A bit of historical perspective reminds us that governments which seem to be in total control, of guns, of money, of the minds of the population, find that all their power is futile against the power of an aroused citizenry. The leaders awake one morning to see a million angry people in the streets of the capital city, and they begin packing their bags and calling for a helicopter. This is not a fantasy but history. It?s the history of the Philippines, of Indonesia, of Russia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, and other places where change looked hopeless and then it happened. There is a long history of imperial powers, gloating over victories, becoming over-extended and overconfident, as their citizens begin to get uneasy because their day-to-day fundamental needs are being sacrificed for military glory while their young are sent to die in wars. The uneasiness grows and grows, and the citizenry gather in resistance in larger and larger numbers, and become too much to control, and one day the top-heavy empire falls over.
A bit of historical perspective reminds us that governments which seem to be in total control, of gun…
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was born in 1922 and died 2010. He was a historian and a playwright. He taught at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, then at Boston University. He was active in the civil rights movement, and in the movement against the Vietnam war. He has written many books, his best known being A People`s History of the United States. His many books include You Can`t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (a memoir), The Zinn Reader, The Future of History (interviews with David Barsamian) and Marx in Soho (a play), among many others.