Civil Disobedience

Civil Disobedience: An Overview of Nonviolent Resistance to the State
                        
 
For starters, let us define our terms:
 
civil -  pertaining to citizens; humane, considerate, kind.
 
disobedience - refusing or failing to obey orders.
 
nonviolent  - not using physical force or strength to cause injury.
 
resistance - the act of opposing or refusing to comply.
 
State -  supreme ruling power of a country.
 
Putting these definitions together, our topic may be defined as the gentle, but firm, refusal of the inhabitants of a community to follow the political laws promulgated by its government.
 
Why is this an important subject to readers of Strike The Root? It is significant because, as Gene Sharp has stated:
 
No government can exist for a single moment without the cooperation of the people, willing or forced, and if the people withdraw their cooperation, the government will come to a standstill . . . . Even the most powerful government cannot rule without the cooperation of the ruled.
When people refuse their cooperation, withhold their help, persist in their disobedience and defiance, they are denying their opponent the basic assistance and cooperation which any government or hierarchical system requires. If they do this in sufficient numbers and for long enough, that government or hierarchical system will no longer have power. This is the basic political assumption of nonviolent action. [1]
 
Of course, people may choose to fight the State by employing violence: shooting government agents, throwing bombs, blowing up government buildings, but are they really doing anything to accomplish their goal of ridding themselves of the State? Can the idea of the State be affected by forceful means? No. The State is a state of mind, an idea which cannot be harmed by violence. Ideas can only be attacked with better ideas. What the State idea has claimed for itself over the ages is "legitimacy": the idea that society requires some form of political government to survive and thrive.
 
It is impossible that the idea of "legitimacy" be attacked with force. Even if an insurgent movement were to be successful in overcoming the military and police of the State, wouldn't the rest of the population still believe that some sort of government was necessary? State legitimacy can only be destroyed when sufficient numbers of people come to view government actions in the same moral light as that of the individual. If this moral leveling is not brought about, if this delegitimization is not accomplished, then violent revolution must inevitably fail, even if it were successful in battle. The destruction of State legitimacy must precede the advent of violent revolution, and when that has occurred, violence against the State will be unnecessary. Under any other circumstances, violent revolution will only result in the replacement of one government by another. (Of course, electoral politics is subject to the same criticisms and questions: How can jockeying for positions of State power via elections possibly delegitimize the State?)
 
Gene Sharp has defined "nonviolent action" as those methods of protest, resistance, and/or intervention without physical violence, in which members of the nonviolent group do or refuse to do certain things. Sharp has categorized nearly 200 activities, from refusal to pay taxes, mass rallies, marches, and protests, to wearing colored armbands to express one's support of the protesters and one's opposition to the government. Sharp has also cataloged many historical examples of nonviolent actions. Probably the first recorded act of civil disobedience in history is the refusal of the Hebrew midwives to obey Pharaoh's order to kill male Hebrew babies in 1350 BC (Exodus 1:15-19). Their refusal to obey an inherently unjust political law highlights the relationship between conscientious objection, civil disobedience, and nonviolent resistance. The midwives did not intend to delegitimize Pharaoh's dynasty, but neither would they obey a political law which was opposed to the law of God and nature that innocents should not be killed. Hence, their refusal to act against their conscience. But to many readers of these pages, every political law is unjust by its very nature--being a dictate of the State. To anarchists and voluntaryists, if government law directs them to do what is right, they respect the law, not because it is political law, but because what it directs them to do is already right by nature, logic, and common sense. But if the law tells them to do what is wrong, they disobey or ignore it.
 
Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most celebrated and recognized advocates of nonviolent resistance, maintained that non-cooperation with evil was always a duty, and argued that the performance of duty and respect for one's conscience must always be maintained regardless of consequences. How did the Egyptian midwives know that they wouldn't be killed for refusing to obey Pharaoh's orders? They didn't. How many Russian dissidents knew in advance that they wouldn't be killed or jailed? None. But that did not deter them from doing what they saw as right. As Vladimir Bukovsky, one of them, wrote so eloquently in 1977:
 
We had grasped the great truth that it was not rifles, not tanks, not atom bombs that created power, nor upon them that power rested. Power depended upon public obedience, upon a willingness to submit. Therefore each individual who refused to submit to force reduced that force by one 250 millionth of its sum . . . .
We weren't playing politics, we didn't compose programs for the liberation of the people, we didn't found unions . . . . Our sole weapon was publicity. Not propaganda, but publicity, so that no one could say afterward, "I didn't know." The rest depended on each individual's conscience. Neither did we expect victory--there wasn't the slightest hope of achieving it. But each of us craved the right to say to our descendants: "I did all that I could. I never went against my conscience." [2]
 
Such a stance against the Soviet regime, which at that time seemed impregnable, may appear to have been foolhardy, even insane. However, as Leo Tolstoy noted, those who choose to resist, "have only one thing, but that is the most powerful thing in the world--Truth." And in the truth of nonviolent resistance we find the following pearls of wisdom:
 
"[T]he prim[ary] human obligation is to act fearlessly and in accord with one's beliefs; that one should withdraw cooperation from destructive institutions; that this should be done without violence . . .; that means are more important than ends; that crimes shouldn't be committed today for the sake of a better world tomorrow; that violence brutalizes the user as well as the victim; that the value of action lies in the direct benefit it brings society; that action is usually best aimed at one's immediate surroundings and only later at more distant goals; that winning state power" [3] should be eschewed; that freedom begins with one's self because freedom is self-control; that freedom is oriented toward a love for truth; and that all power depends upon the consent of the governed.
 
