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CHATTO BOOK OF DISSENT
This book gathers together some of the best verbal protest, whether avowedly political or quietly subversive, against war, racism, slavery, chauvinism, censorship, injustice and oppression in all their guises. Vast in scope, it ranges in place and time from the Ancient Egyptian Satire of the Trades to Vaclav Havel's Memorandum, in form from Chaucerian verse to Paris graffiti, and embraces protest songs, radio broadcasts, the text of seditious posters and the transcripts of trials; Charlotte Bronte and Lenny Bruce, Aesop and Aborigines.
- GenresNonfiction
454 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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May 7, 2017
This book started out super, super strong, but hit quicksand about 200 pages in. The first few chapters were devoted to rousing the reader towards general protest/call to arms, but then turned to a subject-specific litany of complaints and anger manifestos. Articulating grievances is the first step towards making a change, but as the book was just shy 500 pages, these compounded snippets of rage became exhausting.
At the same time, it was exhausting because it was depressing. It seems like in the human situation, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That does not mean one should not try to improve upon it any less, but it makes the reader wonder WTF we are doing, and why we keep doing it to ourselves.
As an aside, about 67% of the prose was in Ye Olde Pamphlet format, which got real boring real quick. It was like sitting in an empty Irish pub, then all of a sudden an old guy sits next to you and starts rambling. At first you may be willing to entertain his whimsical accent, but then you just want him to go home already.
That said, there were many passages to be found in this book that are rare gems of history - dusted off and presented here, a few for the first time - such as Elizabeth Packard's appalling story of being locked up in an asylum by her husband, a legal act in Illinois at the time. When granted freedom after 3 years, she lobbied the legislature to implement a "personal liberty bill", requiring trial by jury before a person (cough, a wife, cough) be committed to an asylum. This story is a scary reminder of how women have been treated like mindless property until very recently in history, even in Western civilization.
I found a speech by Chief Sealth (Seattle) to be heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time: in it, he implores the US government (aka, The White Man) to take care of the land they are buying from the Indian Nation. He openly addresses the different perspectives the Indians vs White Men have towards the land, and even acknowledges some level of futility in imploring them to be good stewards of earth. The frustrating part was witnessing Seattle slowly dismounting off a moral high horse into a vat of printed dollar bill$. You could smell his resignation being consoled by money, which made a large part of his speech hypocritical.
A quote that gave me pause for thought: "Women have to go through such a tremendous struggle before they are free in their own minds that freedom is more precious to them than men." (p. 134)
In "The Plague of Dictatorship", Wilhelm Reich describes the morality of democracy eloquently: "It is easier to insist on legally required performance of respect and love than it is to win friendship through genuinely decent behavior. It is easier to sell one's independence for economic security than it is to lead an independent, responsible existence and to be master of oneself. It is easier to dictate to subordinates what they ought to do than it is to guide them while respecting their own individuality. This is why dictatorship is always easier than true democracy. This is why the indolent democratic leader envies the dictator, and tries, in his inadequate way, to imitate him. It is easy to represent the commonplace, and difficult to represent the truth." (p.360)
This was an inspiring book, but I realized you cannot really ever leave the Irish Bar.
At the same time, it was exhausting because it was depressing. It seems like in the human situation, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That does not mean one should not try to improve upon it any less, but it makes the reader wonder WTF we are doing, and why we keep doing it to ourselves.
As an aside, about 67% of the prose was in Ye Olde Pamphlet format, which got real boring real quick. It was like sitting in an empty Irish pub, then all of a sudden an old guy sits next to you and starts rambling. At first you may be willing to entertain his whimsical accent, but then you just want him to go home already.
That said, there were many passages to be found in this book that are rare gems of history - dusted off and presented here, a few for the first time - such as Elizabeth Packard's appalling story of being locked up in an asylum by her husband, a legal act in Illinois at the time. When granted freedom after 3 years, she lobbied the legislature to implement a "personal liberty bill", requiring trial by jury before a person (cough, a wife, cough) be committed to an asylum. This story is a scary reminder of how women have been treated like mindless property until very recently in history, even in Western civilization.
I found a speech by Chief Sealth (Seattle) to be heartbreaking and frustrating at the same time: in it, he implores the US government (aka, The White Man) to take care of the land they are buying from the Indian Nation. He openly addresses the different perspectives the Indians vs White Men have towards the land, and even acknowledges some level of futility in imploring them to be good stewards of earth. The frustrating part was witnessing Seattle slowly dismounting off a moral high horse into a vat of printed dollar bill$. You could smell his resignation being consoled by money, which made a large part of his speech hypocritical.
A quote that gave me pause for thought: "Women have to go through such a tremendous struggle before they are free in their own minds that freedom is more precious to them than men." (p. 134)
In "The Plague of Dictatorship", Wilhelm Reich describes the morality of democracy eloquently: "It is easier to insist on legally required performance of respect and love than it is to win friendship through genuinely decent behavior. It is easier to sell one's independence for economic security than it is to lead an independent, responsible existence and to be master of oneself. It is easier to dictate to subordinates what they ought to do than it is to guide them while respecting their own individuality. This is why dictatorship is always easier than true democracy. This is why the indolent democratic leader envies the dictator, and tries, in his inadequate way, to imitate him. It is easy to represent the commonplace, and difficult to represent the truth." (p.360)
This was an inspiring book, but I realized you cannot really ever leave the Irish Bar.
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