“You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You were thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You were cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He or she has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He or she does not attempt to charm the public. He or she can offer, if anything, only their own skin, and they offer it solely because they have no other way of affirming the truth they stand for. Their actions simply articulate their dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.” ~ Chris Hedges
This video highlights the power of resistance, what it takes to resist, what we might gain from resisting, and the necessity of resistance in this moment, when the future of humanity and the planet is at stake.
In the conflicts I covered as a reporter in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, I encountered singular individuals of varying creeds, religions, races and nationalities who majestically rose up to defy the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed.
These individuals, despite their vast cultural differences, had common traits, a profound commitment to the truth, incorruptibility, courage, a distrust of power, a hatred of violence, and a deep empathy that was extended to people who were different from them, even the people defined by the dominant culture as the enemy. And then there are those ordinary people, who risk their lives in wartime to shelter and protect those of an opposing religion or ethnicity being persecuted and hunted.
To resist radical evil is to endure a life that by the standards of the wider society is a failure. It is to defy injustice at the cost of your career, your reputation, your financial solvency, and at times your life.
You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You were thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You were cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He or she has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He or she does not attempt to charm the public. He or she can offer, if anything, only their own skin, and they offer it solely because they have no other way of affirming the truth they stand for. Their actions simply articulate their dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.
Empathy becomes in all despotisms a subversive act. To act on this empathy, the empathy for families terrorized by our war machine in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, the empathy for undocumented mothers and fathers being torn from their children on the streets of our cities, the empathy for Muslims who are demonised and banned from our shores fleeing the wars we created, the empathy for poor people of color gunned down by police in our streets and locked in cages. The empathy for girls and women trafficked into prostitution, the empathy for the earth that gives us life and is being contaminated and poisoned for profit.
The most difficult existential dilemma we face is to at once acknowledge the bleakness before us and act.
Accept sorrow, for who cannot be profoundly sorrowful at the state of our nation, the world, and the planet. But know that in resistance there is a balm that leads to wisdom and if not joy a strange transcendent happiness.
The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness is the secret of its immortality. It can never be conquered. This dumb blind love is humankind’s meaning.
We will find our own freedom, our autonomy, our meaning and our social bonds among those who also resist and this will allow us to endure, and maybe even triumph.
Christopher Hedges is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, author and television host. Hedges spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, West Asia, Africa, the Middle East (he is fluent in Arabic), and the Balkans. He has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, NPR, Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times,[2] where he was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years (1990–2005) serving as the paper’s Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief during the war in the former Yugoslavia.
“A truly wonderful statement and picture and remembrance! Thank you for this remembrance of what matters.”
“That is absolutely the most complete and accurate statement I have ever read. My hope is for MANY MANY people to see this and share it wherever they can – people all around the world are being offered the opportunity to speak up for their right to life. May it start here with the wave around the world!”
“Peace must come before reconciliation. Justice seems to justify revenge. But this well put together video just makes me cry.”
“A commitment to the truth, a search for the truth. A powerful message indeed.”
“This resistance, acts of kindness and protests give us hope. The world will change for the better as awareness has been created.”
Music
“Wistful” by A. Taylor
Special thanks to Chris and Eunice Wong for creating a special recording for this video.
“You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You were thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You were cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He or she has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He or she does not attempt to charm the public. He or she can offer, if anything, only their own skin, and they offer it solely because they have no other way of affirming the truth they stand for. Their actions simply articulate their dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.” ~ Chris Hedges
This video highlights the power of resistance, what it takes to resist, what we might gain from resisting, and the necessity of resistance in this moment, when the future of humanity and the planet is at stake.
In the conflicts I covered as a reporter in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the Balkans, I encountered singular individuals of varying creeds, religions, races and nationalities who majestically rose up to defy the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed.
These individuals, despite their vast cultural differences, had common traits, a profound commitment to the truth, incorruptibility, courage, a distrust of power, a hatred of violence, and a deep empathy that was extended to people who were different from them, even the people defined by the dominant culture as the enemy. And then there are those ordinary people, who risk their lives in wartime to shelter and protect those of an opposing religion or ethnicity being persecuted and hunted.
To resist radical evil is to endure a life that by the standards of the wider society is a failure. It is to defy injustice at the cost of your career, your reputation, your financial solvency, and at times your life.
You do not become a dissident just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You were thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You were cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He or she has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He or she does not attempt to charm the public. He or she can offer, if anything, only their own skin, and they offer it solely because they have no other way of affirming the truth they stand for. Their actions simply articulate their dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.
Empathy becomes in all despotisms a subversive act. To act on this empathy, the empathy for families terrorized by our war machine in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia, the empathy for undocumented mothers and fathers being torn from their children on the streets of our cities, the empathy for Muslims who are demonised and banned from our shores fleeing the wars we created, the empathy for poor people of color gunned down by police in our streets and locked in cages. The empathy for girls and women trafficked into prostitution, the empathy for the earth that gives us life and is being contaminated and poisoned for profit.
The most difficult existential dilemma we face is to at once acknowledge the bleakness before us and act.
Accept sorrow, for who cannot be profoundly sorrowful at the state of our nation, the world, and the planet. But know that in resistance there is a balm that leads to wisdom and if not joy a strange transcendent happiness.
The powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness is the secret of its immortality. It can never be conquered. This dumb blind love is humankind’s meaning.
We will find our own freedom, our autonomy, our meaning and our social bonds among those who also resist and this will allow us to endure, and maybe even triumph.
“A truly wonderful statement and picture and remembrance! Thank you for this remembrance of what matters.”
“That is absolutely the most complete and accurate statement I have ever read. My hope is for MANY MANY people to see this and share it wherever they can – people all around the world are being offered the opportunity to speak up for their right to life. May it start here with the wave around the world!”
“Peace must come before reconciliation. Justice seems to justify revenge. But this well put together video just makes me cry.”
“A commitment to the truth, a search for the truth. A powerful message indeed.”
“This resistance, acts of kindness and protests give us hope. The world will change for the better as awareness has been created.”
Music
“Wistful” by A. Taylor
Special thanks to Chris and Eunice Wong for creating a special recording for this video.
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