Delusions

Detention upsets Greenpeace activist

I read this article about a young Greenpeace activist arrested protesting Russian oil exploration in the Artic and all I could do was shake my head with the naiveté of his civil disobedience.

First of all, when a person conducts civil disobedience to protest something in a country not his own that person should suspect that conditions following his or her arrest will not be a vacation.

First of all kids, civil disobedience is not a game. It is not a romantic adventure and you will not wind up being housed in the honeymoon suite at some grand hotel. It absolutely amazes me that the innocents who follow various charismatic environmental movement people are shocked when they discover that if they get arrested, particularly in most jails, they are going to find their lives becoming very uncomfortable.

Such befell the young man who wrote a letter from a Russian jail cell that it was unfair that it was cold, damp and he essentially was being kept in isolation. In addition, the food was worse than that served to hospital patients.

Pray tell me, what was he expecting? To be picked up and transferred to a four-star hotel pending deportation? I don’t think so.

Where are we getting these delusions? This young man is lucky he is in isolation, rather than jammed in a cell with a hundred other bodies, some of whom will be intent on raping him at the first opportunity.

I continually am amazed (I know, you would think I would learn) how many people in North America seem to think that the way things are here are just like the rest of the world. That the rights and privileges that we enjoy here, apply everywhere.  Wrong answer, kids. It ain’t that way and the sooner you grasp that fact, the less shocked you will be by the conditions you find yourself being thrown in during your misadventures.

People who really understand the cost of non-violent civil disobedience know from the get-go that it very likely will result in unpleasantness being visited on your body … regardless of how polite you are or even cooperative. No, the odds are that you will get the shit kicked out of you, thrown in hell holes masquerading as jail cells, with little edible to eat and less potable to drink. Your cellmate and jailors definitely will not be someone you would meet in your Internet Café and probably would kill you if  you look at them cross-eyed.

For instance, I constantly am amazed that the folks involved in the Whale Wars TV series haven’t found themselves literally getting blown out of the water by Japanese Self Defense ships. I mean, the “romantic” characters admit what they are doing is essentially piracy and they are pushing the limits of safety and civil behaviors. Granted, I understand that they oppose the practice, but it is legal under international law and they need to accept that rather than play stupid games where eventually people are going to start getting killed because of their romantic notions of fighting the good fight.

The kid being held in Russia is learning what the world really is like … unfortunately … and it is not really a pretty place.

Nuff Said.