Thread: Demonstrating: Violent or Peaceful?

I shouldn't have got involved in this - I'm not the activist type really and the issue isn't that important to me (until such time as that may change). But all I'm saying is that Martin Luther King and Ghandi seem a lot more intelligent to me, and to be taken a lot more seriously, than rioters throwing molotovs. To me that's not what I'd call a 'demonstration' so much as guerilla warfare. A demonstration is to bring public attention and awareness to an idea or issue - rioting is a reaction against imminent attack or unfair infringement of rights. They both have their places - I just don't consider them both to be 'demonstrations'.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

I shouldn't have got involved in this - I'm not the activist type really and the issue isn't that important to me (until such time as that may change). But all I'm saying is that Martin Luther King and Ghandi seem a lot more intelligent to me, and to be taken a lot more seriously, than rioters throwing molotovs. To me that's not what I'd call a 'demonstration' so much as guerilla warfare. A demonstration is to bring public attention and awareness to an idea or issue - rioting is a reaction against imminent attack or unfair infringement of rights. They both have their places - I just don't consider them both to be 'demonstrations'.

Perhaps not, but I still think it's important to analyze the best way to accomplish one's goals, which invariably is either change of a bad model or protection of a threatened model. I respect MLK and Gandhi as much as the next hippy, but I don't know if clinging to their philosophies of non-violence is really going to save us from oppression. What does a non-violent protest achieve that a violent one can't? You mentioned awareness and public attention, but what does this all culminate to in order to achieve what the protestors envision?

My point being that we've been trying it that way for the last 50 years and despite all our resolve to do things correctly the police have still gone and equipped themselves for guerrilla warfare. They've escalated the conflict, free of the necessary provocation. Oppositely, it almost appears as though the police are attempting to provoke the protestors into degenerating to violence.

Non-violent protests, if publicized right, seem much more intelligent and I think taken more seriously.

They're called elections, and there is usually a dress code.