terrible potentially hegemonic ferocity of a single, deranged, malignant narcissist who has mimicked the skills of a not long ago pathological maniac whose hate wrought death and destruction untold, never before having been imagined.

'Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an even a century; history and posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. 

Now is the seed-time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters.

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Yea, the Fascist faction may advocate the matter from argument to arms. Yet, a new era for politics is struck; a new method of thinking has arisen. 

We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality. -- Vaclav Havel

At the direction of leaders such a Havel and engaged citizens not subject to a demagogue, steadfast nonviolent resistance has proven victorious before and will again, including in the United States. 

The history of the 20th century is full of examples which demonstrate that violent resistance against unjust power systems, dictators or external occupation is likely to generate further violence (as seen, for example, in the Russian and Chinese revolutions or decolonization wars in Africa and Asia). But it has also been characterized by many powerful nonviolent struggles. Some of these are widely known (e.g. Gandhi’s struggles in India and South Africa, Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights campaign in the US), while many others are still largely ignored by the wider public and research community. Although the power of nonviolent resistance does [may] seem weak and inefficient in the face of acute power asymmetries, it has proven to be a very strategic and powerful tool in the hand of marginalized communities to redress structural imbalance and claim rights to justice or self-determination.