Hope Is Not Dissent, Not Action in Fear State

Drumbeat of fear and intimidation causes those who crave freedom to wrap up in hope instead of joining en masse the few brave ones that manage to break out.

Segment from Chris Hedges story, "When fear comes."

"The former front-line soldier, whose name is lost to history, suddenly disarmed and killed the two guards. He announced to his fellow prisoners that they were free.

"But the prisoners were overwhelmed with horror; no one followed his lead, and they all sat down right there and waited for a new convoy," Solzhenitsyn writes. The prisoner attempted in vain to shame them.

"And then he took up the rifles (thirty-two cartridges, 'thirty one for them!') and left alone. He killed and wounded several pursuers and with his thirty-second cartridge he shot himself. 

The entire Archipelago might well have collapsed if all the former front-liners had behaved as he did."

The more despotic a regime becomes, the more it creates a climate of fear that transforms into terror. At the same time, it invests tremendous energy and resources in censorship and propaganda to maintain the fiction of the just and free state.

Chris Hedges spells out the larger picture which he does with his unique and special insights.  Link to his story:

"When Fear Comes"