[Closed] Could you stand up to oppression?

Can't answer until I am in the situation.

Will report back if things go proper tits up.

No idea about fighting a regime- I've put my ass on the line fighting neonazis and gobshite relgious zealots but really, it's not the same thing at all- you're at risk for a few minutes and could have longer term problems but there's not much chance of a death squad turning up at 4am... Can't compare really.

On a purely practical front, I wonder how you even start?

Yes, either that or I'd be an instrument of state oppression, they get snazzier kit.

Maternal Grandfather did it back in the day, fought the British in the old IRA.

Circumstance maketh the man (or woman).

How would you recognise oppression? If you look at Iraq, the insurgence was to free the country from foreign invaders, the invasion was to free the people from a dictator, somewhere along the line some people made money and a lot of people died, who the **** are the bad guys, who should you resist?

I would stand up to it up to the point where my life would be in danger. I'd rather be alive and oppressed than dead.

I don't think anyone can answer the question until they're faced with the situation.

No idea hopefully won't have to find out. Been in some anti poll tax riots and anti Nazi demos but don't think my life was ever in danger.

When you look around the world at all the current oppression I'd have to think that regardless of what you might say here the odds are probably against you.

Looking at a grave situation and imagining yourself being chucked straight into it is pretty daunting. But if you were born into it or things were going south gradually I think you would handle it better.

I've ruined situations that I won't stand for where other people would keep their heads down and make something out of it. In the relatively normal, hum-drum life I lead it's not usually the best way but that's just me. I'd rather be a bit more patient to be honest.

I don't think anyone can answer the question until they're faced with the situation.

[url= http://seanmcallister.com/films/the-reluctant-revolutionary/ ]The Reluctant Revolutionary[/url]

I met quite a few Libyan freedom fighters getting medical treatment in the UK after the fall of Ghadaffi (one of them had Ghadaffis credit card - he'd been there at the end)

Situations like that are very interesting - from the outside we imagine a total civil war- everyone on either one side or the other, fighting or supporting the fight. But the reality most people were uninvolved and even unengaged until the tanks were at the end of the their street - then, suddenly with whatever they had to hand the were 'soldiers'.

An illustration of that was one was taking about the country as a whole and its roman remains and how beautiful the place was - so we looked up a youtube video of a certain site. The video we found had been filmed by Libyans, on holiday.... right in the middle of the civil war.

It's about the circumstances.

I'd like to think I could - I have quite firm views of right and wrong and a track record for standing up for what I believe is right when I've had to.

But could I do it now with the risk of retaliation against my wife and kids? Not so sure.

Yes.

The question is (increasingly) do we stand up for oppression of our neighbour or turn blind eyes. Worse still, join in.

These days it seems difficult to agree who the oppressor is. Did we ever?

Vive La Resistance...

Freire called it the culture of silence; the legacy left by powerlessness as a direct result of oppression.

I don't necessarily mean taking up arms when there is little choice left.

More the bit before that. For example The Raqqa Diaries is about a Syrian lad who risks his life to upload information about what IS is doing so the world knows.

He could keep his head down but instead he risks his life as a matter of principle knowing he'll be executed of caught.

I like to think yes but when your loved ones may pay the price who knows.

I suppose theres two ways to look at the question -

would you be [i]the one[/i] who stands up against oppression, be the worm that turned?

or

if there was a movement of resistance/revolution/opposition would you join it?

Perhaps theres a third angle - Could you [i]do[/i] Stand-Up to oppression? "Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe walk into a bar....."

Reckon it's probably fair to say I've been having a reasonable stab at fighting forces of oppression for the past few years...

No, I haven't had to fashion any makeshift weapons, and there's been no physical confrontations, however there's certainly been more conflict than I'd prefer, along with attacks on my person from people who should really show more compassion.

Some oppression is just too large to combat on a direct or local basis;

from suppression of Catalan independence, to kids growing up in Gaza, in what is in many respects a prison camp where weapons are tested by Israeli forces on behalf of their US sponsors, to families fleeing trouble in Syria and Iraq, sparked by covert support of rebels by western intelligence services and the wahhabist ideals spread by the oppressive regime of Saudi Arabia.

Raising awareness is key to making change...

Probably not.

I could maybe do stand up about oppression.

Once I'd have answered yes and meant it and I'd like to think I'd have lived up to my answer, now I have a wife and young son I'm no longer sure.

I once chatted with a Polish bloke who had been supporting the resistance in Paris in WW2. He calculated that the safest place to be was as close as possible to the Germans so very frequently he attended, and eventually became a specialist in, the opera. His work was dangerous enough that he was paid the same as a general. I asked him how he viewed those events retrospectively and he said it was the most exciting a thrilling time of his life. After the war he taught French in a London secondary school and wrote opera reviews for national newspapers.

None of us can know until we are in that situation

I believe I couldn't/ wouldn't fight, apart from if someone was actually attacked in front of me then I would and have done, but any organised fighting - not for me. I'd be useless and too feart

I would hope tho that I would act as a medic for "freedom fighters"

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