We don't need it from our side any more than we need it from the wingers. Yet again, The Girl In The Grey Turtleneck Bra comes up with the money link. Looking to the Serbian Otpor precedent, Pax Americana writes:
Declining popular support had no effect on Milosevic's command of a massively corrupt system, with the despot's usual instruments of repression, secret police and informers. But the Otpor kids had seen what happened to other resistance movements, and learned from their failures. The fate of Tiananmen Square's democracy movement taught them not to challenge the armed might of their opponent. Seeing that Milosevic maintained control by fear, they chose a kind of cheerful insolence, methodically mocking the state's power and renouncing any ambition to political office themselves.
At the start, Otpor simply improvised, using their wits and good instincts. Later, they studied nonviolent strategy, primarily through the writings of American scholar Gene Sharp, and discovered they had intuitively done the right things. They immediately adopted Sharp's ideas as the basis for their training manuals, combining them with a natural flair for marketing - evidenced in their catchy slogans and wry humor - and the creation of a sophisticated bilingual website launched even before officially opening an office.
By choosing irony and sarcasm as their means of confrontation, Otpor's student activists not only achieved the moral and political high ground; they also clung to a fundamental belief, quoted by one of the organization's leaders from a story by Jorge Luis Borges, "Violence is the last sanctuary of the weak."
...
Against Milosevic's traditional weapons of oppression and control, Otpor used intelligence, creativity, and irony, preserving its unblemished image by refusing to align with any political party. Meeting in cafes and communicating by cell phone and e-mail, against a government apparatus that was technologically hapless, they organized a sustained and disciplined effort to create a nonviolent army.
Now, this might be a fantasy of my own; after all, it's pretty to thing that what one does is The Right Thing. But still...
When the tanks come, we need to have fresh tomatos ready to give the crews....
Readers, non-felonious thoughts? Is history any guide here?
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only one potential problem i see:
against a government apparatus that was technologically hapless,
is that how we describe our government? given the new improved FISA reality, and other programs we know about? they have much, much better control over the infomation datasphere than other govts.
there are lots of ways to imagine a nonviolent movement that works. the problem is nobody ever wants to try them seriously. in this country it's usually the marginalized few. our culture is so saturated with violence it's hard for many people to imagine any solution that didn't have at least a partly violent element. provocation is also an issue.
still, it can and has been done elsewhere, and ultimately i agree that armed resistance to an actively fascist gov't is a tough sell. missing in almost every romantic narrative of Revolution is the fact that most successful ones have a lot of financial and military help from the outside, from those actually in a position to fight against the state and not automatically lose. the people are "the people" and not "the army."
non-violence
every movement of sustained non-violence has succeeded, India, Alabama, Argentina, Philippines, South Korea, South Africa, Eastern Europe, all succeeded.
every time violence is introduced there is nothing but misery.
I think the record is clear.
Gore Portal
Alice, that is interesting. Can you expand?
And give links?
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi
himself noted that his strategy of non-violence would have worked against neither the Russians nor Nazis. It worked against the Brits because the Brits had some limits on what they were willing to do.
I would say to you quite simply that Republicans have no limits on what they are willing to do - they have no morality to speak of. The only question is what they can convince police, military and mercenaries to do on their behalf.
As an American leader once said... "make peaceful change impossible and you make violent change inevitable."
I am hopeful that the COUNTRY has limits
The 30% do not.
But the country is bigger than that.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
xan, are you proselytizing?
this showed up when i connected to the link in the post above.
http://kjv.biblebrowser.com/the/30-.htm
que pasa?
A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
lb, not xan
sorry boudat...
Me? A Quick Study, But A Slow Learner
Fixed, Woody
I need to tweak that filter. In my copious free time....
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi