Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent. (Napoleon I)
Not in America, I’m afraid.
There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who are speaking out, even screaming for change. But there are millions who aren’t making a sound. And the silence of the majority is all the US government hears, including most of the Democrats we elected last year. Bush and Co know they can keep getting away with their abuses, and the Dems know they can keep ignoring them as long as the bulk of the battening herd is essentially calm.
What we need is a big bad wolf to leap into the heart of the herd and send all the sheep into a frenzy of terror. Make the sheep scream. Make the shepherds hear.
Bush had a wolf: brown men in turbans who want to destroy us all. He scared the sheep bad and then played good shepherd to the rescue. He keeps showing the sheep pictures of his wolf to remind them what could happen if he weren’t there to protect them. And to distract them.
Surely there is someone out there who can get the sheep’s attention. Who can show them that the degradation of both our democracy and our planet is scarier than Bush’s wolf…
Because there’s just no other way to reach the sheep.
I’m afraid that’s the way the world turns.
The millions who aren’t making a sound will keep on supporting an administration that preys on their fears, on the “homeland security level orange” manipulation that convince the majority to feel scared, to seek out a leader to protect them from a danger their leader created.
Basically, there’s no way to reach the sheep at all..
The thing that frustrates me is that it’s not only the ones who actually buy into Bush’s agenda who are silent (let’s say 50%, which is disgusting but probably accurate). That group you can just write off as a bunch of morons. But what makes me REALLY angry is that the comfortable, educated and left-leaning (!) middle class is just sitting there, not protesting or anything. Getting their daily Starbucks and filling up the tanks of their SUVs. If the draft were reinstated, then they’d do something, because it might mean their kids would be killed. That would scare the sheep. Almost makes me wish it would happen.