Thoreau and Corruption and Civil Disobedience...

Rulers-Protectors of the 1% ... Thoreau in 
the U.S. and Liu Xiaobo in China and 
Nissanian in Turkey and Kara Murza in 
Russia 


Yesterday I wrote about $10 000 a day... Is it enough...?
$10 000 a day for 90 years makes $325 500 000... How much more a person needs...?
How much more one needs the cheat and exploit other people and contaminate the environment... ?

When human greed and the profit motive pushes the 1% of each country to accumulate more... and more... and more... 
I wonder what they will do with that accumulated fantasy... What will they do with $10 000 a day...? What will they do with the rest...?
I always wondered... and I have no answer...!
Putin sushes his opponents and warns us... not to speak... not to criticize... and let him eat his 200 billion dollars...
How many millions... billions... a person needs...?
How much greed is justified...?




Simplify... and get rid of the junk... The essential to live and be happy is enough... Happiness is not in how much a person has... but in how much they help others... 
Check Thoreau's simple cabin... maybe Putin and the like can learn from him...


I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have... and not the oppression that the Big Brothers impose on people... 
Simplify your life and enjoy your day... 

“Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,” Thoreau instructs us. “Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.” To be free from the distractions of modern life — of the endlessly diverting display of the ordinary, social world of stuff, stuff and more stuff — allowed a person to focus and think. What could we think if worldly possessions didn’t occupy our thoughts? What and whom could we attend to if we stopped attending only to ourselves?

A person is not obliged to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. This includes not being a member of an unjust institution (like the government)...

Thoreau further argues that the United States fits this criteria for an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war.

They say power corrupts, and absolute power will corrupt absolutely... and the governments have the power... and each of them protects the 1% of their respective countries...
The power is a matter of degree... In the Western Liberal Democracies it is less and hence the corruption is less... In Russia the power of the government is much more... and the corruption is much more... in China and Turkey the power of the government it is almost absolute, and hence the corruption is almost absolute...

Thoreau writes: 
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. 

Once we set up ourselves as "Better than [our] neighbors" then eventually we will be in "aggressive wars."
But wars kill and the responsibility of killing rests with the governments... They lead the people in wars and instigate them to kill...
All advanced countries manufacture arms... and they export those arms... they profit from the arms... and also they profit from the wars...
Wars are profitable to the 1%... and people like Putin or the other rulers and governments profit from the murderous wars...

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Liu Xiaobo died during the week... He was a peace activist and defender of human rights in China...

Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Chinese activist who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, has been transferred to a hospital from prison to be treated for late-stage cancer.
Supporters called for his wife, Liu Xia, to be freed from house arrest and allowed to visit him.

The life and death of this Nobel laureate underline the cost of political defiance in China. Liu Xiaobo had enjoyed a comfortable early career as a university professor, but the massacre which followed the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was the fork in his path.

Where many gave up demanding democracy, he stood firm and was jailed repeatedly.

When he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, he was serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion. A furious Beijing subsequently placed his wife under house arrest.

 

An image of his empty chair has been inspiration for artists - such as in this work by Badiucao

The 11-year jail term he was serving when he died was handed down in 2009 after he compiled, with other intellectuals, the Charter 08 manifesto which was a call for an end to one-party rule and the introduction of multi-party democracy. 
Mr Liu was found guilty of trying to overthrow the state... That's what the dictators say when they are confronted with demands of liberty and human rights...

One source of inspiration was the well-documented love between Liu Xiaobo and his wife, Liu Xia, who has also been placed under house arrest. Their love for each other is legendary...

  

Chinese cartoonist Xiaoguai also drew inspiration from the same picture and tweeted this image of two candles symbolising the couple.

 

Thoreau advises people to resist the diktats of the governments and is obligated not to participate in such evils...

That's what Xiaobo... DID... and resisted the corrupt power of the government...

This photo of Chinese resistance has always been with me... I saw that on a mural in my school and has been an inspiration of resistance to corruption of power in the governments...

A single man... against the might of the government... against the corruption and greed of the 1%...

Power image... indestructible will of a single person... 

Xiaobo defended the people and students of China against the power of the government of the 1%...

In his honour we will repeat... Power to the People... In his honour we should act too...

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The Turkish Coup D'Etat was a pretext... and 

it is a tool in the hands of the Turkish 

government to stifle opposition and subjugate 

the people... Some even say that the coup d'etat 

was staged by the government to suppress the 

liberties... That's what Swedish papers wrote 

and reported about the coup d'etat...


Erdogan and his government are attemting to roll back the 

liberties of the people... and subjugate the minorities... They 

have arrested 1000s of writers, reporters and intellectuals... 

Sevan Nisanyan was one of them...

Turkish Armenian Writer Sevan Nisanyan Escapes from Prison ISTANBUL—Turkish-Armenian writer Sevan Nisanyan, who has been serving a 17-year prison term since 2014 has reportedly escaped from the correctional facility where he was being held and fled Turkey, according to Turkish media reports. Nisanyan left the minimum security prison on Friday morning and has not returned. A message on his Twitter page said: “The bird flew away: Same wishes to the remaining 80 million.” Turkish historian and scholar Taner Akcam, reacted to the news by tweeting: “Sevan Nisanyan has escaped by saying ‘the bird flew away.’ With expectations of a free world for all birds….” Nisanyan was arrested and imprisoned in Turkey for carrying out “illegal” construction in his own garden, charges that were so obviously made up by Turkish authorities who had been seeking ways to silence the outspoken scholar and writer. Even the Turkish media said that his arrest was an obviously an effort by Turkish authorities to frame him since he was a staunch critic of the Turkish regime.

In Turkey when one criticizes the Islamist regime... the regime 

comes after them... In Turkey the regime and the government 

jail and torture their opponents...

Here power has corrupted absolutely...

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Putin's Russia is a state of oppression...

People's rights are violated... and citizens are 

arrested for their opposition to Putin and his 

government...

Kara-Murza was poisoned twice... because of 

his opposition to Putin and his corrupt 

oligarchs...

Putin has accumulated 200 billion dollars in 

the last 17 years... That is, almost 12 billion 

each year...

Kara-Murza exposed the corruption of Putin's government... and he was poisoned twice and jailed...

In Russia, power is absolute... and the corruption is absolute too...

Kara-Murza campaigned against Putin and Russian government corruption... but the regime went after him...

Like Turkey, Russian government power is absolute... and the 

corruption is absolute too...

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Priest in Florida Road Rage 

A North Carolina priest faces assault charges after he pulled out a gun in a road rage incident, police officials say. They say the priest, William Rian Adams, was driving near Palm City in Florida when a pick-up truck that had been following his Chevrolet Corvette closely tried to overtake him.

Mr Adams, 35, then "pointed a semi-automatic hand gun" at the two people in the other vehicle, police say.

The gun gave the priest power and corrupted his judgement...
I guess this priest has not read the verse of the Bible where it says... LOVE THY NEIGHBOR...
Religion has given the CHURCH absolute power... and the CHURCH has been corrupted absolutely... for centuries... and there is no end in sight...