Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Leah Libresco Sargeant's avatar

One of the other reasons I oppose this tactic is it's profoundly destructive of human life without being in any way correlated with rightness of a cause. A world where people kill themselves both for Gaza and the Israeli hostages isn't helped in discernment by summing the supportive deaths on each side.

I think some of the romance of it comes out of the Civil Rights movement and the real moral weight of people enduring violence nonviolently for the sake of justice. And MLK realized that when police *didn't* respond to sit-ins with beatings, but with non-violent arrest or simply closing the lunch counter, he lost momentum. That's why he went to Birminham, where non-compliance was most likely to be met with brutal violence.

But I think it remains significant that his non-violence extended to himself—he never chose violence thought he chose to walk into the path of violent, vicious hatred. And nowadays, the police _are_ more careful—the highway blockages for Gaza would draw more sympathy if they were shot, but the police quietly arrest them, and instead of being underdogs, they just read as obstructionists.

Expand full comment
Maximus Lee's avatar

Sorry but,

“no impossible.” here seems little bit confusing. Maybe you meant “nigh-impossible”?

Expand full comment
7 more comments...

No posts