"We will not go. The only way to get us there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, and drag us out and take us down there dead"
About this Quote
The phrasing does double duty. “We will not go” is plain, collective, unromantic; it sounds like a mass meeting, not a salon. Then comes the choreography of state coercion: clubs, heads, dragging bodies. The detail is strategic, not melodramatic. By naming the mechanics of repression, the speaker strips the regime of its favorite camouflage - the fiction that force is just “law” being carried out. The subtext is an accusation: if you claim legitimacy, show your hands.
The context implied is a standoff: forced removal, relocation, eviction, deportation, or conscription - any scenario where authority expects obedience because it has uniforms. Morning Star answers with a moral dare. If the state proceeds, it proves the protesters’ case; if it backs down, it concedes power to organized refusal. Either outcome shifts the terrain from policy debate to legitimacy crisis, where the violence isn’t incidental but the argument itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Human Rights |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Star, Morning. (2026, January 18). We will not go. The only way to get us there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, and drag us out and take us down there dead. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-will-not-go-the-only-way-to-get-us-there-is-to-15531/
Chicago Style
Star, Morning. "We will not go. The only way to get us there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, and drag us out and take us down there dead." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-will-not-go-the-only-way-to-get-us-there-is-to-15531/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We will not go. The only way to get us there is to come in here with clubs and knock us on the head, and drag us out and take us down there dead." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-will-not-go-the-only-way-to-get-us-there-is-to-15531/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2026.




