Happy Fourth of July!
Today is a celebration of independence and freedom. Like many other countries around the world that mark a day when they declared or won their independence from an oppressive government.
It’s a good day to remind everyone of the history of dissident poets and the price they’ve paid. It’s easy to remember Federico Garcia Lorca and Pablo Neruda. But there are so, so many others. Chinese poets Meng Leng (repeatedly arrested) and Liao Yiwu who was imprisoned for 4 years for two of his poems. And recently Russian poets Artyom Kamardin seven years and Yegor Shtovba and five and a half years in prison.
The United States has been relatively a haven for poets and other artists and writers due to the broad protections of free speech under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. …but many among us do not appreciate free expression and look to end it. When you look at the history of dissident poets and what their “crimes” were, you can then compare it to literary giants in this country and how many of our celebrated poets would have been jailed. Denise Levertov, Audre Lourde, Sam Hamill, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and the list goes on and on. In fact, most poets would be at risk in this country if we did not have a 1st Amendment. You think I’m kidding, or that I’m being hyperbolic, and I am not.
What dictators and authoritarians fear is dissent. They fear it, and they see its seeds everywhere. They do not understand metaphors, experimental work, hybrids, or anything outside plain, very plain language, and even then, they are suspicious. In a police state, it only takes one phone call from anyone to report someone of “wrong doing” and then the burden of proof is on the accused. I remember meeting Meng Leng and him describing to a group of us how he would have all of his notebooks and papers and works collected by the police as they were arresting him and then having to explain everything in his writing, and when he was let go, they would not return his work. That’s just the glossy version. They were psychologically attacking him, trying to break him down, interrogations that went on for days, always the threat of death.
So even if you think you’re safe, that you’ve never written anything that YOU think is a threat to an authoritarian regime, understand that it doesn’t matter. Police states and authoritarian regimes thrive on the fear of the people, and making examples of people, even innocent people—it is all part of the plan. The entire government is run with the idea that you could be arrested at any time. Previous heroes of the state to lowly factory workers, it doesn’t matter.
In this country, you hear a lot of huff about inflation, gas prices, rent, and whatever else can be complained about. In a democratic society, you have the freedom to report those circumstances, to complain about them, to openly think out loud about solutions, and to organize around those ideas. All of those things exist (sometimes much worse) in an authoritarian regime, you just are not allowed to do any of the subsequent actions I described. So, nothing gets better, it only gets worse.
It's the Fourth of July, today. Enjoy the freedoms previous Americans have afforded us. Tomorrow is the Fifth of July and you must think about the freedoms you want to afford Americans in the future. And you must think about how you will make sure those future Americans have those freedoms.
Best,
Bear
Thank you.