We Can Re-invent Civil Disobedience
December 9th, 2006
We can re-invent civil disobedience in a million different ways.
In other words, we can come up with a million ways of becoming a collective pain in the ass.
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 one’s we’re 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.
by Arundhati Roy
author of War Talk and
The God of Small Things
Roy is spectacular.
I too reject destructive notions of inevitability.
And yes, we are many and “they” are fewer.
They should be OUR puppets; their strings, our wallets.
In reality, we define them, empower them, not they us.
What a profound, truthful and beautiful submission. I once read that the most powerful and simple way to change the world is to begin by simply saying NO. No to the injustices, untruths, and exploitation, even if we can not change them by ourselves. Eventually, with persistance and courage our NO will be joined by a chorus of NOs and we will change the world. In whatever way you express your refusal, whether it be through your art, writing,political protest,or raising our children well with nonjudgement empathy and beauty we give power to the forces of compassion and justice. Thank you Roy for your inspiration and sharing your magical gift.