When Push comes to shove...

[Comrade Jandar]

How many members of revleft would be willing to either risk prison or mortal danger in pursuit of social revolution? I'd like to think I would be able to but I'm doubtful. This makes me wonder if my whole interest in leftist politics is intellectual masturbation and the thrill of being a contrarian. Am I a fraud?

#existential crisis

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

I wouldn't mind dying but I don't think I'm strong enough to endure torture.

[p0is0n]

I think at the moment that I face death I will be scared. But looking at it (death) today, it doesn't seem all that scary. So however stupid I'd think my choice would be when I'm looking into a barrel of a rifle, I'd still probably do it. Plus I guess I'm a bit of a romantic. I think most of us are at least slightly excited by the thought of running around with red flags and rifles and expropriating to the left and right, no matter how prolecore we say we are.

I feel like instead of enduring torture I'd just try and make them shoot me or some shit. Try and run, maybe, when there is an opening. Rather a bullet in the back than being cut up by some freaky sadist with a knife.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Obviously you can never really know unless you're put in that situation.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I turn 27 in a few months. If you don't die at 27, you become Neil Young. Or something.

[Aurora]

Hang on a minute, let me get a ruler.

[Comrade Jandar]

Hang on a minute, let me get a ruler.

What does this have to do with your penis size?

[Ostrinski]

I think we should hope one day for that dilemma to be taken out of our hands.

[Art Vandelay]

If I live to see a revolutionary situation, I don't really care what happens to me. I just hope that I don't off myself before one comes about.

[Prometeo liberado]

Whatever it takes. Whats left otherwise, minivans, church, getting, spending and crossing off lists. Been doin this long enough to know that something better will only come through a crushing struggle for change. Fuck it, I'm in.

[human strike]

Fuck being a martyr. Capitalism and ideology make martyrs of us every day. Death is always a half-revolution at best. The subversive thing to do is to truly live. Sacrifice is the mantra of reaction, not revolution. We've had enough martyrs already.

[Let's Get Free]

I couldn't really give you an accurate answer, sitting behind a computer screen.

[Ostrinski]

Perfectly said (edit: at General Strike)^. We make revolution to emancipate ourselves, to enhance ourselves. Not to kill ourselves. When revolution is seen as worth that risk, revolution will be possible.

[l'Enfermé]

Dying is an easy thing, OP. Ask all the billions of people who already did it. Anyway we're more likely to get eaten by sharks than to die in a revolution, unless you live in the third world, so I wouldn't sweat it.

[The Machine]

i always thought it was about making the other poor dumb bastard die for the revolution

[black magick hustla]

silly thread. people become "heroes" or "traitors" or whatever at the moment, and it has a lot to do with the ties you have formed with your "comrades", your past experiences, etc. i don't think it takes a superman to become a hero, it takes a lot of emotions, loyalties, enemies, love etc you know, the human condition in general

[Prometeo liberado]

None of this is about "hereos" or "martyrs" It is merely accepting the lot you are in and reacting, fighting forth. The other stuff is for advertureres and and the selfish looking for left fame.

[Questionable]

If I'm going to pick up a gun for the revolution I want to be alive to see it finished.

I mean, how disappointing would it be, if a revolution finally happened, and you died before you could see the outcome?

[Stand Your Ground]

I think at the moment that I face death I will be scared. But looking at it (death) today, it doesn't seem all that scary. So however stupid I'd think my choice would be when I'm looking into a barrel of a rifle, I'd still probably do it. Plus I guess I'm a bit of a romantic. I think most of us are at least slightly excited by the thought of running around with red flags and rifles and expropriating to the left and right, no matter how prolecore we say we are.

I feel like instead of enduring torture I'd just try and make them shoot me or some shit. Try and run, maybe, when there is an opening. Rather a bullet in the back than being cut up by some freaky sadist with a knife.
This. Nothing gets the adrenaline going like thinking of that. If a group of comrades came to me and said, we're doing something, you comin? I'd say fuck yeah. But doing something alone is suicide so I just sit on revleft and wait for that day.

[zoot_allures]

Not me. I'm a total coward.

But then, how many of us intentionally go looking for situations where we might risk prison or mortal danger? Most of time, I think we have little control over the degree to which we're at risk. People are simply confronted with problems, and attempting to avoid or ignore or run away from them can often be as dangerous as any other response.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Dying is an easy thing, OP. Ask all the billions of people who already did it. Anyway we're more likely to get eaten by sharks than to die in a revolution, unless you live in the third world, so I wouldn't sweat it.

As far as I'm concerned, being eaten by sharks is one of few deaths I wouldn't mind... Body gets put to good use, none of that awful tragic burial ritual or a useless cremation or what-have-you, relatively fast, sharks are awesome and it's not a disease. Just about perfect. Only thing I'd find preferable would be humongous alien beasts eating me. :wub:

[human strike]

But then, how many of us intentionally go looking for situations where we might risk prison or mortal danger?

I actually find that there is a certain type of activist who does semi-deliberately "throw their body on the gears," as it were. There's this sort of Ghandianism and a general trend within activist culture that glorifies the sacrifice of militants, of putting yourself in harms way. I've seen comrades in court deliberately seeking the worst sentence possible, refusing to pay fines in order to get prison time. I respect people's right to make these decisions and I rarely ever call anyone out on it, but I see it as a very counter-productive way of going about things. To me, it is part of this activist mentality that glorifies the self via self-sacrifice, and in a very elitist way. I think it makes people feel very special sometimes.

These kinds of ideas are discussed further in this article from back when: Give Up Activism (Do or Die)
(http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no9/activism.htm)