"Speak Out Now or Forever, Perhaps, Be Silenced"

Chapter 7

What’s To Be Done?

The Short Run Imperative: Speak Out Now or Forever, Perhaps, Be Silenced

If they work, most of these suggestions will only produce changes in high
RWAs in the long run. But we may not have a long run. We have to contain
authoritarianism now lest it destroy us. We’ve got to act immediately.
... Here’s how I put it in 1996 at the end of what I intended to be my last
book on the subject:



Eleven years later, as I am now definitely writing the last pages in my last book
on the subject, I believe circumstances such as “9/11" have nearly swept us to disaster,
the authoritarian threat has grown unabated, and almost all the protections I saw in
1996, such as a “free and vigilant press,” are being eroded or have already been
destroyed. The biggest problem we have now, in my view, is authoritarianism. ...

So what’s to be done right now? The social dominators and high RWAs
presently marshaling their forces for the next election in your county, state and
country, are perfectly entitled to do what they’re doing. They have the right to
organize, they have the right to proselytize, they have the right to select and work for
candidates they like, they have the right to vote, they have the right to make sure folks
who agree with them also vote. ...

If the people who are not social dominators and right-wing authoritarians want
to have those same rights in the future, they, you, had better do those same things too,
now. You do have the right to remain silent, but you’ll do so at everyone’s peril. You
can’t sit these elections out and say “Politics is dirty; I’ll not be part of it,” or
“Nothing can change the way things are done now.”The social dominators want you
to be disgusted with politics, they want you to feel hopeless, they want you out of their
way. They want democracy to fail, they want your freedoms stricken, they want
equality destroyed as a value, they want to control everything and everybody, they
want it all. And they have an army of authoritarian followers marching with the
militancy of “that old-time religion” on a crusade that will make it happen, if you let
them.

... Americans have, for the most part, been standing on the sidewalk quietly
staring at this authoritarian parade as it marches on, becoming more and more dismayed.
Polls confirm that the great majority of Americans feel the country has been going
in the wrong direction. ... You can watch the authoritarians tear democracy apart,
bit by bit, bite by bite. Or you can exercise your rights too, while you still have
them, and get just as concerned, active, and giving to protect yourself and your country.
If you, and other liberals, other moderates, other conservatives with conscience do,
then everything can turn out all right. But we have to get going. If you are the
only person you know who grasps what’s happening, then you’ve got to take leadership,
help inform, and organize others. One person can do so much; you’ve no idea! And two
can do so much more. But time is running out, fast, and nearly everything is at stake.

Will RWA rule the world? (23+ / 0-)

Interesting question. Personally I am hopeful that reason base technology like the Internet will help keep the RWAs and SDOs in their place. To understand that they are out there, and how they think, helps to deal with them.

J. Dean

Well, (31+ / 0-)

it is our profound hope (I presume to speak for John here) that the historical and psychological insights that one can acquire from these books will help us control the authoritarianism within our society better than we have before. I'm sure that's the biggest reason we wrote the books.

But these findings have to become better known. John has a big audience, and he is doing wonders. But I suspect most of his readers, and darn near all of mine, are pretty unauthoritarian, and while they're getting stroked all over because authoritarians look so bad in these analyses and unauthoritarians look so good, the knowledge needs to be shared with a far larger audience My book has probably changed three votes for 2008 so far.

But there is some comfort in the Pew Research poll that was released yesterday. The country is moving away from authoritarian values. The percent of Americans who think the government has a responsibility for helping people who can't help themselves has risen from 57% in 2002 to 69% now. Belief that school boards should have the right to fire homosexual teachers has dropped from 39% to 28%. Endorsement of a strong, proactive military posture has gone from 62% to 49%. Even belief in "old-fashioned values about family and marriages" has dropped from 84% to 76%.

These are all positive signs. Yes, people get all worked up about Fox News. But how many folks actually watch it? The country is becoming less right-wing authoritarian, and I give the authoritarians most of the credit for bringing this about. It's like my finding that one of the biggest reasons people are more accepting of homosexuals today is that they have been turned off by the anti-homosexual people. Be not of faint heart. There's been a sea change.

by bob altemeyer on Sat Mar 24, 2007 at 02:05:44 PM PDT

You Took An Oath To Uphold The Constitution, "Not To Uphold The President"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/11/prosecutors.tayl...

- snip -

Loyal to Bush even outside the White House, Taylor said she was trying not to answer questions that might violate the president's claim of executive privilege. At one point she told the committee that as a commissioned officer, "I took an oath and I take that oath to the president very seriously."

Seeing a chance to weaken Taylor's observance of Bush's executive privilege claim, Leahy corrected her: She took an oath to uphold the Constitution, he said.

"Your oath is not to uphold the president," Leahy lectured her.

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