Army of None Review - Counterpunch August 17, 2007
“Army Of None”
And The Strategy Of Non-Cooperation
By Paul Rockwell, In Motion Magazine
Oakland, California
O.K. I admit it. Sometimes I watch Dr. Phil, the pop psychologist on TV. There is one episode, if I remember, where Dr. Phil is consoling a battered woman, whose husband beats on her from time to time. The family gets along for a few weeks at a time, but sooner or later, big boss breaks his promise and continues the violence. All her complaints and pleas for change, her efforts to curry favor and appease him, have failed. And after years of disappointment, she wants Dr. Phil to help her. Dr. Phil listens. He takes her hand and asks a simple question:
“You tried to change his mind. How’s that workin’ for you?”
“It isn’t working, Dr. Phil,” she says. “He makes promises, but nothing I say really changes his behavior.”
Dr. Phil looks at her. He pauses and then says: “If you want different you gotta do different.”
Electoral politics are not working in America. We keep going back to Congress. Congress makes promises, yet the violence continues. If the peace movement wants different, it has to do different.
