Poet Sharon Olds, sometimes dismissed as a “women’s issues/confessional” poet, understands defiance.
The early part of her work was dominated by her dysfunctional parents, but she eventually came to terms with it in a poem, and her work grew after that. Speaking as the tormented child, she wrote:
About a Vietnam War resistor, she wrote:
And a complete poem about a man awarded a Victoria Cross at the WWII raid on Dieppe:
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Bluto: Hey! What’s this lying around shit?
Stork: Well, what the hell we s’posed to do, you moron?
D-Day: War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…[pauses to remember the rest of the phrase]… the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go! [runs out, alone; then returns]
Bluto: What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re gonna let it be the worst! “Ooh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble.” Well, just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this! Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer—
Otter: Dead! Bluto’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.
Bluto: And we’re just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let’s do it.
Bluto: **LET’S DO IT!! **
Good scene.
Philip II of Macedon to the Spartans:
The Spartans answered very simply:
Regards,
Shodan
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.
– Martin Luther, standing before the Diet of Worms
“Last night I held all evil in my hand
Closed; and behold, it was a little thing.”
– “The End of Fear”
“…your mother.”
—Carl, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, “The Dressing”
Molon Labe (Come and take them) - The Spartans to the Persians
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Churchill
“The one strategy I’ve never seen fail to win a fight: When you get knocked down, get back up.” Andrew Vachss.
“If you’re going to look back on it and laugh, go on and laugh now. Save your tears for the things that deserve them.” Mom
" And here comes Hurst! He’s got… Some people are on the pitch! They think it’s all over! It is now, it’s four! "
Arkell vs Pressdram:
A “His attitude to damages will be governed by the nature of your reply”.
P “[We] would therefore be grateful if you could inform us what his attitude to damages would be, were he to learn that the nature of our reply is as follows: fuck off”.
Guard: You work, and you live. That is all. You do not complain or laugh or do anything besides work. Whatever you thought, whatever you were does not matter. You are no one now. You mean nothing.
The guard walks to one end of the group and faces the boy standing there.
Guard: Who are you?
Boy#1: (Cowering and afraid) Aaron.
The guard whales hard on him with his club, knocking him to the floor as the boy grunts in pain and falls unconscious. The guard advances to the next person in line.
Guard: Who are you?
Lily: (whimpers) No one.
The guard continues to the next person.
Guard: Who are you?
Boy#2: (fearfully) No one.
The guard reaches the next person.
Guard: Who are you?
She looks up at him for a moment, and then smiles brightly.
Buffy: (Overly friendly) I’m Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are…?
(from Buffy episode 3.1 “Anne”)
The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan
The immortal Rocky, someone beat me to Henry the V
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and THAT AINT YOU. You’re better than that!”
D-Day: War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…
(thinks hard)
Bluto: the tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!
(runs out, alone; then returns)
Bluto: What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? “Ooh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble.” Well just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer…
Otter: Dead! Bluto’s right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.
Bluto: We’re just the guys to do it.
D-Day: Let’s do it.
Bluto: LET’S DO IT!
More Rocky (Rocky III):
Rocky: What are you putting me through Adrian?! You wanna know the truth? The truth is I don’t want to lose what I’ve got. In the beginning I didn’t care about what happened to me. I’d go in the ring, I’d get busted up, I didn’t care! But now there’s you, there’s the kid. I don’t want to lose what I’ve got!
Adrian: What do we have that can’t be replaced? What?1 A house, we got cars, we got money! We got everything but the truth. WHAT’S THE TRUTH DAMMIT?!
Rocky: I’M AFRAID!!! ALL RIGHT?! YOU WANT TO HEAR ME SAY IT? You want to break me down? All right, I’m afraid. For the first time in my life, I’m afraid.
Adrian: I’m afraid too. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid.
Rocky: There is. For me, there is.
Adrian: Why? You’re human aren’t you?
Rocky: Look, I don’t know what I am. All I know is I’m a liar, and because of that Mickey ain’t here no more.
Adrian: You didn’t push him into anything! He was a grown man and he did what he had to do! And you have no right to feel guilty for what happened. You don’t! You were a champion, and you did what you were expected to do, and you did what I and everybody else thought you should do. And you wanna tell me that those fights weren’t real, that you were carried? Well I don’t believe it! But it doesn’t matter what I believe because you’re the one that’s got to carry that fear around inside you, afraid that everybody’s going to take things away and afraid that you’re going to be remembered as a coward, that you’re not a man anymore. Well, none of it’s true. But it doesn’t matter if I tell you. It doesn’t matter, because you’re the one that’s gotta settle it. Get rid of it! Because when all the smoke has cleared and everyone’s through chanting your name, it’s just going to be us. And you can’t live like this. We can’t live like this. Cause it’s going to bother you for the rest of your life. Look what it’s doing to you now. Apollo thinks you can do it, so do I. But you gotta want to do it for the right reasons. Not for the guilt over Mickey, not for the people, not for the title, not for money or me, but for you. Just you. Just you alone.
Rocky: And if I lose?
Adrian: Then you lose. But at least you lose with no excuses, no fear. And I know you can live with that.
Rocky: How did you get so tough?
Adrian: I live with a fighter.
Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova, Commander, daughter of Andrei and Sophie
Ivanov. I am the right hand of vengeance, and the boot that is going to
kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth. I am Death incarnate, and
the last living thing that you are ever going to see. God sent me.
– Susan Ivanova
“There is nothing that can be in our way, for this is Jekub, that Laughs at Barriers, and says brrm-brrm.”
-- The nomes have found a bulldozer, from the Book Of Nome, Jekub, Chap. 3, v. V (Terry Pratchett, Diggers)From Serenity:
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: *Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave. *
You can always rely on music for courage and defiance
Heather Alexander -March of Cambreadth
Cruxshdows -Winterborn (this sacrifice)
Its from south park, but it is probably the best one I’ve see. The point she is making isn’t whether you win or lose, just that you refuse to go down w/o a fight.
Then there is SiCKO
The Tony Benn interview is good too.
http://my-awakening.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-were-in-this-mess.html
(1) This position will be held, and the section will remain here until relieved.
(2) The enemy cannot be allowed to interfere with this programme.
(3) If the section cannot remain here alive,
it will remain here dead, but in any case it will remain here.
(4) Should any man, through shell shock or other cause, attempt to surrender,
he will remain here dead.
(5) Should all guns be blown out, the section will use Mills grenades and other novelties.
(6) Finally, the position as stated, will be held.
F.P. Bethune Lt
O/C No.1 Section
A set of orders that an Australian LT gave to his machine-gun section on the western front in WWI.
This is quite well known in Australian military history, and pops up in a few books
(The original written orders are at the Australian War Memorial)
From Footfall.