Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Visibility Against the War We had another vigil against attacking Iraq in Lexington this evening.  In the middle of August, with many people out of town, on a day when temperatures in Boston reached a record-breaking 101, about a dozen people came to stand on the Lexington green holding signs opposing a wider war, waving at cars passing by, and trying to make a public presence.  This saturday there will be a vigil in Somerville, next Thursday, one in Arlington.  In many communities around Boston, there is now a regular visible public presence against the war. As one of the organizers, I was not sure this vigil would come off.  Virtually all of our core group was out of town, and no one could be there at the start.  I got called to a work meeting so that I couldn't be there at the beginning either.  It was important to us that someone bring signs, take charge and greet people coming for the first time, or else they would feel silly.  By asking for help from activists in Arlington (a neighboring town) some one was able to be there.  They met about a dozen people, most of who had come for the first time, after having seen the event noted in the local paper.  A few others had come after getting an email.  Everyone felt they had taken a small action to show their opposition to the war. The point is this is beginning to feel like a movement--when even such a small thing as this comes together and is successful based on a growing level of community support.  In our atomized society, public visibility is key.  I hope these types of community vigils spread far beyond Boston. 10:15:06 PM   comment []    Will the Real Totalitarians Please Stand Up I was somewhat surprised to see James Taranto, right wing editor of Dow Jones Opinion Journal, also bring up the Reichstag fire today--seems that I was not the only one thinking of it.  When you are losing an argument, a common tactic is to accuse your opponents of saying something they never said.  Taranto does this regarding the TIPS program, recently ridiculed in Salon. He says the opponents of TIPS (the network of citizens informing on each other to stop terrorism) accuse the government of creeping totalitarianism, and then goes on to say there is no such thing. The problem is that opponents of TIPS, of secret detentions, of many other aspects of the war on terror are not opposing "creeping totalitarianism" in America.  We are opposing totalitarian thinking.  Totalitarian thinking in a nutshell is that the ends justify the means, and that the good of the state is more important than the rights of any individual person.  Taranto admits this.  He says "Those who warn of creeping totalitarianism mistake form for substance, forgetting that the instruments of totalitarian rule are distinct from totalitarianism itself. Every major country has military, intelligence and police agencies. What distinguishes free countries from unfree ones is the purpose of these institutions. In a totalitarian state, they exist to control citizens' lives; in a free one, to protect citizens' liberty." No.  What distinguishes free societies is not the benevolence of those who control the police--where axis of evil police are automatically bad, and U.S. police are automatically good.  It is the recognition of certain inalienable rights of individuals to privacy, to go about their lives free from government interference, to the basic ideas in the bill of rights. These are what set the limits on police powers--not the purpose for which they are used. I am amazed over and over again when right wing ideologues who so fervently wrap themselves in the flag seem so willing to think like a totalitarian.  For Mr. Taranto, it is easier to put down the straw man that totalitarianism is returning to the U.S.  That is not the argument-- it is that totalitarian thinking is becoming more widespread, and has to be exposed and rooted out at every opportunity.  TIPS was just such an opportunity, and ridicule is still a suitable weapon. 9:58:21 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:29:43 PM.