I’ll confess up front that I’m too lazy to read this today. But I’ll get to it, because I think Douglass is one of America’s greatest writers. Not just because I agree with him; he’s an excellent prose stylist.
In yet another Douglass speech - on West Indie Emancipation - which is the one where he famously said, "Power concedes nothing without demand" - he follows up with an astute observation that deserves more attention, imo.
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
The process Douglass describes is iterative and persistent. Power takes and consumes without invitation. Or, worse, it takes and consumes as a rule until it is stopped. The arc of the moral universe may very well bend toward justice, but the army of oppression marches on inexorably until someone decides it's time to be vigilant and block its way, which is always too late and after too much damage has been exacted and the idea of oppression as normalcy has gained purchase even among fair-minded people. The right time for the demand made to power is always going to be yesterday. Yet, for some reason, the opposition takes time and effort to be organized while the oppression flows with no more intention needed than gravity acting upon a river. The opposition must be convinced to act and the power that drives oppression seeks no license and it thrives without persuasion.
It's asynchronous warfare. Your efforts to shine a light on what must be stopped are more than merely laudable. They are rooted in the moral imperative to halt, if not reverse, the progress that injustice probes and pokes and pushes to advance without pause.
Thanks for sharing that, Jim! The fact that pro-censorship folks like Weaver and anti-progress/ anti-Civil Rights groups like the 1776 Project have co-opted Douglass’ words is that they are so clearly about resisting tyranny and demanding we live up to our ideals instead of using those ideals as a smokescreen.
I’ll confess up front that I’m too lazy to read this today. But I’ll get to it, because I think Douglass is one of America’s greatest writers. Not just because I agree with him; he’s an excellent prose stylist.
Agreed. This speech is incredibly written. I used to teach it in high school rhetoric.
I saw that the Unpopulist posted another Douglass speech just now. You got there first-- the early bird gets the worm, man.
In yet another Douglass speech - on West Indie Emancipation - which is the one where he famously said, "Power concedes nothing without demand" - he follows up with an astute observation that deserves more attention, imo.
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
The process Douglass describes is iterative and persistent. Power takes and consumes without invitation. Or, worse, it takes and consumes as a rule until it is stopped. The arc of the moral universe may very well bend toward justice, but the army of oppression marches on inexorably until someone decides it's time to be vigilant and block its way, which is always too late and after too much damage has been exacted and the idea of oppression as normalcy has gained purchase even among fair-minded people. The right time for the demand made to power is always going to be yesterday. Yet, for some reason, the opposition takes time and effort to be organized while the oppression flows with no more intention needed than gravity acting upon a river. The opposition must be convinced to act and the power that drives oppression seeks no license and it thrives without persuasion.
It's asynchronous warfare. Your efforts to shine a light on what must be stopped are more than merely laudable. They are rooted in the moral imperative to halt, if not reverse, the progress that injustice probes and pokes and pushes to advance without pause.
Thanks for sharing that, Jim! The fact that pro-censorship folks like Weaver and anti-progress/ anti-Civil Rights groups like the 1776 Project have co-opted Douglass’ words is that they are so clearly about resisting tyranny and demanding we live up to our ideals instead of using those ideals as a smokescreen.