By An Old Friend
Fri, Oct 15, 2021 2:18 p.m.
Glenn Reynolds: Use "Irish democracy" against Our Depraved Elites
I've highlighted a particularly nice summary sentence.
The irrational COVID regime is driving many Americans to a healthy noncompliance
If regular democracy isn't doing so well, maybe it's time to fall back on "Irish Democracy."
That's what Yale political scientist James Scott calls the passive resistance of a society that doesn't like what its rulers are doing to it. In his book "Two Cheers for Anarchy," he writes, "One need not have an actual conspiracy to achieve the practical effects of a conspiracy. More regimes have been brought, piecemeal, to their knees by what was once called 'Irish Democracy,' the silent, dogged resistance, withdrawal and truculence of millions of ordinary people, than by revolutionary vanguards or rioting mobs."
Irish Democracy is when the populace simply doesn't cooperate with the agenda. Sometimes there is active sabotage, sometimes surreptitious monkey-wrenching, sometimes foot-dragging and sometimes outright noncompliance. Sometimes it's all of those at once.
Right now, we are seeing some of that in response to vaccine mandates, mask rules and various other forms of population control that have been adopted since the pandemic struck. Go almost anywhere with a mask mandate, and you will see some people not wearing masks at all, daring anyone to do anything about it (often, they don't).
You will also see a lot more with the mask pulled down below their noses, providing the vague suggestion of compliance without actually going along. These people will usually pull the mask up if asked, but then pull it right back down again as soon as the asker leaves the vicinity. (Hey, why take it seriously when our elites have made clear that the mask rules don't apply to them and their gatherings?)
Likewise, social distancing is often honored in the breach. And why not? If football stadiums and rock arenas can be filled with profitable crowds, how seriously can people be expected to follow other rules?
A person receives a vaccine for COVID-19 following Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, in Houston, Texas, October 13, 2021.
When I was in New York City recently, restaurants and bars were "checking" people's vaccination status by taking a cursory glance at a largely illegible photo on an app. Going through the motions is a form of passive resistance, and lots of people seemed to be doing that.
When I was in New York City recently, restaurants and bars were "checking" people's vaccination status by taking a cursory glance at a largely illegible photo on an app. Going through the motions is a form of passive resistance, and lots of people seemed to be doing that.
Others are exiting the workforce rather than comply with vax mandates. Biden administration officials seem mystified as to why people don't want to work for employers that seem to be operating as extensions of government regulators. And many people who are employed are refusing the shot and daring their employers to fire them in a tight labor market.
The establishment isn't happy with all of this, of course, but it's also not nearly as strong as it pretends. If most people, or even a significant minority of people, started to ignore the federal government, the feds would soon be rendered impotent.
We can see this already with marijuana. As I am often forced to remind people, marijuana isn't legal. It remains banned by federal law, even in states that have removed their own penalties.
People hold a rally in support of a group of 10 teachers fighting enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school employees on October 12, 2021, in New York City.
Yet about a decade ago, people basically just decided that pot was legal. And for all practical purposes now, it is. After Colorado legalized weed, the Obama administration made a few abortive efforts to enforce the federal law on a large scale, then gave up.
Yet about a decade ago, people basically just decided that pot was legal. And for all practical purposes now, it is. After Colorado legalized weed, the Obama administration made a few abortive efforts to enforce the federal law on a large scale, then gave up.
Now even in states like mine, Tennessee, where marijuana remains against state law, it's effectively legalized. You have to try awfully hard to get arrested for it.
Some on the left are calling those who resist the regime names like "domestic terrorists," but that doesn't carry much weight anymore. With the left having spent a decade calling everyone Hitler, "domestic terrorist" barely registers. (And given the Biden administration's craven surrender to the real terrorists in Afghanistan, some Americans might be forgiven for thinking that if they get called terrorist enough, they will be in line for the basket of goodies Biden is giving the Taliban.)
I got the shot, but the bullying has become insufferable and counterproductive. The masks are by now downright moronic. Ditto the arbitrary six-foot rule, based on flu droplets rather than COVID's aerosols. Resisting government bullying, too, is a kind of public duty. And more and more people seem to be doing just that.
5 comments:
No mask,no vaxx for me--everyone else has a mask on though.Where I go food shop or stop in for lotto tickets,all the employees seem to have masks.A half black/half White pharmacist who was pregnant did not get a vaxx.
--GRA
>Irish Democracy is when the populace simply doesn't cooperate with the agenda
Non-compliance -- mass non-compliance -- people have been talking about/calling for it since early in 2020 when the lockdowns and other restrictions on personal freedom first started -- but there was too little of it back then, which emboldened authorities -- now you have vaccine mandates, and resistance is more difficult for many people, since now their livelihood is threatened as far into the feature as they can see.
While using "Irish" method is better than blind compliance, the problem with doing this is the mandate and fines remain in place. These can be used by the government to extort people whom the government wants to punish or made to shut up. We already have too many such laws--for example my tax guy says the IRS audits people for political reasons. Better that the people rise up and demand the mandates are removed with strikes, lawsuits, political recalls, etc. Otherwise it is just one more tool of the tyrants trying to control us.
Never even thought the government could impose such a mandate. They might strongly suggest you get a vaxxx, but not mandate whatever type of vaxxx.
"...about a decade ago, people basically just decided that pot was legal..." What is HE smoking? More like SIXTY years ago~ and it's the worst thing that ever happened to the white race, and Western civilization (soon to be extinguished).
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