Jack Lindstrom

Jack Lindstrom: Thinking about all the hatred unleashed at the cops yesterday makes me...

Thinking about all the hatred unleashed at the cops yesterday makes me sick. Yes, I understand that there has been police brutality, both associated with Occupy and otherwise. That still doesn’t excuse lashing out in anger. Turn the other cheek and all that.

Moreover, the cops you’re yelling at aren’t necessarily the same cops who dish out brutality. You’re generalizing them into one entity, just as their uniforms attempt to do. When I watch videos of people screaming at cops for really no discernable reason, it seems to me like, to the protesters, the cops are no longer cops or even people, but merely a symbol of the 1%, everything that’s wrong with the world, and possibly everything the protesters feel is wrong in their own lives.

As if that’s not enough, the entire way nonviolent resistance works is by manipulating the sympathies of the public via “political jiu-jitsu”. By showing police brutalizing totally innocent, nonviolent people, the public’s sympathies swing toward the protestors (as in the cases of the first Occupy protests). As soon as those protesters start screaming at—or, in one case in Los Angeles, even physically shoving the police, completely unprovoked—the sympathies of the public are only going to swing towards the police. I know mine certainly did. My heart aches for them. I’m sorry, I don’t care what they did to you or whoever else. I’m not going to sympathize with the Hatfields when they kill one of the McCoy’s even though a McCoy killed one of the Hatfields. Whoever kills or harms anyone else, for whatever reason, is at fault.

This is why some Buddhists say you have to become enlightened before trying to change society. In responding to hatred with hatred, you only unleash more hatred into the world.

Summary of book on nonviolent strategy

The Tyranny of Structurelessness, 2

The Tyranny of Structurelessness

Destruction of property is NOT compatible with nonviolent struggle

This oughta straighten out a few things around here.

From Waging Nonviolent Struggle by Gene Sharp:

Sabotage—defined for this discussion as “acts of demolition and destruction of property”—is not compatible with nonviolent struggle. Sabotage:

• demonstrates a lack of confidence in the potential of nonviolent struggle, thereby potentially weakening the resisters’ tenacity in the use of this technique;

• is a physical-material action, not a human-social action, indicating a basic conceptual shift in how the conflict is best waged;

• attempts to undermine the opponents by destroying their property, not by withdrawal of consent by the population, thereby potentially weakening a fundamental approach of nonviolent struggle;

• creates an environment in which consequent physical injury or death commonly results in a relative loss of sympathy and support for the nonviolent struggle group and the resisters’ movement in general; and

• often results in highly disproportionate repression. This repression that has been provoked by sabotage is not likely to weaken the opponents’ relative power position, nor to bring support for the resisters.

From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp—the Executive Summary

In Waging Nonviolent Struggle—also by Sharp—he says: “Leaders of the movement need to become experts on nonviolent struggle.” So if this is a leader-FULL movement, that means that we ALL need to become experts on nonviolent struggle. This executive summary—of the book considered to be THE how-to guide on taking down a dictatorship—is a start.

From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TL; DR: Competent strategic planning of political defiance is necessary in order to take down a dictatorship. To be as effective as possible, this strategy must target the dictators’ most important sources of power at their weakest points.

Why strategy is essential:

            You are more likely to end up where you want to go

            Need to maximize resources since the dictatorship has so much more

            Ensures that the current dictator isn’t just replaced by a new one

            Keeps you on the offenses instead of just responding to whatever the dictatorship does

Otherwise may just be wasting energy; just doing whatever you feel like doing isn’t likely to be enough to take down the dictatorship. It may even increase the dictatorship’s strength.

 

PROTIPS:

The movement must be nonviolent.

By using violence, you attack the dictatorship at its strongest point (i.e. military).

Don’t worry about infiltration.

Since it’s bound to happen whether you strive to maintain secrecy or not, you gain more from including as many people as possible than being closed off and allowing paranoia to destroy the resistance group.

Can’t plan just to dismantle the dictatorship; have to also plan the democratic system that will replace it or else another dictator will.