 
                                                                     ~ Carl Watner, January 2010
 
 
End Notes
 
[1] Gene Sharp, THE POLITICS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION, Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973. From Part One, "Power and Struggle," p. 64.
 
[2] Vladimir Bukovsky, TO BUILD A CASTLE - MY LIFE AS A DISSENTER, New York: Viking Press, 1977, pp. 33, 277.
 
[3] Jonathan Schell, THE UNCONQUERABLE WORLD, New York: Metropolitan Books, 2003., p. 201.
 
Terminal Cancer Patient Given Cannabis In Desperate Bid, Survives
Original article - "Both anecdotal evidence and clinical research are beginning to show the promise of cannabis in treating a variety of health issues. According to one family in the U.K., cannabis helped a dying teenage boy recover fully from complications from leukemia. The family recently appeared on the British talk show, This Morning, to discuss their experience."
'Insiders' Ramp Up the Fear Porn In Advance Of The Markets Tanking
Original article - "And when that day finally comes – when credit markets lock up, stock markets crash, or the U.S. dollar collapses – Rickards, the author of The Road To Ruin: The Global Elites Secret Plan For The Next Financial Crisis, warns in a recent interview with Greg Hunter’s USA Watchdog that access to your assets will be heavily restricted."
Global Warming Just Won't Leave Colorado Alone
Original article - "Yet another Winter Storm is heading for Colorado and as a result a Winter Weather Advisory or Winter Storm Warning cover most mountain locations for up to 14 inches of new snow."
Castillean Kangaroo Court Castrates Catalonian Referendum Funding
Original article - "HOPES of Catalonia holding an independence referendum have been dashed by Spain’s Constitutional Court today after it blocked part of the region’s budget used to fight in its argument to separate from Madrid."
Jilted Government Lovers Spat Over A Pile Of Rocks
Original article - "The local government in Gibraltar said the EU is acting like a “cuckolded husband” over Brexit. “Mr Tusk, who has been given to using the analogies of the divorce and divorce petition, is behaving like a cuckolded husband who is taking it out on the children,” Picardo told Reuters in an interview. “This is clear Spanish bullying.”"
Cannabis Governors Tell The Commander-In-Chief To Chill Out
Original article - "Governors in four states that have legalized marijuana in some form have written a letter to two Trump administration officials requesting they consult with states before making any changes to regulatory and enforcement systems for the drug."
Crooked News Network Censors Story To Protect The Deep State
Original article - "Reports this week that Obama administration National Security Advisor Susan Rice may have had a hand in “unmasking” members of President Donald Trump’s campaign team in classified documents exploded this week. Despite the reports being taken seriously by members of Congress, multiple news outlets and the president, CNN says there’s nothing to report."
Western Governments Lie About Syrian Weapons To Justify Their War
Original article - "The US-led ‘Coalition’ prepares to make its end-run into Syria to ‘Retake Raqqa,’ and impose its Safe Zones in order to partition Syria, more media demonization of the Syrian government appears to be needed by the West. On cue, the multi-billion dollar US and UK media machines sprung into overdrive this morning over reports based primarily from their own ‘activist’ media outlets."
Fauxcahontas Pays Her Female Staff Worse Than the Patriarchy Does
Original article - "The gender pay gap in Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) office is nearly 10 percent wider than the national average, meaning women in the Massachusetts Democrat's office will have to wait longer than most women across the country to recognize Equal Pay Day."
One Person CAN Make A Difference In The Nick Of Time
Original article - "Hundreds of lives were saved by a quick-thinking security van driver who drove his van directly into the path of the rampaging lorry, forcing the terrorist to lose control and crash. Heroic Santiago Cueva, 27, was sitting in his van outside the Åhlens department store in Stockholm on Friday when he saw the hijacked lorry racing down the street, mowing down everything in its path."
Oh, So You Didn't Get The War Memo?
Original article - "We are at war with China. Who knew? Apparently, the Pentagon knew. So did all the “security practitioners” from friendly nations in the Asia-Pacific region who come to Waikiki to learn the arts of this new kind of war. The rest of us may not yet have gotten the memo."
Putin Accuses US Of Plotting False Flag To Smear Assad With WMD's
Original article - "Vladimir Putin has sensationally claimed that the US is preparing airstrikes on the Syrian capital - and will pin the blame on Bashar-al Assad's forces. The Russian leader made the astonishing claim - that the US is planning to FAKE chemicals weapons attacks - during a joint press conference with the Italian President Sergio Mattarella."
Those Who Warned Of BS With Iraq Now Warn Of BS With Syria
Original article - "Former U.N weapons inspector Scott Ritter warned before the start of the Iraq war that claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction were false. Sunday, Ritter wrote that current claims that the leader of Syria launched a chemical weapons attack was false:"
Documentation That The Syrian War Has An Israeli Beneficiary
Original article - "UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05794498 Date: 11/30/2015 RELEASE IN FULL. The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad. Negotiations to limit Iran's nuclear program will not solve Israel's security dilemma. Nor will they stop Iran from improving the crucial part of any nuclear weapons program — the capability to enrich uranium."
The Dying Empire's Vassals Finally Recognize The Death Rattle
Original article - "Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Syria have attracted worldwide attention (and disgraceful plaudits) in recent days. But much less airtime is being given to his administration’s risky and increasingly barbaric military escalations on several other fronts across the world."

Further reading

 

 Reprint Rights