Human nature. We need living people to tell us what happened the last time something happened society-wide, else we forget and repeat the same mistakes. It’s the whole hard times make strong men thing. It’s on about an 80 year cycle. The good news is that we’re right at the point in the cycle where real changes are easy to make.
Read the book The Fourth Turning for many examples of the pattern repeating.
No, I’m saying that Stonewall was a singular event in a larger movement. I’m saying that indiscriminate disruption only turns everyday people against a cause as you are making their days worse. I’m saying that choosing your targets and your disruptive protestors to be disruptive is a skill.
Several months before Rosa Parks chose to sit at the front of a bus, an unmarried pregnant young black lady did the same thing. The Civil Rights movement chose not to elevate her and make her arrest a big deal, because it wouldn’t have been bad optics. They waited and picked a nice old lady coming back from work, someone unimpeachable to turn into a national story. They didn’t say “all protest is good protest” and throw their entire weight behind a figurehead that could be easily torn down.
So if you think all protest is good protest, then by all means, put on your “Palestine lives matter” T-shirt and start throwing rocks through people’s windows in broad daylight. Your cause is so just that people won’t help but join you, right?
I’m not writing the whole history of the gay rights and civil rights movement, do your own research, but I’ll share this article for an overview:
So you think squirting people with water pistols is more effective? It was an either/or question.
Or maybe a different, historical hypothesis?
You’re a Roman Senator, trying to gain support for election. Do you
a) give bread to plebians with your name carved into the crust or
b) have your personal guard beat anyone that doesn’t promise to vote for you?
People love trotting that quote out, don’t they? They hide behind it, defending their ineffective protests and their unwillingness to improve. Any criticism and here we go, it’s time to blame “the White moderate”.
They think that gay rights started and ended with the Stonewall riots, ignoring how veterans of the Civil Rights movement taught the gays when and how to protest effectively. Protesting is a skill, and ignorance of that skill harms the cause.
Sometimes the people they work with, services, and customers need to be inconvenienced.
Thats what I’m advocating for. Targeted disruption is necessary. Indiscriminate disruption is harmful to a cause.
If your cause is so just that random people automatically empathize with your protestors as soon as they are aware of the protestors, no matter how much the protestors make their day worse, then what’s the point of disruption?
Clearly they’re just waiting to be made aware of your cause, just say hi and they’ll join you. You’ve already won, go forth and make changes with your broad support of the population.
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I’m not saying effect nobody, I’m saying that the right people need to be effected. Effect the wrong people and you just make enemies.
Not all protest is good protest. Criticizing the form of protests is valid.
Block a random highway and all you’re going to do is get people mad at your cause for making them late for work. Those people could be future allies that are getting driven away.
What’s a more effective protest, people holding signs handing out cookies, or people holding signs squirting passersby with water pistols?
It’s “We” because “you” aren’t the subject of the article, it’s “We (the People).”
And you don’t think America is an empire? That’s a wild take on this site, most people treat that as a given.
I think Marx’s stance on religion is the greatest factor that has prevented communism from widespread acceptance. Religious communes have been operating for centuries, and (as shown by the OP), their morals align very well. Christians should have been Marx’s greatest allies, but instead he chose hard-line atheism.
Have you ever read Tolstoy?
His The Kingdom of God is Within You discusses how communism without religion is doomed to fail due to the lack of a moral compass beyond instituting communism. I thought it was very moving and persuasive.
Exactly, the Bible had reincarnation in it before churches and priests got involved. You can still find a few snippets, like some people asking if Jesus was the reincarnation of Elijah.
Telling people that all is forgiven on death and the point is to just do your best doesn’t collect tithes.
Agreed, but I do feel like some sort of radical when I say to just read and follow Jesus’s teachings.
I finished The Kingdom of God is Within You, I really enjoyed it. The book aligned with many of my prior beliefs about Christianity and the Church, which was very validating. I appreciated the insight into the state of eighteenth century Russia, which I never want to visit. And lastly it made me deeply consider how much my current job makes me a party to violence. You’re right about it potentially making someone an anarchist.
Thank you again for mentioning it.
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You have fun charging your phone, I’m charging the capacitors I embedded into my knuckles.
I thought you were talking about the Adam Sander movie Spaceman
So’s the 👌hand sign, I suppose I’m going to get dogpiled for that too?
Look outside, (big ask for this website), we’re literally in hard times made by weak men.
I swear, this site is worse than 4chan about groupthink. Someone uses a slightly weak example or a cancelled idiom and all your minds just shut off and you start parroting your self selected propaganda.