 

The dictatorship’s power lies in:

Authority: the belief among the people that the regime is legitimate and that they have a moral duty to obey it.

The assistance of the people

Material resources (incl. financial)

Punishment of those who are disobedient

 

How to dismantle these bases of power:

Delegitimize the regime’s authority (e.g. through symbolic acts)

Overcome the people’s fear and habit of obedience; increase their desire and ability to withdraw cooperation by disseminating stories that illustrate this process

Strengthen social groups independent from dictatorship (isolated individuals not members of groups usually are unable to make a significant impact)

Use strikes, boycotts, economic autonomy, etc. to restrict dictators’ material resources

First plan grand strategy, then strategies for selected resistance on particular issues, then tactics for each strategy and the methods you will use.

Grand strategy: the basic framework for coordinating resources to attain objectives.

Strategy: how best to achieve particular objectives within the grand strategy (and how to measure success).

Tactic: a limited action employed to achieve a specific objective.

Method: specific means of action (from small-scale dissent, e.g. stalling or dressing a certain way, to large-scale protests)

 

How to figure out grand strategy:

Figure out the weaknesses of the dictatorship and how to exploit them.

Sketch out the broad strokes of the entire conflict

Make the grand strategy widely known (more people will be willing to participate when they see that taking down the dictatorship is actually possible and how to do it)

Once you’ve decided on a grand strategy, do not deviate from it to emotions of the moment or minor moves by the dictatorship.

 

How to plan campaign strategies:

Acquire a thorough understanding of the workings of nonviolent struggle.

Decide which campaigns will best move the grand strategy forward.

Each campaign should involve different segments of the population to avoid burnout.

Determine how to preserve order and meet the needs of the people during the conflict.

Reevaluate and develop alternative courses of action as needed.

 

While implementing campaigns:

Disseminate guidelines to participants on when and how to withhold cooperation.

Warn participants what the risks of various actions are

Maintain nonviolence through pledges, leaflets; boycott pro-violent people

Keeping reporting strictly factual. Exaggerations will undermine credibility.

Determine how to withstand countermeasures by the dictatorship

Celebrate ALL successes, including small ones, to keep up morale.

 

Campaigns in the beginning of the struggle differ from those towards the end

In the beginning, choose attainable objectives since victories raise morale.

Weaken the people’s support of the dictatorship (e.g. reveal brutalities of the regime and

disastrous economic consequences from their policies)

In more advanced stages, restrict dictators’ power with mass popular noncooperation, then sever power completely to disintegrate dictatorship.

 

HIGH PRIORITY: It will be exceptionally difficult, or impossible, to disintegrate the dictatorship if the police, bureaucrats, and military forces remain fully supportive of the dictatorship and obedient in carrying out its commands. (However, the goal is NOT a coup d’état.)

Assess loyalty of military. What factors might make them vulnerable to democratic subversion?

Military can help through safe forms of disobedience: being inefficient, ignoring orders, offering safe passage.

 

Must concurrently build independent society/parallel government

Will take over once dictatorship falls.

Determine which aspects of the government need to be abolished and which just need to be revised.

Make sure it preserves civil liberties.

Plan ahead what to do with the former dictators (avoid a bloodbath!)

 

After fall of dictatorship:

Celebrate, but do not reduce vigilance. Utopia will not just suddenly appear. This is only the beginning point for long-term efforts to improve society.

Block attempted coups the same way you took down the dictatorship (deny legitimacy, withhold cooperation)

The formerly oppressed will now have more self-confidence in dealing with future problems.

The antidote to apathy

The great Indian Gandhian socialist Rammanohar Lohia once wrote that he was tired of hearing only of the need to change the hearts of the oppressors. That was fine, but far more important was the effort to change the hearts of the oppressed. They needed to become unwilling to continue accepting their oppression, and to become determined to build a better society. Weakness in people’s determination, and very importantly in their ability to act, makes possible their continued oppression and submission. Strengthen that determination and increase that ability to act, and these people need never again be oppressed. Such self-liberation can be achieved only through an increase in the power of the subordinates by their own efforts.

-Gene Sharp, Waging Nonviolent Struggle