Non-Violence, Passive Resistance, and Civil Disobedience: WHAT HAPPENED?

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Did everyone sorta just give up on this?

― Figura Marius, Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:36 (twenty years ago)

PRML SCRM made me stop.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:40 (twenty years ago)

http://ca80.lehman.cuny.edu/gallery/turning_point/images/columbia_protest1.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/modernartgallery/mei68.jpg

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:43 (twenty years ago)

Seriously, it seems like violence is the new political fashion statement of this decade. Did we all just give up after South Africa?

― Figura Marius, Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:43 (twenty years ago)

People haven't stopped. It's just that non-violence doesn't make good headlines.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:45 (twenty years ago)

i'm protesting this thread with a hunger strike

― latebloomer: yes...that's a human ear, all right (latebloomer), Thursday, 16 February 2006 15:59 (twenty years ago)

Apparently passive resistance sounds really wimpy when translated into Arabic, which is one reason why it never caught on in that part of the world.

Wow, Mark Rudd on ILX.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 16 February 2006 17:41 (twenty years ago)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cf/Dhalsim_SVC_Chaos.gif

― ,,, Thursday, 16 February 2006 18:27 (twenty years ago)

It was noticed by the brighter heads among those who serve the entrenched and powerful that nonviolent protest movements designed to weaken their grip upon power relied upon moral suasion to achieve their ends. Images of nonviolent marchers being hosed, gassed and attacked by dogs, coupled with images of their dignified and unthreatening leaders asking repeatedly for simple justice, were the keystone of the nonviolent approach.

However, they noted, these same movements relied heavily on the machinery of a free press to disseminate these images and to propagate their message. All that was required to stifle these movements was to control more tightly the channels through which information about them reached the public.

This control has now been achieved by the consolidation of news media ownership and elimination or marginalization of all competing voices. It hasn't hurt to flood the public mind with a glut of cacaphonic entertainment and idiocy, either.

Until this control is broken, or an effective alternative channel is created, nonviolent protest as a national or international tool of change is as dead as a dried-up housefly on a windowsill. It can still be used to some effect in very local situations, where direct unmediated action can reach a majority of the people involved.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 16 February 2006 18:29 (twenty years ago)

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