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There is a huge contradiction in society. On campuses especially, many
have taken a stand by campaigning or protesting against Bush, but have
then returned to life as usual and resigned themselves to the idea that
they have done all they can. We get a good response every where we go,
but still far too few are taking the reigns and acting in a way that
can actually prevent Bush’s program from being bolted into place
permanently and around the world.
The truth of the sentence,
‘That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn –
or be forced – to accept,’ is being born out.
Despite their
better intentions, people all around us are learning to accept the
unconscionable, learning to turn the page on the photos of torture,
learning to count down the days to the end of Roe V. Wade, learning to
open their backpacks up to hysteria-driven police searches, learning to
‘watch what they say’ in class rooms, learning to protest only in
police pens, if at all.
The logic of ‘not offending’ anyone, and
of ‘not making waves’ is a guarantee that we will land in the full
fascist nightmare of Bush’s new Rome. People need to be snapped out of
their paralysis, woken the fuck up, and given a way to really affect
the enormity of what we are confronting.
To this end, we have
made this instructional video to show how we can do this. The point is
to challenge students with the reality of what it means that ‘Your
Government is openly torturing people and justifying it.’ And that
unless you are throwing in everything you’ve got to drive out this
criminal regime, you are learning to accept this.
An interesting
note, as you will see, even for those of us producing this video, the
experience of being confronted with the responsibility we all have for
this country becoming a nation of torturers was very sobering and made
us uncomfortable. This is the point. People don’t want to be
responsible for these heinous cruelties, but they need to know that
just wanting it to stop is not enough, every time you look away, or
walk away, or turn the page, or refuse to challenge others, or get ‘too
busy’ with schoolwork to organize, you are holding the leash. The fact
that ‘everyone else is’ going about their daily lives too only makes it
worse!
The idea is to destroy people’s ability to separate
themselve from what is being done in their names, to break them out of
their ‘normal routine,’ and hook them up with the only way out – taking
on and driving out the criminal regime forcing this on the world. This
will take struggle, sacrifice, bravery, and disruption of our own and
other’s routines – but when torture becomes routine, this is the only
moral and sane way to live. All out for November 2nd!
Some important instructions:
1)
The ‘torture victim’ must stay in character the whole time. This
includes staying ‘in costume’; you can’t take the hood on and off. And
importantly, this means you need to act and talk like a ‘torture
victim’- don’t start giving political speeches, and don’t turn into an
organizer. You can compare the answers that people say to you against
the weight of your experience. There should be others in the crowd and
at a table nearby getting the crowd organized after they have been
shocked by the reality of what their government is doing.
2) The
‘torture victim’ has to really engage people in a very personal and
challenging way. This has to not just be a rant, but a way to reach
inside people’s souls. You know people are agonizing over this, and you
want to reach that part of them. You need to get a lot of back and
forth going between yourself and the crowd, as well as creating a whole
scene around you, where students are gathering to see what’s going on
and debating it out amongst each other. It is important to tell people
to ‘take the leash’ and respond to their response. First, you may need
to challenge people to take the leash- ‘it’s okay, your government does
it all the time. You won’t get in trouble. Doesn’t it make you feel
safe? Aren’t you patriotic?’ Then, if they refuse the leash, say things
like- ‘I know, you like to think you’re not holding it – its set up
that way. But you are, every time you turn the page from the pictures
of me, every day you walk around and I am here – you’re holding it. Go
ahead, see how it feels in your hand. You might like it, part of you
seems to, every day you get more use to being part of a nation of
torturers – I bet some days you don’t even think about it at all, do
you?’ You have to take control of the conversation, think on your feet,
and keep challenging people with the horrible reality they are
accepting.
3) The element of surprise is really important for
this. The whole point is to jolt people out of their daily routine and
show them the daily routine forced on the Iraqi people. You need to do
this once and do this well on campus. And run with it- get students to
take you into their classes. This should be what everyone is talking
about that night, with some becoming organizers, some arguing ‘that was
going to far’, etc., but no one sitting on the sidelines anymore.