STORY about Direct Action posted on June 30, 2010 by Stepan
The Resist Stance
G20 Resistance Dispatch from Rural BC
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The Resist Stance
The role of the individual, as a morally autonomous being, is a fleeting concept. Achievement, purpose, and worth are frighteningly linked to compatibility with the greater being – the society : that amorphous conglomerate organism which decides our course of evolution. We are never alone – standards are linked to those around us, and our decisions and actions become intrinsic to the construct of society, and the institutions which stabilize and support it. Resistance becomes an unnatural motive. Dissent becomes a regressive force. Polarization of opinion – the driving force of a healthy society – turns into moral stagnation. We build our world views around an infantile spoon feeding of regurgitated rhetoric called journalism – courtiers and parrots echoing the interests of the elite.
The G20 summit is an embodiment of this system of disinformation – it is a closed doors conference of the elite, where reporters manufacture consent, and protestors are branded as extremists.
In reality it is social injustice, war profiteering, and environmental degradation that has taken on extreme forms. The interests of the G20 delegates represent this agenda of extremism, and of unfettered capitalism painted as progression.
The real extremists are the policy makers who sacrifice the unique human emotions of compassion and empathy in order to propagate a robotic gain of profit. The mechanized actions of these individuals represent an intense disconnection from what it means to me to be human.
In a society which values complicity over debate, the rational individual becomes labelled as abnormal, and criticism becomes interpreted as dysfunction. In the words of Mumia Abu Jamal “Conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires, but what history really shows is that today's empire is tomorrow's ashes; that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.”
Polarization of opinion is the hallmark of a progressive society, and with this in mind, we must take every opportunity to question, debate, and resist popular opinion. I will not allow for my complicity to turn into consent. The G20 delegates do not represent me. Their talks do not represent my interests.
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.