I’ve been on my knees, in the muck and mire, the stench in my nostrils. I’ll stand.
Unbeatable forces force me again down, but again I stand. Pain hurts, but despair kills. I’ll stand.
Do you think yourself alone, a minority of one? Still stand. One is enough, when one is all that there is. Stand.
To stand is to make a target of yourself. Stand.
You will not win. You are doomed to fail. Stand.
Better men than you have died standing, but all men must die. Stand. Do you not wish to be counted among the better men? Then stand.
Better to live a slave than die a freeman? If you ask the question, you cannot comprehend the answer. Stand.
Today is not the day? When, then? Are you so comfortable? Do your knees not ache? Man was not built to kneel, but to stand. So stand.
You were given a priceless gift, the gift of life. Do not waste it. Stand.
They will mock as you fall. All men must fall. It is a shorter fall from your knees. But fall from your feet, so as to make a resounding echo. Stand.
You can live on your knees. You will die on your feet. Choose for yourself; I will not judge. But as for me, I’ll stand.
razorbacker
January 31, 2016
Stand
[Via a comment from Andrew Benghazi.—Joe]
Noble words, and inspiring.
But most of the dangers we face today are the slow grind of insane bureaucracy, inane people, and mindless details. There isn’t anything grand to stand up against. It’s some bored, low-IQ, petty functionary handing you a stack of paper saying “you didn’t fill out form 87-B correctly, so your application is delayed until you can prove that you have no other resources or liabilities that would disqualify your permit to replace the boards in your fence. And the new form on top of the stack is for failing to properly maintain your fence. Please take a number and come back no later than Thursday if you with to be reconsidered before next month. And the fines for failure to repair the fence are cumulative.” If you shoot them, there are three more applicants waiting for that nice cushy government job telling “rich” folks like yourself what to do while extracting their wealth.
As a neighbor of mine is finding out, issuing a building permit only takes a week or so. But to her chagrin she has been experiencing the joy and educational opportunity of the “pre-permitting” process for more than a year now. When all those hoops are finally completed, the “permit” which says all the other stuff is done, only takes a short period…. unless it doesn’t (I’ve seen that happen before during an unexpected “new permit moratorium”). How do you “stand” against that, when people who don’t have to deal with it support the laws to protect “everyone” from “the greedy developers?”
“You will not win.”
You don’t have to be able to win. You just have to make it too expensive for the other side to win.
Taking the quote in isolation, it’s like “Hope and Change”. It’s an empty scaffold into which the observer can insert his own ideas. Hope for what? Blank out. Change from what, to what? Whatever you imagine. Let’s not talk about it though because we want to feel good. Don’t kill the buzz.
Stand! For what? The whole quote could just as well come from a staunch American, or from a communist revolutionary, or a jihadist, or someone demanding Canadian bacon when the other members of the dinner party want pepperoni and sausage, or a spoiled teenager wanting a new pair of shoes.
“You can stand me up to the gates of hell, but I won’t…back…down!” — Tom Petty.
Maybe that’s the pot smoking, dysfunctional thirty year old kid with a VD who wants free tuition and “universal” “health care” and is willing to burn down a city block if he doesn’t get it. It doesn’t say.
So IF we’re going to declare our resolution to “stand” then it is our obligation to first make it crystal clear what it is, precisely, that we’re supporting.
Now it doesn’t seem so invigorating, does it? The truth is often like that. We prefer excitement, even if, or especially when, it’s empty of meaning.