By Janis Kristiansen, Contributing Writer
Are you tired of all this election stuff? Political ads? Conflict? Tired of the noise? And are you just waiting until it will go back to “normal” and we can get on with our lives?
Maybe the vaccine will calm people’s fears enough so the restaurants, bars, and gyms can reopen, and we can get back to “normal”.
It seems like every election year lasts a long time, and so many people get tired of it and just hold on until the storm passes and things can return to “normal”.
Have you noticed how the governor just keeps saying “three more weeks”. Just a little longer, just a little bit more time. And then, oh no, more “data” has come out, which no one really gets to see or understand, and oopsie, we “are all in this together” and we need “30 more days” and a little bit more time, and then “we” will reassess the situation and see then if the state can be reopened.
This is the Strategy of Fatigue.
Reading the Declaration of Independence, that short but potent document, what brought the American colonists to revolt in July of 1776 was “a long train of abuses and usurpations,”……as a “design to reduce them under absolute Despotism”. Great Britain sent them tyranny and burdens over the Atlantic over a long period of time.
The King of Great Britain “called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures”, quoting the Declaration of Independence again.
The King also “refused for a long time” after more attempts, “to cause others to be elected” to offer representation and protection from the “dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within”.
After trying to address these abuses through reasonable and respectable means, and getting nothing but more abuses from the tyrant in Great Britain, the colonists revolted. They were tired, but realized what was at stake. They wanted freedom. That’s why all of them had made the treacherous and dangerous trip over the Atlantic to get to the new world. They were now not going to let the king take what they were working for, their freedom.
Fatigue is a weapon corrupt leaders can use to oppress the people with very little effort or energy on their part.
Janis Kristiansen
The strategy of fatigue is frequently used by corrupt and tyrannical leaders to wear the people down, so they will get tired, give up, and give in to the tyranny just because they are tired. This strategy has been used for thousands of years, and is designed to reduce people into compliance.
Fatigue is a weapon corrupt leaders can use to oppress the people with very little effort or energy on their part. These despots, while they are abusing their power at the helm, are just waiting for fatigue to run it’s course and the citizenry give up.
For the 16 years my husband was in the WA State House, this strategy was used almost every year. 18 to 23- hours of floor action at the end of session, committee meetings lasting all day because it was a “high priority”, and sessions that were scheduled to conclude in April went deep into the summers. Somehow they frequently needed a “special session” even though every year at the beginning of session they knew what was on the calendar for each and every day of the session.
This reminds me of kids, knowing when the school homework assignment is due, don’t do it, and then plead with the teacher and the parents that they just need a little more time, fatiguing everyone involved.
Putting legislators and staffers through endless meetings with no clear goals in sight, or goals that were constantly shifting and moving which were impossible to ascertain, this was the strategy of fatigue in full view.
We cannot give into the fatigue! We cannot give up! We must continue to tell the truth, wisely conserve our energy and use it only for where it is needed, band together, and continue to stand up for the freedoms and liberties in this nation that we are close to losing.
This is your call to action, even though we are tired. Don’t give up! Get the rest you need, trim your life to the essentials, make time to be a student of American history, and band together with us for 2021 as we give the call to action to be the light in our nation.
What is the first call to action? Read the Declaration of Independence. I recently did. I timed my self and it took 8 minutes.
Standing with you!
Janis
