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Tomorrow I shall be discussing with one of my classes civil disobedience, the distinctive American political contribution of a means to protest injustices short of outright revolution (or the terrorist acts of today perpetrated both by states and resisters to same).
I shall explain how Thoreau coined this expression, employing a cross over of terms from the traditional Puritan theologies of his day that generally had chapters distinguishing between 'civil obedience' and 'criminal disobedience', with a new hybrid combining features of both -- illegal, but morally justified actions targeted at state wrongs.
I shall note the modern versions and their variants: Martin Luther King Jr.'s limiting conditions for an act of civil disobedience -- that it be an illegal act carried out: 1) publicly, 2) non violently, 3) done lovingly, 4) directed to a specific injustice with 5) the willingness to accept arrest and punishment -- and philosophic reinterpretations by John Rawls, Hugo Bedau and others who were embarrassed by King's third qualification and substituted terms such as "conscientiously" for lovingly, which raises really more problems than it solves. King is still viewed in some American quarters not as a man of conscience, but as an outside agitator who got what he deserved! One man's conscientious act is another's outrage -- as we are seeing horribly illustrated on a day to day basis with the wars in process here, there, and elsewhere. "Lovingly" has much to be said for it in a time when hatred rules the day.
Thoreau, of course, did not accept the King limitations and was an admirer of John Brown's violent raids against Southern slave owners, which precipitated the Civil War. And actors ranging from Quakers who smuggled slaves out of the South via the "underground railroad" to draft evaders fleeing to Canada did not consider themselves bound by most of the other rubrics. Call it what one wants, "civil obedience" or "social protest," short of violent revolution or terrorist confrontation, has its place at least in modern democratic societies and has even worked effectively at points in the depths of such tyrannies as Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union -- when well executed. Gandhi was a past master at goading the British troops into violent overreactions to 'civil disobedient' Indian masses marching determinedly into the Brits military lines of defense with resultant massacres that displayed the headlines in Britain that eventually led the Empire to cease, desist, and depart.
I have urged some of my email friends on both sides of the green line in Israel/Palestine to try to shift the modes of protest from violence to civil disobedience. Given the hatreds there, I don't know whether this can work. Both sides have hateful ones who would rather shoot or bomb and make up justifications for their murderous actions after the fact. Have things gone too far there now for civil disobedience to make its impact felt? Perhaps not. Israel is now under very heavy pressure to halt the tit for tat, as are the terrorists who attack Israeli civilian targets. There is a sort of 'plague on both their houses' mood at work around the world -- complicated obviously by the mad venture into 'democratizing Iraq' embarked upon by the ever more lawless Bush administration. Where these violent confrontations will end, one cannot say with assurance -- either with the Israelis and Palestinians or the Americans/Brits and Iraqis. Much suffering may lie down the road before peace finally reigns.
Perhaps our acts of civil disobedience will have to be carried out in our home countries by those of us who see the madness in these hate wars underway, which can only escalate over the long run towards ever greater human suffering? I have almost reached that point myself, although I wish I had a younger and stronger body to offer to the effort. Certainly I will join those in Central Park this summer during the Republican convention. And I hope that we shall not see then yet another terrorist event -- which is all too likely in that time slot. -- "A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy) -- Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty
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