From the French Revolution and before, people have known. I would argue that they don't want to know. Example? The Uigher camps in China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps They are everything that Auschwitz was, 60 Minutes aired the powerful documentary in Australia over 12 months ago. Are Australians effectively protesting? Nope. No one in the world is, actually. Cos then our magic iphones would evaporate, as would most cheap imported consumer goods.
We have been bought. And we allow it. And we DO know.
!ENGAGE 25
Recommended viewing:
It's a good question: What can we do about the world's injustices, now that we have this Free Speech vehicle? Let's all BLOG about that... make it a HIVE challenge. Send that Q to @eddiespino to fwd to @theycallmedan.
I would say that today many are way too preoccupied with work and online distractions to actually even bother figuring out how to do anything but complain about situations. However, they seem to like blaming older generations for current government problems, while still not figuring out what to do now.
I never saw that documentary and wonder how many people did. Yet assuming everyone did, short of demanding we go to war to stop things in China, what can an Australian do? We could have a peaceful protest to say we don't agree with it, but will that made a difference to the Chinese government?
Within our own country, there are things that can be done to approach local government with their procedures, but you have to take the time to look into it and find out how (often not information that's easily found). Also, you don't know how up to date information is. For example, my husband was reading that in order to get a local MP dismissed, you need a minimum of 6 people to go in and say that this is what they want to happen. Now this apparently applies to Britain, but I haven't been able to find out if it applies here. Assuming it does, you then have to try and motivate enough people to go in and call for that dismissal. The chances are most people will be sceptical that this is even true because it's not common knowledge, so what are the chances of getting enough together?
You might get people together to protest, but because this isn't actually an 'officially approved' way of enacting change within government systems, it rarely works to gain action from government. They are sitting there waiting smugly for someone to actually follow their procedures and jump through their hoops, then saying they couldn't actually do anything, because the changes demanded weren't properly applied for through the correct channels.
I believe this is why a lot of people don't do anything, because they are afraid of the repercussions if it turns out they're not allowed to do that. They also don't realise the implications, further down the line, of them not standing up for themselves and letting government officials get away with each of those little chips away at human rights and freedoms.
I just find it futile to try and blame others for not doing things. After all, while those who have stood up to authority and the status quo to make things better have often succeeded, usually many years down the line, they often ended up imprisoned or killed for their efforts. So it's no wonder no-one wants to stick their head out.
More thoughts a-churning, but I'm being dragged away...