alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

May 27, 2006

A Brief Note On Non-Violence

by AltHippo @ 3:42 pm. Filed under Uncategorized

I was on the Metro last Thursday urgently trying to finish the Express cross-word puzzle (bytheway: I notice they’ve taken Timothy E. Parker’s byline away. The obscure references and arcane hints continue unabated, however.) A couple of students in back of me were prattling on and on about something. So, I decided to eavesdrop.

It turns out they were discussing the principles of non-violent resistance as articulated by Martin Luther King (link: King Encyclopedia). The phrase that caught my attention was:

Nonviolent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.

I found this to be a very provocative idea. Martin Luther King didn’t say this (at least here), but Respect for the dignity of others is the underlying theme. That’s what I believe in. That’s how life should be.

But then I thought: What about Jonah Goldberg, Michelle Malkin, and Glenn Reynolds and others? Could their “friendship and understanding” be won over?

I believe it could. But, to paraphrase an old joke, the lightbulb has to want to change. From what I’ve seen the lightbulb is content with its current status. Lighted or burned out, as the case may be.

To put it in different terms: some of those on the right who we regularly criticize are not chance pundits giving their own take on life. They have recognized that their mortgages depend on evoking pushbutton arguments over race, wealth, sex, etc. They would argue that the marketplace of ideas validates their view.

Who am I to say they’re wrong?

More to follow, briefly.

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3 Responses to “A Brief Note On Non-Violence”

  1. eRobin Says:
    May 27th, 2006 at 9:02 pm

    This is the blurb for Coulter’s latest screed. You tell me where we’re going to find some common ground to build friendship and understanding. Please show me where I’m supposed to find a foothold for respecting her dignity:

    Coulter
    * Hardcover: 320 pages
    * Publisher: Crown Forum (June 6, 2006)
    Book Description

    GODLESS is the most explosive book yet from #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Coulter. In this completely original and thoroughly controversial work, Coulter writes, “Liberals love to boast that they are not `religious,’ which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism
    is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own high priests, its own saints, its own total worldview, and its own explanation of the existence of the universe. In other words, liberalism contains all the attributes of what is generally known as `religion.’ ”

    GODLESS throws open the doors of the “Church of Liberalism.”

  2. AltHippo Says:
    May 27th, 2006 at 11:40 pm

    I try to forget about my former Cornell classmate, Ann.

    (she’s either my age or two years younger depending on which bio you read.)

    There’s no short response to your point. The phenomena of extreme rhetoric gaining popular currency was not something that MLK believed would ever happen. Like Gandhi, he believed that when the acts of the more extreme representatives of the right came to popular attention, folks would be so repelled by their behavior, that they would turn away in disgust.

    Take the protest at the University of Alabama. It was the image of the hoses turned on the protestors that changed the debate.

    But how would that same event be portrayed in this time by Fox News? Do you or I have any doubt that Shawn Hannity would describe this as a victory for segregation?

    I don’t think MLK foresaw the advent of right-wing media.

    I had written a follow-up post, but after reading your comment, what I have on my desk right now is too meandering.

    Now, I got some blogging to do.

  3. eRobin Says:
    May 28th, 2006 at 9:50 am

    I don’t think MLK foresaw the advent of right-wing media.

    He had seen Goebbels so I know that he saw what we’re seeing now. He was the victim of smear campaigns himself via Cointelpro. What I don’t think MLK foresaw was the collapse of responsible journalism in the United States.

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