21st Century Radical - More on Protesting
Note to new guests, if any: If you're interested in proper context, please see this post and the comments section before hurling yourself into the vortex of the this one.
I posted the following at Your Right Hand Thief.
Oyster, the joyously slimey proprietor of Right Hand Thief says: "MLK's nonviolent methods will always be my template for effective protest."
I respect that. After all, in my criticism of the ever popular placid protest - the kind in which people are herded to a place where they stand around like cows and then go home - I singled out "interfere with commerce" as one of the major tenets of effective protest. Don't think for a *second* that Martin Luther King, Jr., did not understand this. He did. The bus boycott in Montgomery was such an action.
What renders The Left powerless - aside from its collective failure to understand what post-Constitutionalism means and recognizing that it is here *now* - is our failure of imagination. Protesting the way protests have always been done - or, at least the way they've been done in contemporary society - is a LOSING PROPOSITION. Once we rule out the status quo, we can begin to search *in earnest* for alternatives. But we are loathe to do it because we're all about comfort. We are lazy. And we have lost our democratic constitutional republic as a result of that laziness and cowardice. I'm sorry there's not a nicer way to say that, but that's the cold, hard truth.
The second someone suggests "What we are doing is not working and will not work," people automatically take that as a recommendation of saying "Let's do the complete opposite," -- which is most often taken to mean violent protest. Yet between non-violent protest and violent protest is an infinite array of possibilities. Think about that.
We're all so afraid of being labelled criminals that we are standing down in the face of ever-increasing tyranny. Our nation's founders would be ashamed of us, and rightly so.
One thing has become crystal clear to those of us willing to take an honest look: We can no longer condemn establishment Democrats for being "spineless" and "lacking the courage of their convictions" without indicting ourselves in the process. How can we expect of them what we are not ourselves willing to do? It's not about votes! Votes mean nothing in a corrupt system! At some point, we must do what is right or resign ourselves to failure. We cannot magically heal others, but we all have the power to heal ourselves... yet we cannot do so without coming to terms with our affliction. To deny our own complicity is to deny nothing less than truth itself.
I posted the following at Your Right Hand Thief.
I am a radical. I have been made a radical because what used to be called "radical" has become mainstream. I didn't change; the political landscape of my country did.
What The Left does NOT understand is this: The revolution has already occurred. Genius, isn't it? A revolution sponsored by the Fascist Right, and nobody's said a word about it since Newt Gingrich. No wonder they threw him out - he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Even the Fascist Rank & File don't get it, because their elites know their very successful revolution can only last as long as their footsoldiers harbor the illusion they are oppressed by liberals. Hence, the permanent victimhood status by the True Believers on The Right.
Think about what post-Constitutionalism means. It changes everything. This isn't about theory or "going down the slippery slope." It's about what's going on right now. Until we start fighting like we mean it, America is doomed.
Arvin Hill | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 11:17 pm | #
Oyster, the joyously slimey proprietor of Right Hand Thief says: "MLK's nonviolent methods will always be my template for effective protest."
I respect that. After all, in my criticism of the ever popular placid protest - the kind in which people are herded to a place where they stand around like cows and then go home - I singled out "interfere with commerce" as one of the major tenets of effective protest. Don't think for a *second* that Martin Luther King, Jr., did not understand this. He did. The bus boycott in Montgomery was such an action.
What renders The Left powerless - aside from its collective failure to understand what post-Constitutionalism means and recognizing that it is here *now* - is our failure of imagination. Protesting the way protests have always been done - or, at least the way they've been done in contemporary society - is a LOSING PROPOSITION. Once we rule out the status quo, we can begin to search *in earnest* for alternatives. But we are loathe to do it because we're all about comfort. We are lazy. And we have lost our democratic constitutional republic as a result of that laziness and cowardice. I'm sorry there's not a nicer way to say that, but that's the cold, hard truth.
The second someone suggests "What we are doing is not working and will not work," people automatically take that as a recommendation of saying "Let's do the complete opposite," -- which is most often taken to mean violent protest. Yet between non-violent protest and violent protest is an infinite array of possibilities. Think about that.
We're all so afraid of being labelled criminals that we are standing down in the face of ever-increasing tyranny. Our nation's founders would be ashamed of us, and rightly so.
One thing has become crystal clear to those of us willing to take an honest look: We can no longer condemn establishment Democrats for being "spineless" and "lacking the courage of their convictions" without indicting ourselves in the process. How can we expect of them what we are not ourselves willing to do? It's not about votes! Votes mean nothing in a corrupt system! At some point, we must do what is right or resign ourselves to failure. We cannot magically heal others, but we all have the power to heal ourselves... yet we cannot do so without coming to terms with our affliction. To deny our own complicity is to deny nothing less than truth itself.
posted by Arvin Hill at 3/29/2005 11:12:00 PM
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