Here, I disagree with El Akkad somewhat:
Because the individual cannot be allowed to walk away, cannot be afforded an all-encompassing right not to participate. Not when the entire system depends, in a very existential sense, on continued participation, on ever-increasing participation.
Daily we are told there is nothing better than this. Our graphics cards and loafers arrive at our doorsteps the same day we order them—what more is there to want? We hurtle from shock to shock, bubble to bubble, oriented in the direction of complete ecological collapse and a future mortgaged beyond any hope of repayment. Yet we are told the most frightening thing is not this building chaos, but rather the possibility that any other course might end in secret police and breadlines.
It does suck that there is nothing better than this, and I agree that people have a right to not participate. However, the secret police and the government impunity are worse than the building chaos and hurts everyone, as we’ve seen, especially for people speaking up for Palestine.
This is not to say that this is on the people that didn’t participate, though. Just that, now that we’re here, the specific secret police outcome actually is worse than what we had before. The genocide is also worse, though of course, it was bad enough under Biden to think, oh, there is no difference on this issue between Harris and Trump.