Rabblerouser: an analysis

"A little rebellion now and then ... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." - Thomas Jefferson

The word 'rabblerouser' has been on my mind lately. Consider its meaning and usage. According to the Encarta dictionary it means "someone who stirs up anger, violence or other strong feelings in a crowd, especially for political reasons." Synonyms given are: agitator, pest, menace, scalawag, firebrand. Sounds pretty negative, huh? It is usually used in a perjorative context. Not a desirable label, apparently.

Or is it? How much do you want to bet that the founding fathers were labeled rabblerousers? They're a pretty respected bunch now. How about civil rights pioneers like Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X? Hard to say much against them either.

Let's look at the word again. Rabblerouser. When you break it down you get rabble and rouse. Rabble, again defined by Encarta dictionary, means "a noisy and unruly crowd of people; an offensive term that deliberately insults people lacking in wealth and status; an offensive term that deliberately insults the abilities or significance of a group of people". Put more simply, us. The general American public. We're the rabble, seen as powerless and lacking in ability or significance. Rouse is to "wake, shake someone out of apathy, or cause emotion".

Now it becomes obvious why the term rabblerouser has such negative connotations. The powers that be, the ones who hold the power in this country, live in fear of the rabble being roused from its apathetic slumber. Because guess what? We're not nearly as powerless, insignificant and lacking in ability as they (or we) believe. This country was built by individuals who banded together and exercised their collective power in the face of unbearable tyranny, and for their efforts they won their freedom. Seems like they got some pretty positive results from their rabblerousing.

Now at the dawn of the 21st century our freedom has been and is being eroded. Once again the rabble need to be roused to action in order to restore the freedoms we once took for granted. What's changed? Well for starters, I fully expect to wind up on a CIA watch list simply for exercising my First Amendment right to free speech, i.e., writing this post and others like it. This is courtesy of the Patriot Act, the document which signed over a large chunk of our civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Funny, I don't feel any safer. On the contrary, I feel more threatened than ever before. Not from outside our country, but from within.

Remember the great line from Star Wars Episode III, when Princess Amidala says "So this is how liberty dies ... with thunderous applause." There was plenty of thunderous applause for the Patriot Act, too.

Later,
AuntieM