The Front Porch : The Revolution That Is #PaperNapkinRevolution

Teodrose Fikre

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It always starts with with an overreach. Throughout history, dictators and tyrants have run roughshod over the people until they overplay their hands. The powerful build bridges on top of the masses until the powerful go a bridge too far. The people can only take so much oppression and abuse by their government before they rise up and overthrow those who use authority to bleed the commoners. Endless repression eventually gives way to a reverb as the people say enough; the straws that broke the life of many eventually becomes the reed that breaks the backs of the few who bleed the people.

Overreach has been the womb that gave birth to endless revolutions throughout history. America’s history is proof of this, the colonialists rose up against the British crown in part because they had enough of a king who was governing them without consent. Revolution after revolution can be traced back to dictators who pushed too much; not happy with taking a pound of flesh from the citizens, the gentry push their lucks by feeding on the hopes of the people and entombing the masses into the abyss of utter hopelessness. It usually takes a catalyst—what at first is dismissed as a meaningless gesture—to eventually capture the imagination of the masses and gives voice to the indignation that the public feels.

I mentioned the word reverb before, let me expound on this notion. Let’s go back in time; not too long ago actually. The year is 1965 and a once bit player by the name of Nicolae Ceaușescu took over in Romania during the height of the Cold War. Romania back then was part of the “iron curtain”, the nickname Winston Churchill gave to the client states of the USSR which served as division marker between NATO states and the red bear. Empowered by the USSR, Nicolae would go on to rule Romania with an iron fist and blood-soaked boots. For over two decades, this ghoulish tyrant Nicolae silenced dissent and butchered dissidents in ways that Nero would have been proud of. Through sheer barbarity, he cowed the people into submission and acceptance of oppression as a norm. Few found the courage to question Nicolae; those who did mostly met final judgement by ways of bullets and torture chambers.

But as tyrants always do, Nicolae overplayed his hand. During the winter of 1989, the public started to agitate for freedom after being aggrieved for decades. The flareup and the eventual breaking point was caused by the most innocuous of moments compared to the heat Romanians faced for over twenty years. After witnessing endless injustice and untold number of their fellow citizens disappear into thin air, injustice had become as common as the flu in Juneau. But then acceptance gave way to defiance inspired by the most random of moments. The random moment that awakened the masses was the attempted eviction of an ethnic Hungarian pastor from a town called Timișoara. The irony of it, Romanians were stirred into resistance by the persecution of someone who was not even Romanian. Goes to show, injustice does not know labels; when the people eventually rose e up, it was not based on ethnicity, race, or isms. Romanians were moved into action galvanized by human suffering.

Nicolae did what he always did, he sent in his military police and security forces to crush the rebellion. And that is precisely what happened, the state police went in armed to the teeth and loosened hell on the demonstrators. Students had joined the protesters but to the security forces, they saw students, priests and the people alike as a threat that had to be silenced. By the time the smoke cleared on the night of December 18th, 1989, the lifeless bodies of dozens of men, women and children were strewn on the sidewalks of Timișoara and countless more were maimed and injured. This was just business as usual in Romania, no one thought twice of it at first—the sense and sensibilities of the people desensitized by two decades of repression.

Hubris when people are fed up is like exhaling benzene at a flickering matchstick—not a very smart move. But this is precisely what Nicolae did, instead of...continued...

Read full article at: ghionjournal.com
 
FullSizeRender-3.jpg

It always starts with with an overreach. Throughout history, dictators and tyrants have run roughshod over the people until they overplay their hands. The powerful build bridges on top of the masses until the powerful go a bridge too far. The people can only take so much oppression and abuse by their government before they rise up and overthrow those who use authority to bleed the commoners. Endless repression eventually gives way to a reverb as the people say enough; the straws that broke the life of many eventually becomes the reed that breaks the backs of the few who bleed the people.

Overreach has been the womb that gave birth to endless revolutions throughout history. America’s history is proof of this, the colonialists rose up against the British crown in part because they had enough of a king who was governing them without consent. Revolution after revolution can be traced back to dictators who pushed too much; not happy with taking a pound of flesh from the citizens, the gentry push their lucks by feeding on the hopes of the people and entombing the masses into the abyss of utter hopelessness. It usually takes a catalyst—what at first is dismissed as a meaningless gesture—to eventually capture the imagination of the masses and gives voice to the indignation that the public feels.

I mentioned the word reverb before, let me expound on this notion. Let’s go back in time; not too long ago actually. The year is 1965 and a once bit player by the name of Nicolae Ceaușescu took over in Romania during the height of the Cold War. Romania back then was part of the “iron curtain”, the nickname Winston Churchill gave to the client states of the USSR which served as division marker between NATO states and the red bear. Empowered by the USSR, Nicolae would go on to rule Romania with an iron fist and blood-soaked boots. For over two decades, this ghoulish tyrant Nicolae silenced dissent and butchered dissidents in ways that Nero would have been proud of. Through sheer barbarity, he cowed the people into submission and acceptance of oppression as a norm. Few found the courage to question Nicolae; those who did mostly met final judgement by ways of bullets and torture chambers.

But as tyrants always do, Nicolae overplayed his hand. During the winter of 1989, the public started to agitate for freedom after being aggrieved for decades. The flareup and the eventual breaking point was caused by the most innocuous of moments compared to the heat Romanians faced for over twenty years. After witnessing endless injustice and untold number of their fellow citizens disappear into thin air, injustice had become as common as the flu in Juneau. But then acceptance gave way to defiance inspired by the most random of moments. The random moment that awakened the masses was the attempted eviction of an ethnic Hungarian pastor from a town called Timișoara. The irony of it, Romanians were stirred into resistance by the persecution of someone who was not even Romanian. Goes to show, injustice does not know labels; when the people eventually rose e up, it was not based on ethnicity, race, or isms. Romanians were moved into action galvanized by human suffering.

Nicolae did what he always did, he sent in his military police and security forces to crush the rebellion. And that is precisely what happened, the state police went in armed to the teeth and loosened hell on the demonstrators. Students had joined the protesters but to the security forces, they saw students, priests and the people alike as a threat that had to be silenced. By the time the smoke cleared on the night of December 18th, 1989, the lifeless bodies of dozens of men, women and children were strewn on the sidewalks of Timișoara and countless more were maimed and injured. This was just business as usual in Romania, no one thought twice of it at first—the sense and sensibilities of the people desensitized by two decades of repression.

Hubris when people are fed up is like exhaling benzene at a flickering matchstick—not a very smart move. But this is precisely what Nicolae did, instead of...continued...

Read full article at: ghionjournal.com
welcome.... :wave:
 

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