SHARE:
From the schoolyard to the Oval Office, the bully’s most effective way to dominate is to instill fear. As many a recess victim has discovered, the best way to end the bullying is to stand up to the perpetrator. Handing over lunch money or not fighting back reinforces the bully’s motivation. A similar dynamic arises in an adult political setting: if the intended target cowers, relinquishes his or her rights to protection and voluntarily complies with an authoritarian’s demands in advance, that obedience confirms the bully’s expectations, encouraging further demands.
So Step 1 in countering police state tactics is defiance. Refuse to capitulate. Do not show fear. Insist on your rights to fundamental protections and social benefits. That defiance can come in many forms. In national and local elections, vote for the candidate most likely to deliver what you, your family and your community need rather than for the authoritarian leader’s ordained candidate. Never waver in speaking out in favor of the common good and against injustice and special interests. Be persistent in telling your elected representatives the policies and projects you wish them to pursue, especially when they are contrary to the authoritarian leader’s positions. Use your personal economic power as a consumer to reward policies, goods and projects that represent your interests, and boycott those that don’t.
JOIN THE GUARDRAIL SOCIETY
ARTICLES AND REFLECTIONS
LIBERTARIAN RESISTANCE
LIBERTARIAN RESISTANCE PHOTO CAPTION:Photograph by ________ SHARE: In some circles, the libertarian political philosophy is considered a right-wing ideology, broadly identified with minimal government. But
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE IS THREATENED
Never before in U.S. history have prospects seemed more dire for continuation of democracy. That form of government of the people, by the people and for the people has been an aspiration for millions of people across the globe for more than 200 years. Yet leaders of our national government and legions of their supporters have given top priority to instituting an all-powerful executive branch, the presidency.
It is no longer government by the people, but rather government by an autocratic president, apparently for himself and his cohort of wealthy colleagues.
Other nations have gone through such authoritarian periods, and a few have emerged with strengthened democratic institutions following years, even decades of repression. The most common way an authoritarian regime grasps and maintains control over citizenry is imposition of police state mechanisms, characterized by all-pervasive surveillance, paid or intimidated informants and political and economic repression. The latter mechanism, repression, can be through imprisonment and assassination or by economic strangulation, such as coercion to cancel business contracts, elimination of social services and deliberate damage to a resistor’s reputation.
COUNTER-MEASURES TO POLICE STATE TACTICS
COUNTER-MEASURES TO POLICE STATE TACTICS PHOTO CAPTION:Photograph by ________ SHARE: From the schoolyard to the Oval Office, the bully’s most effective way to dominate is
SHARE:
DISCLAIMER:
MEMBERSHIP OR AFFILIATION CONFIDENTIAL: No roster of Guardrail Society members or affiliating individuals is maintained. Steps have been taken to maintain confidentiality of participants, given some citizens’ reasonable concerns about retaliation despite Constitutional protections. Participants’ experience derives from life in apartheid South Africa, Venezuela, China, Iran, Uganda, Brazil and Chile among other known centers of police state repression.