NDAA (Reddit Discussion)

Yesterday Reddit had an "Ask Me Anything" discussion with Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and others here: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/10kggc/we_are_chris_hedges_daniel_ellsberg_other/.  I haven't reviewed it all yet but I thought this answer by Mr. Ellsberg to a question about NDAA very relevant.

"Mr. Ellsberg,
Given the tide of outrageous acts by the U.S. government, do you think change is even possible through existing public institutions?

• permalink

[+]ellsbergdPlantiff 241 points242 points243 points 18 hours ago (42 children)

[–]ellsbergdPlantiff 241 points242 points243 points 18 hours ago

(He's laughing that that.)
I'm going to act for the rest of my life as if as it's possible. Since it's so necessary. When you say "through public institutions," obviously it will take enormous pressure by citizens on those institutions to change the way they operate. Every non-violent tactic that was used to put a lid on the Vietnam war and eventually shorten it is needed now, and that certainly includes massive civil disobedience, but it also includes the full range of public education, including organizing, lobbying, even letter-writing to congress and even (though many dispair of this), electoral activity and voting. The notion that it makes no difference who is in office is, in my opinion, mistaken. There's no question that that the two parties are both corrupt and imperialist. But, one is even worse than the other.
Virtually every public institution has failed us gravely. Not only the executive, but the courts, congress, most of the media and most of the churches. Radical reform is needed, even to the point of non-violent revolution. There was most recently - I mean, eleven years ago - what amounted to an executive coup against the constitution and this has had the complicity of both parties in congress and the media. The prospects of climate change and the continued threat of nuclear war actually bode ill for the survival of the human species, but as I said, I am going to act, and I hope that others will act, as if there is a possibility of averting our extinction."

• permalink
• parent