Rope-a-dope

Conventional protest as cover for the real revolt

The governance mechanisms in Australia, and the West more broadly, are beyond salvage, so manifestly corrupt are they. The idea of representative democracy, wherein an aggrieved constituent could write to his or her MP and reasonably expect a considered reply, and some sort of effort made to address the given issue, had been dying slowly for many years when ‘da covid’ came along, whereupon it was summarily executed, incinerated and the ashes scattered. When the Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia’s equivalent of the US’s CDC) receives 96% of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, only a naive babe in the woods would think we can vote ourselves out of the diabolical mess we are in. When Pfizer throws some of its marketing budget behind a push for constitutional change, alongside our national carrier, Qantas who painted “Yes” insignia on a few of its planes, and the Australian Football League also felt compelled to support it (even if they have seemed recently to go cool on the idea by announcing they wouldn’t showcase it at the Grand Final), even the dullest observer should be able to tell that government and corporate entities are now almost indistinguishable from each other in their lust for ever-increasing power control over our lives.

This battle is being waged on many fronts - one of which is the World Health Organisation’s push (or putsch?) for vastly increased influence and control over countries whose governments betray their own people by signing on to the proposed International Health Regulations. For what they are worth, the UN is set to announce a political declaration about this on Wednesday 20 September 2023, and the Australian Government is running a ‘consultation’ period until Friday 24 September 2023. Take part here.

The outcomes would seem to be a fait accompli - and as such would appear to make the submission of responses to the ‘consultation’ questions a waste of time. At face value, they are - responses, no matter how eloquently or viscerally expressed, will probably have little impact on the final wording of whatever instrument is finally agreed. But at a deeper level, there may just be value in playing along with the charade.

In 1974, Mohammad Ali fought George Forman for the heavyweight boxing title, in the famous ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ bout in Zaire, and used a tactic he later described as ‘rope-a-dope’. As Wikipedia explains it:

As the second round commenced, Ali began to lean on the ropes and cover up, letting Foreman punch him on the arms and body (a strategy Ali later dubbed the rope-a-dope). As a result, Foreman spent his energy throwing punches (without earning points) that either did not hit Ali or were deflected in a way that made Foreman hitting Ali's head difficult, while sapping Foreman's strength due to the large number of punches he threw. This loss of energy was key to Ali's rope-a-dope tactic.

Foreman wasted energy while Ali conserved his own. Ali won the fight when it was stopped in the eighth round with a five-punch combo that put Foreman on the canvas. Towards the end, Ali was whispering into Foreman’s ear “is that all you got?”

As I’ve argued here and here and here, I think the most important things we should be doing to combat the threats of coercive health measures, restrictions on speech and movement, control over spending via CBDC’s and many other horrors are to create networks and communities beyond the reach of governments, a ‘parallel polis’ where connections on a local level support human flourishing in whatever ways meet the local needs - a music group, a service club, a parish, a reading club, a gardening co-op. These things can all emerge and grow without the permission and even the knowledge of the moral and bureaucratic busybodies we’ve come to despise.

If we were to abandon all conventional forms of protest, like writing to our local member, and filling in the ‘consultation’ forms, and marching in the streets, then those globalist overlord bastards (GOB’s) might become convinced that we are beaten. But they equally might begin to suspect that there is something else going on, of which they are not aware and have not planned for. In which case their paranoia might spill over into increased repression.

If we are to tackle the long and arduous task of rebuilding our institutions, from functioning drug safety bodies, to parliaments that don’t suspend themselves when faced with a sniffly nose; from human rights commissions who have something to say about locking people in their homes, to police forces who don’t instruct their officers to check the contents of coffee cups, or shoot protestors in the back with rubber bullets, then conventional civil protest, and even civil disobedience, could be our rope-a-dope tactic.

While we’re making noise in the streets and online, they might think, like George Foreman, that they’ve got us on the ropes. But in the background, we’re rehearsing that five-punch combo that will have the GOB’s staggering to their feet for a standing 8 count, with only the prospect of a citizen trial and the gallows awaiting as the knockout blow.

Of course, it could backfire - those who fill in the forms and provide their email address might be that little bit easier to round up. But I think it’s better to go down swinging. As Milton put it in Paradise Lost:

“Servant of God, well done! Well hast thou fought

The better fight, who single hast maintained

Against revolted multitudes the cause

Of truth, in word mightier than they in arms,

And for the testimony of truth hast borne

Universal reproach, far worse to bear

Than violence; for this was all thy care—

To stand approved in sight of God, though worlds

Judged thee perverse.” 

Milton, Paradise Lost, book 6