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Some of the most celebrated social justice victories of the 20th century are attributed to the great pacifists of our time, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. This constitutes a historical whitewash, as these “victories” were achieved when the state weighed its options and chose the lesser of two evils: the pacifists. In this segment Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, Aric Mcbay, Harjap Grewal, Gord Hill and Peter Gelderloos deconstruct the Gandhi myth and show us why militant action plays an important role in movements of resistance.
Music by stig inge oy. and CJ Boyd
George Orwell had similar views on Gandhi that you might want to mention, since Orwell is so popular.
http://www.readprint.com/work-1260/Reflections-On-Gandhi-George-Orwell
This is great.
Thanks stim.
Another amazing video adaptation of the awe/dread inspiring Endgame. Brilliant.
Yes… brilliant work Stim.
I enjoyed this clip. I think it is important to recognize the different facets of a struggle. Many times people believing in non-violent action will dismiss and hold with disdain those who accept violence as a method of change. And that is wrong. People supporting a cause are too diverse to hold to one method. This is a good thing because one method alone will not succeed in profound social change by itself. The pressure for change must be from all sides.
Personally, I’ll be on the non-violent side because that is my personality, but I’ll not dismiss or belittle the efforts made by those using violence as it is sometimes needed for change. I hesitate to condone all violence in any cause because I think one has to be careful here. One must differentiate between intelligent violence and people just acting with violence. When violence is undirected and random actions, it becomes more the violence of a mob then of a group trying to force change. Personally, I never seen the overall benefit of things like breaking windows and such, unless the object is simply to show that violence is not off limits?
Obviously, I don’t have the answers – I just felt like writing something.
When you find yourself having the same debate over and over again, and most people seem to have internalized the same couple of sound-bytes, that’s a good sign of a big gap in the public discourse. Nonviolence-only is one of these gaps.
The rhetoric of pacifism (not peaceful protest itself) is a serious problem for the resistance. I respect and practice peaceful protest, and I’m painfully aware that it’s not enough on it’s own.
I also advocate almost ANYTHING if the cause is just and the protestors are ready to do more than complain and beg for concessions. So with that in mind, even something as basic as breaking a window starts to look like a step in the right direction.
Strong work Stim! Keep it up!
Great work Stim,looking forward t seeing the whole film.
One thing I found a little ambiguous, was the comment that the movement couldn’t persuade people to act to make social change.
Persuasion is the whole thrust of this movie; to persuade individuals to act to make a change?
While what was said after said we aren’t dealing with individuals but faceless (sic) corporations. It pared much of the discussion with people winning on a game show. So that seemed to imply people, individuals wouldn’t change their minds because they’re to invested in the system… But I wonder if reasserting this pessimistic view of human potential isn’t self defeating?
Much of the other clips go straight to the veiwer asking when will they stand up and do something.
Of course, The clip meant, begging for our masters to see reason and give up some of their power to do what’s right for the world never works; such philathropic decisions are theirs alone, and rarely if ever, are possitively impacted by protest.
Even if they were, the way the change would happen (begging) keeps the distribution of power roughly the same; You know that means it’s not a revolution, at best it’s a reform.
Great job Thanks for being the one stop for radical video!
Around the 7 min mark I hear Gandhi was about “nonviolent PASSIVE resistance.”
WRONG.
I don’t deify Gandhi. But why mis-characterize him?