“Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”
Reading Emma Goldman quotes with Jack the other night. Realised she’d be locked up quicksmart if she were around today, there’d be rendition and we’d never hear of her again. [1]
I’m enough of a pacifist that I argue against assassination as well as against war, but I still have an odd sense of respect for some of the advocates of violent resistance throughout history, especially when it has seemed there was no other option, simply because they stood up for what they believed in [2].
It’s a very, very complicated one. And it always comes down to discussing what would have happened if Hitler were assassinated… a point made in the very interesting article in the Good Weekend about World War I.
Anyway, I’m just rambling now, so I’ll wait for the anonymous flamage to begin.
[1] She was locked up then too, and then deported, but it wasn’t illegal for people to know where she was or to publish that. Now, it is, if someone is subject to a control order.
[2] And no, I am NOT talking about randomly blowing up innocent bystanders as per current cell-based and State-based terrorist practice. I’m talking about Guy Fawkes and the Black Hand killing Alexander III and various other folks. Of course, someone killed Kennedy too, and there’s the rub: who gets to decide who’s good and who’s bad? It’s way too unilateral and therefore doesn’t fit within a collective decision making process that I’d prefer. And having a collective decision made about assassination starts to sound like capital punishment, which I’m opposed to on the basis that I don’t think the State should have the right to decide who lives and dies. So… no to death by assassination. Just to be REALLY clear.