The Right to Respond

Let us say, objectively speaking, that we are citizens of a nation that is falling. Times are getting tough and will only get worse and we want the politicians to hear our voices. We, most of us, feel our voices are being heard because there are voices we agree with on the radio, on TV and in the press. We always have the power to write our opinions online.

What happens if the state begins to restrict those rights? Will more and more people begin to rise up and protest? How many will shut up completely?

If the government of a country totally bans opposition voices from the media, censors the Internet and bans protest marches... what is left? How should the people react? Should they hold their tongues and go about their lives? Would not this simply encourage the government to stomp on them again and again?

At what point do the people of a country have the moral obligation to pick up rocks and hurl them at the limousines? To take down power lines and cellular phone towers? To do what they can to disrupt the operations of the state that has silenced them.

At what point do the citizenry have the duty to form their own army and attempt to drive the tyrants out?