My name is Mitchell, mid 30s in NYC , degree with distinction in Philosophy but I ended up working in Finance by accident, not choice. It happens and then enough time goes by while you are paying off the student loans and they promote you and promote you and life goes on. You hit your mid to late 30s and wonder what happened to your passion. I used to be passionate about politics and for the first time in a long time I am again. My influences are Gandhi, Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. I am an uncompromising supporter of justified non-violent political protest and will never participate in any violence under any condition to any other human being.
When asked to explain my position given extreme hypothetical cases, such as a madman attacking
myself or my family. I respond as follows, this is paraphrased from a philosophy paper I wrote long ago in University. "Violence between human beings is an unnatural act, as social animals it is a unnatural disposition. When it occurs it is without exception rooted in negative emotions such as fear, anger or hate. The only response to truly combat it is love which can only be expressed by the absorption of the anger or fear which must be accepted even with pain, without violent response. Fear and hate are spread in humanity by being compounded through violence to violence and like a virus it spreads person to person even by virtue of silent non-involved witness with the feeling of justified revenge. To a lesser degree the same goal of fear is felt from the media.
How is one to express love to hate ? How is one to act in the case of a weaker person being attacked ? It is a simple expression of love, a hug. Walking slowly forward with arms spread wide with peaceful eyes is an expression of love and a form of non-verbal communication that all human beings of all languages can understand. If instructed to stop, one stops. If one is spewing strong words, a request to the person talking strongly if you can hug them is an effective way to end their anger in the moment. A quick remedy to cure our shared ailment of fear, anger and hate at least for a brief moment in another but a hug must always be welcomed, it should not occur to one who does not want it to occur and should only be given in cases of non-violent restraint of violence.
In the case of political protest, the necessary ratio would be 5 to 1. An act of violence can be contained by those willing to face it and hug the violent individual to restrain them. If others also go to hug and hold the violent person, 5 people of any size can certainly contain any one person by virtue of restraining them without violence or any injury to any. The other option is the circle in which the individual is surrounded by 5:1 and contained within the group. Talking is encouraged and questioning in this situation, a perpetrator of violence to person or property, such as a rock thrower to a window, is justly restrained and questioned and presented to the police.
In the case of physical witness to violence to another by several, the only logically consistent response is to place yourself between the victim and the perpetrators. Facing the most aggressive individual of the 5 and taking the blows. The approach must always be slow, never fast for thier fear will intensify if they witness rapid approach and their violent response will also increase. In these cases, the ratio is now reversed from 5:1 against yourself as a believer of non-violence. As the blows fall you can not look away or lose for a moment the love in yourself. In these cases the blows usually stop and the aggressor becomes confused and calmer. In extreme cases the violence will intensify and the group will begin to laugh wildly with more ridiculous and extreme comments. Nothing is to be said, nothing needs to be said but a single word best whispered to only the most aggressive whom the non-violent person is closest to and the whisper is "Love"
Wow, sorry for my babble, it has been so long since I even thought about this stuff and it is still in me. For you guys and girls. I have a few comments, you should prepare for stage 2 which is ridicule. The tea party is going to work and the mainstream will bring RP out for massive ridicule, this will be harder to combat. Also you should prepare for the "sabotage supporters" that is what I call them or used to call them. This is people who will come in after you have the media attention to say purposely wrong or extreme statements for the camera. Also in large protests or rallies, watch for the individual who is trying to provoke a riot or push someone, I've seen it happen and it ends up on the news.
I had lost hope so long ago, when I was in college pre-9/11 and tried to protest against globalization. The mass media, although you may be frustrated now that they are ignoring you, they won't be much longer but the way they pick clips for the news, the are just getting warmed up now. They will find one person in a crowd of 200 informed supporters to say something ridiculous in the name of your cause, watch the cameras and listen close to the speaker and speak if they are misrepresenting RP, call them right out as a supporter of Hilary or Rudy and debate them immediately, if you disagree, and one childish Anarchist with a rock will be on your news non-stop. Many years ago I believed I could make a difference, I thought I had mentally given up on it but I saw your slogan. rEVOLution, I've read that word a hundred thousand times, how could I not have seen that...
cheers, best of luck, it feels good to have hope again...
NOT!
