That is the question, and it is a hard one.  As far as I know there is no bright line anywhere, no boolean test that we can apply to the slippery slope of national moral failure.  But surely when our chief executive confesses on national television for all the world to hear that he and the entire top echelon of our national government actively conspired to commit torture, an international war crime, surely we have crossed some undeniable threshold.  

Now where are we going and what's with the handbasket?

What does resistance mean?  It's to resist the terrorist threat that--playing devil's advocate--the U.S. govt. is forced to torture.  It is their moral obligation--no matter how unpleasant the task.

And thank the good lord that some people seem to enjoy that line of work--unpleasant but necessary.

I'd see it the other way: every day we are engaged in resistance actions; but those that are enjoyable for us and everyone else around us are the...most enjoyable--and they're acts of resistance as much as building up a head of frustration and then lashing out.

I understand the need to lash out, but it always seems--to me--to produce a whole heap of negative energy.

So--resistance.  I'd suggest that the first resistance is to peer pressure--to think and act like everyone else.

The next form of resistance is in ones choice of profession.  If no one chose a profession that involves picking up a gun, there'd be no more need for guns, that kind of thing--"You are implicated by the job you do"--no "I had to do it" except in extreme circumstances (and aren't they always?)

Then there's our money.  Ignoring the tax part for a moment, where we spend our money--in a chain store or in a local store, on high quality products or tat, on valuable items or on nonsense.  (There's so much money sitting around--it could be put to better use!)

Then there's social involvement: are you (am I) involved in my local community in some way, do I participate or do I just live in my box and ignore the others--

Hmmmm....

I'd say....hmmmm.....hate and blame can be laid at anyone's feet--and will presumably be repaid in kind--hence maybe a progressive reaction to so much hate and blame is to want to throw it back--or inwards (in the devil's advocate version--!)

I'd say: to the extent that I look out for myself before all others--to the extent I behave in that way I am complicit in the system that supports my selfish ways.  To the extent I participate with others--the system is there to support us--but what if I'm a nazi?  Not very bright, maybe, but I can see the system's not working for me--or my kind--and now I'm building up a head of angry steam, I've got some moral indignation going on--and then the Grand Wizard leads a meeting, but he's anguished!

"We are complicit!" he screams.  "We allowed them dirty niggers to stomp on all that we love.  We are guilty, brothers and sisters--"

And then the scene morphs to a Stop The War meeting--and the local leader is talking about their progress and she says,

"We are complicit.  We allowed those scum-sucking parasites to--"

If the idea is to goad people into action, I always prefer something more...arousing than self-flagelation.

Whack!  Whack!  We have sinned!  Forgive us!

Ah, but there's no god to ask for forgiveness..--

So--it's a rhetorical device to argue what states should be doing--and why they aren't.  And the answer is: they (we) are complicit.  Well....of course!  The powerful are always complicit in retaining their parity of power--obsessed by it--no going down the ladder, no sliding down the greasy pole--and those that do...they might be nazis or....some other terrible kind of people--

So if I have power, I have responsibility.  And if I use my power to negative ends--or if I allow my position of power to shelter me from the negative ends of another person--without protecting those who don't have my position of power to protect them--unless I offer it, in which case the power is shared--if they want it, but often they don't, human beings--complex thoughts--driven by crazy fantasies.

I just don't think adding "we" to the bunch of people who need kicking out of their bunker--adds anything, unless it's taken at the level of individual actions--so first up, your social circle, your direct human contacts; then your economic contacts, or should it be your professional contacts; and then your social contacts--back to the beginning, but a helix not a circle...--

Gah!

Okay, I think anyone who voted for Berlusconi is complicit in either their own stupidity (they don't want to be informed); or their own mendacity--or just plain confused--but how can a person be confused by Berlusconi?

That's a triple ach confusion /rant

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.