That’s just not how the world works, or has ever worked. It’s just a disarming thought thinking nonviolence will save the planet when clearly the powers that be have never had any intention to listen to nonviolent efforts.
Killing people may not be necessary, but the threat of violence undoubtedly is. If you cannot show you are able to defend yourself, there will always be a power ready to exploit that lack of defense.
Nonviolence only works when your opponent has humanity. Capital and the state do not, and never had any humanity in their ideological framework. This cannot be solved if you avoid shows of force, a war cannot be won with nice thoughts and prayers. A war is fought, and we haven’t been fighting in a long time.
It’s a depressing thought, and it shouldn’t be like this. But so it is, and the only way we save this world might be if we taint our own hands, this revulsion from violence will be our death otherwise
Respectfully disagree. Look at how much progress we have made in Europe since the second world war. We’ve done so much through diplomacy alone. Sure there has been conflict and there still is, but nothing like what it was before.
There are less wars, less murders, less crime than ever before. Prosperity is up across the board. Sure it’s not perfect and we have a long way to go, but there is so much we have done.
The current disparity between the ultra rich and the general population is a huge issue that should be addressed asap. But it should be done using the right means.
I refuse to believe the only way to stop being oppressed is to become the oppressor. It might be the US is lost in this regard, but I hold out hope. But I’m sure in Europe we can deal with it the right way, without getting violent.
Nonviolence only works when your opponent has humanity.
The point of this is that both sides need to be engaged in making a nonviolent solution happen. If only one side is on board with the process, then the result is either a lack of change or one sided violence.
Look at how much progress we have made in Europe since the second world war. We’ve done so much through diplomacy alone.
In Europe, both sides are engaged in nonviolence. Both sides are interested in diplomacy over violence, so progress can be made.
The situation between American’s and corporations (and increasingly corporate controlled government) is one where nonviolence has been met with inaction. That is a single sided engagement. The lack of both parties being engaged means the approach isn’t working anymore.
The problem is that in america, the oppressors they are trying to overthrow own literally all of the means. A select few people and corporations own virtually all of the media, virtually all agriculture (and seed producers have all farmers in a stranglehold of corruption, that is a huge rabbit hole), a very large surveillance system, virtually all popular means of organizing and communication, a majority of politicians (I consider giving public bribes to politicians directly correlating with votes on policies bought politicians), and the entire police force (see: luigi resources used vs every single other shooting every day, a special emergency line for the rich, protection of corporations like amazon in strike breaking, and the long history of the police killing union members and strikers for literally >150 years). Not to mention that now, technology has reached the point where it is engineered to be so addictive as to be detrimental to in-person communities that throughout history have done the vast majority of reform and revolution organization. Now they literally don’t even have to provide for the basic needs of people because a very small group of people control and have very deep insights into every single part of peoples’ lives.
If you look at extremely influential and corrupt entities in the EU such as deutchebank, ING, nestle, and other special interest groups in europe, they have struck a much better balance of providing for the peoples’ basic needs while still owning and controlling absolutely massive amounts of influence, laundering money, implementing governing policies directly benefiting them, etc… while not upsetting the balance enough to spark a movement. Part of this is due to the fact that compared to america, the police states in europe don’t have near the control and freedom over the general population, but that is even changing in some places here. Even then, look at the difference of nice orderly law-abiding, unintrusive protests in the EU vs the US. If people’s needs are cared for, you can pick their pockets and they will not be nearly desperate or angry enough to organize against you. Unions are being gutted all over the EU, and union membership is falling sharply while wealth inequality is again starting to rise in many places which was exactly the thing that started america down their path.
That’s just not how the world works, or has ever worked. It’s just a disarming thought thinking nonviolence will save the planet when clearly the powers that be have never had any intention to listen to nonviolent efforts. Killing people may not be necessary, but the threat of violence undoubtedly is. If you cannot show you are able to defend yourself, there will always be a power ready to exploit that lack of defense.
Nonviolence only works when your opponent has humanity. Capital and the state do not, and never had any humanity in their ideological framework. This cannot be solved if you avoid shows of force, a war cannot be won with nice thoughts and prayers. A war is fought, and we haven’t been fighting in a long time.
It’s a depressing thought, and it shouldn’t be like this. But so it is, and the only way we save this world might be if we taint our own hands, this revulsion from violence will be our death otherwise
Respectfully disagree. Look at how much progress we have made in Europe since the second world war. We’ve done so much through diplomacy alone. Sure there has been conflict and there still is, but nothing like what it was before.
There are less wars, less murders, less crime than ever before. Prosperity is up across the board. Sure it’s not perfect and we have a long way to go, but there is so much we have done.
The current disparity between the ultra rich and the general population is a huge issue that should be addressed asap. But it should be done using the right means.
I refuse to believe the only way to stop being oppressed is to become the oppressor. It might be the US is lost in this regard, but I hold out hope. But I’m sure in Europe we can deal with it the right way, without getting violent.
It’s not an oppress or be oppressed issue.
The point of this is that both sides need to be engaged in making a nonviolent solution happen. If only one side is on board with the process, then the result is either a lack of change or one sided violence.
In Europe, both sides are engaged in nonviolence. Both sides are interested in diplomacy over violence, so progress can be made.
The situation between American’s and corporations (and increasingly corporate controlled government) is one where nonviolence has been met with inaction. That is a single sided engagement. The lack of both parties being engaged means the approach isn’t working anymore.
The problem is that in america, the oppressors they are trying to overthrow own literally all of the means. A select few people and corporations own virtually all of the media, virtually all agriculture (and seed producers have all farmers in a stranglehold of corruption, that is a huge rabbit hole), a very large surveillance system, virtually all popular means of organizing and communication, a majority of politicians (I consider giving public bribes to politicians directly correlating with votes on policies bought politicians), and the entire police force (see: luigi resources used vs every single other shooting every day, a special emergency line for the rich, protection of corporations like amazon in strike breaking, and the long history of the police killing union members and strikers for literally >150 years). Not to mention that now, technology has reached the point where it is engineered to be so addictive as to be detrimental to in-person communities that throughout history have done the vast majority of reform and revolution organization. Now they literally don’t even have to provide for the basic needs of people because a very small group of people control and have very deep insights into every single part of peoples’ lives.
If you look at extremely influential and corrupt entities in the EU such as deutchebank, ING, nestle, and other special interest groups in europe, they have struck a much better balance of providing for the peoples’ basic needs while still owning and controlling absolutely massive amounts of influence, laundering money, implementing governing policies directly benefiting them, etc… while not upsetting the balance enough to spark a movement. Part of this is due to the fact that compared to america, the police states in europe don’t have near the control and freedom over the general population, but that is even changing in some places here. Even then, look at the difference of nice orderly law-abiding, unintrusive protests in the EU vs the US. If people’s needs are cared for, you can pick their pockets and they will not be nearly desperate or angry enough to organize against you. Unions are being gutted all over the EU, and union membership is falling sharply while wealth inequality is again starting to rise in many places which was exactly the thing that started america down their path.
You say that as if that diplomacy isn’t backed by the implicit threat of NATO’s proverbial ‘big stick.’