Price of Liberty is The Everlasting Eternal Vigilance

Enghelab e Aram - Tranquil Revolution

Bahram Maskanian

Silence makes rational thinking and reasoning easy and possible. Silence prevents attacks and disruption brought upon those who wish to share their peaceful message with others. Silence encourages and increases concentration and the absorption of messages for change. Silence forces and galvanizes peaceful assembly and demonstration.

Silent mass public demonstration elevates the respectability level of the marching crowd, higher than that of the crowd-control police or guards. The spirit of calm mass uprising automatically generates respect and elevates the crowd to a higher position and importance, over and above the security forces. Calm mass uprising will encourage the crowd-control police not to act with force but rather with respect towards the protesting calm crowd.

Massive Non-Violence, Complete Calm and Absolute Silent Uprising is the remedy for the liberation of Iranian people from the shackles of the mullahs' regime. It would shake the regime to its core. It would destroy the crumbling foundation of the Islamic Republic and pulverize the mullahs’ tyrannical rule. The overwhelming and powerful sight of a Massive Non-Violence, Complete Calm and Absolute Silent Uprising would put the fear of god in the heartless mullahs.

Failure or success of any massive uprising for change rests upon the behavior and presentation of those who wish to make the change. The message and its delivery system must be unambiguous and clear. The opposing forces of any such change will do whatever they can to disrupt and derail such uprising. The only way that a righteous uprising can succeed in a tyrannical ruling system is by silently communicating the message of hope and change.

Imagine the captivating powerful sight and silent energy of hundreds of thousands of people, shoulder to shoulder, determined and silently marching to communicate the message of hope and change. As far as the eye can see, people are carrying signs full of messages of peace and tranquility. The demonstrators are walking silently while communicating their message. All you can hear is the quiet hum of arms brushing against each other, the whistling of the wind blowing through the signs, the rustling of the demonstrators’ bodies, the rumbling sounds of footsteps of hundreds of thousands of people, cutting through the utter silence. The silent determination and energy underlying messages of love and hope would put the fear of God in the hearts of misguided and the hope and love and life in the hearts of the righteous.

Massive Non-Violence, Complete Calm and Absolute Silent Uprising is non-threatening and yet silently powerful. It does not agitate and it does not give the enemy ammunition to attack and violate people’s rights. Subconsciously it generates enormous amount of respect and a natural reaction of backing down.

Any other form of protest may cause disruption and acts of violence due to the nature of communication. The messages of traditional forms of political, social protest are usually carried out by loud chanting, political rhetoric, symbolic slogans, arm waving and other bodily gestures, all of which may be perceived as violent moves on the behalf of the protesters. Those who witness such demonstrations can easily become distracted and lose track of the message due to the noise and physical activity. The message becomes muddled, misunderstood and is eventually lost to the public.

Consequently, in addition to the loss of message, the protest will turn into a disorderly conduct and be perceived by the public as violent civil disorder. Those in charge of peacekeeping are easily agitated by the noise and provoked into using force against the protesters. As a result, the protest turns into a criminal activity and the message gets lost.

There are two different kinds of violence, one is unintended and the other is caused by planted individuals to provoke and cause violent behavior within the crowd. While demonstrating in a Massive Non-Violence, Complete Calm and Absolute Silent Uprising environment it would be easy to root out the agitating individuals planted by the enemy. When amongst calmly marching people, any person or persons shouting propaganda causing disturbance, tending to break shops’ windows, burning peoples’ cars, thus providing the necessary excuse for authorities to attack the demonstrating public, it becomes easy for all others demonstrating peacefully to identify and root out the enemy elements.

For every one person participating in a massive uprising, there are thousands who are agreeing and watching before taking action. I like to call them the silent majority. This silent majority needs to stay focused and understand clearly what type of message of change they are hearing and supporting.

We must have freedom from fear to become a proud and confident nation who can vote its hopes and inspirations, not its fears.