Silenced: the choice between dissidence or living a 'normal' life

Here's a thought worth reflecting on: if you had the choice to make a decent wage, live a 'normal' untroubled life in exchange for silence and lack of political expression, would you do it? Is it worth fighting for a cause if it means the end of your livelihood, the harassment and blackmail of your family members, possible detention, torture, or even your death? This is the choice many people face every day living under repressive regimes and many choose the security of a maintaining a 'normal' life to openly challenging government malpractices, abuses, and corruption.

The New York Times published two stories recently illustrative of the costs of the choices dissidents face. In one story Azeri blogger and opposition activist Emin Milli was freed from prison only to find that his entire life had been robbed from him. Those who feared government retaliation for association to Milli cut off ties with anyone remotely linked with him. "His wife’s father had been fired from his government job because of Mr. Milli’s political activities. His own father had died while he was in prison. His wife, her own future in turmoil, had asked for a divorce. Mr. Milli spent much of this spring in his apartment, free time gaping before him like a chasm." More recently, the release of Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei appears to be a victory, however, the New York Times added that the artist has since "muzzled" himself. The New York Times quoted Nicholas Bequelin, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Hong Kong, as noting that the artist “has a Damocles sword hanging over his head. That means any time he opens his mouth, he puts himself in danger.”

Given the costs of challenging a repressive and corrupt government one would have to weigh when the benefits of posing a public challenge to the status quo outweighs the costs. Everyday, opposition activists, bloggers, and other dissidents in countries with limited freedoms are detained or killed with little outside support and only with a few international NGOs advocating campaigns on their behalf. Burma has a particularly nasty track record on the index of civil liberties according to Freedom House, garnering one of the worse ratings for freedom by the rights' organisation. More recently, in Syria and Bahrain, arbitrary detentions and torture of suspected opposition activists and their associates have become the norm. Yet the mass movements in the Arab world sparked in Tunisia has resulted in a change of popular consciousness whereby people realize that collectively by casting off fear they have power to cast off bad governments, revolution.

In countries where governments create an atmosphere of public fear through secret police mechanisms, arbitrary arrests and the threat of detainment or violence, individuals are careful not to challenge their governments because they don't know whether their neighbors are informants who would turn them in for dissent. On the flip side, what individuals living in such an atmosphere probably don't realize is that many of their neighbors are probably as equally dissatisfied with the current political state of affairs as they are but given that no one voices it that status quo prevails. Furthermore, repressive governments are usually quick to make examples of individual dissidents as seen in the case of Milli and Ai Wei Wei. Dissidents and opposition activists only have force if they're popularly backed, but this requires collective courage from an entire population and the willingness of individuals to put their neck on the line or an individual with such powerful charisma he or she inspires collective action. Such movements are not always successful as seen from the 2007 anti-government protests in Burma, the so-called 'Saffron Revolution' which ended with the military junta willing to talk to the opposition but unwilling to cede any power. A pyrrhic victory. More recently, Libya portrays the potentially heavy costs of challenging a dictator, all out bloody civil war.

We hail individual courage and martyrdom for a cause. In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi has become an international hero for wanting to bring democracy to her country and having paid the price with nearly 15 years of house arrest until her release in 2010. The more iconic image of Buddhist monk, Thích Quảng Đức, committing an act of self-immolation in protest of the persecution of Buddhist monks in Vietnam back in the 1960s is also very telling of the sympathy popular consciousness has for those dying for an idea, a human sacrifice in the name of protest. The public reveres those who can and will sacrifice their lives and livelihood if it means saying 'No' to a system which does not acknowledge the uniqueness of human individuality and giving us a life worth living.  It is the choice of defining what type of life is worth living and what gives us meaning through the recreation of our political systems and the right to express our beliefs openly.

Not everyone is willing to take the risks. When the choice is between your life, the life of your family and friends, keeping the roof over your head and having the job which will feed your children, most of us would pick survival over challenging a repressive regime or they would challenge the status quo but only from the apparent safety of exile. The question all dissidents must ask themselves is if what they believe in is worth the costs and, if it is, whether they have the courage, tenacity, and creativity to inspire others to join them.