Tank Man: Tiananmen Square Protests

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4 Comments

Comment by Ian Carmichael on June 6, 2009 at 1:08am

One of the most amazing incidentals of this tape is the linearity of the military mind. One man, stopped a line of tanks! And all the tanks kept following the leader. A dissenting opinion confuses the status quo, because the dissent doesn't follow status quo patterns. One man couldn't have stopped a wall of tanks - just one!

But I'm not being trivial - I'm fully aware that the cost of dissent can be death, exile, torture, mental 'treatment'. I'm also aware that people preapred to pay that cost terrify the totalitarians - whether left right or central, for although they can exert force they can't exercise power over dissident action. Control is not possible, only suppression and crushing. And eventually, dissent succeeds. Lose the tolerance of the common people, said Machiavelli, and you've lost everything (my paraphrase!) [You can play off the nobles any way you choose, but...]
(As I see it, the point of the threat of reprisals is to prevent dissidence from happening, not to punish dissidence when it has happened.)

Comment by Mike on June 5, 2009 at 1:34pm

BrownPresDisparityData.ppt

In Hannah Arendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Arendt pointed out that those who commit horrible acts are not only crazy fanatics but rather ordinary people who are willing to carry out terrible things in an organized, systematic way because it has become "normalized" within the society.


Wondering what is worth this kind of courage today?

Check out this attachment:

Social/Economic Indicators:
Comparing Brown Era Racial Disparities to Today
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity
The Ohio State University
April 2004

Be well... mike

Comment by Jaime Detweiler on June 5, 2009 at 1:03pm

Thanks for posting the video. The story itself is inspiring, but seeing it makes the message that much more powerful.

Comment by scott smith on June 5, 2009 at 10:34am

I keep a copy of the lyrics to the Peet Seeger song My Name is Lisa Kavelage in my planner to remind me of what ordinary people are capable of.

Her story is described here:

Oh, my first name is David and middle name is Scott; though feel free to call me 'Andrew' I know it's hard for you keep the names of all your Fireside 'kids' straight ;

Have a great weekend. Weather here on the west side is awesome today, hope yours is too.

Scott