Civil Disobedience Training

March 17, 2003 10:33 AM

Civil Disobedience Training (html version), The Handbook for Nonviolent Action and Civil Disobedience Training, Nonviolent Action Handbook, and Non-violence Discipline. And then there's that crackpot who wrote in the Dhammapada that "hate is not overcome by hate; by Love (Metta) alone is hate appeased. This is an eternal law." One imagines other texts on the timely topics of peace, nonviolence, and war resistance may exist -- Martin Luther King pointedly noted, "there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire."
posted by fold_and_mutilate (15 comments total)

There are exercises in futility and then there is the futility workout. It's not like anyone in power gives a frogs fat ass anymore, so all the breast beating about our opinions is pretty academic. How about some post-apocalyptic survival training?
posted by jonmc at 10:51 AM on March 17, 2003

I don't think effective civil disobedience is concerned about what people in power think at all, it's to force them to give up the goods. I've been lucky enough to be part of actions in Seattle that occurred precisely because our Mayor or School Board didn't give a frogs fat ass about our opinions. And they have been very effective.

Now there's the question about whether or not there is much effective anti-war civil disobedience going on lately.
posted by Slimemonster at 11:07 AM on March 17, 2003

the people in power never give a frogs fat ass unless it happens to belong to the commoners.
posted by quonsar at 11:41 AM on March 17, 2003

How about some post-apocalyptic survival training?

Three words, jonmc: full dental implants.
posted by y2karl at 11:51 AM on March 17, 2003

¡viva revolution!
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 12:00 PM on March 17, 2003

In line with the teachings of the "crackpot", there was a more recent fellow from that region of the world who said "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves everyone blind and toothless." IIRC he was an expert in civil disobedience too.
posted by ilsa at 12:59 PM on March 17, 2003

It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks, before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman empire."

What current law(s) are we referring to here for a citizen of the USA?

My bible is still allowed in my home. So is fellowship with like minded Christians. God, self, family, then law of the land.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:15 PM on March 17, 2003

"Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau.
posted by homunculus at 4:31 PM on March 17, 2003

¡viva revolution!

What the heck is going on here? Is it lack of time?
posted by hama7 at 3:49 AM on March 18, 2003

C-SPAN video - United for Peace and Justice Rally - Training for Anti-War Demonstrations - (RealPlayer)
posted by sheauga at 5:37 PM on March 18, 2003

Look, I've got all the training I need. Just lemme at 'em.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:49 PM on March 18, 2003

A good point is made in this article against escalating the anti-war demonstrations:

The larger problem with such protests isn't that they could help Bush, Berman argues, but that they could hurt Iraqis. Whether or not war is advisable, he says, once it has begun, the question becomes whether Bush will sell out the liberal aspirations of Iraqi reformers, installing a pliable military regime, rather than undertaking the costly job of helping Iraq build its civil society. The problem, he says, is that the debate about war has become so polarized: Just as supporters don't see an invasion's potential disasters, so war opponents can't conceive of anything positive emerging from it -- and thus won't fight to hold Bush to his promises of Middle Eastern democracy.

"There's a chance that there's going to be a good result, which would be the liberation of the Iraqi people, possibly with good effects for other people," Berman says. "This possible consequence depends very largely on what the United States does. If your feeling about Bush is, as mine is, that you don't trust him to make the right decisions, what you want to do is press the government to do the kinds of things that will lead towards [a democratic] result. Instead, there are a lot of people who are imagining that they can perhaps force the United States to withdraw its troops."

We've already seen how willing Bush is to sell out the Kurds. Perhaps its time to shift gears, and rather than protesting against the war, it's time to protest in favor of the peace and following through on our commitments.
posted by homunculus at 11:18 PM on March 18, 2003

Antiwar movement should shut up about 'shutting it down' – before the state shuts us down
posted by homunculus at 10:21 AM on March 19, 2003

brilliant posts homunculus.
posted by namespan at 10:36 AM on March 19, 2003

Metta-Filter. (hah!)
posted by namespan at 10:39 AM on March 19, 2003