Socialism

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Beehaw's community for socialists, communists, anarchists, and non-authoritarian leftists (this means anti-capitalists) of all stripes. A place for all leftist and labor news and discussion, as long as you're nice about it.

Non-socialists are welcome to come to learn, though it's hard to get to in-depth discussions if the community is constantly fighting over the basics. We ask that non-socialists please be respectful and try not to turn this into a "left vs right" debate forum by asking leading questions or by trying to draw others into a fight.

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‘Protest Is the Tool by Which We Realize Our Democracy’ (fair.org)

submitted 2 years ago by OneRedFox@beehaw.org to c/socialism@beehaw.org

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

Respectfully, I don't think that's the case.

Violence is the tool by which we realized our democracy. You get 100,000 people together with guns and legislators will actually listen. You get 100,000 people together with signs and funny pink hats, they'll just laugh at you until you leave.

The only protest that would change things is a country-wide general strike, and Americans are too impoverished or immersed in ideology to consider it.

[–] The_Terrible_Humbaba@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

I don't mean to imply that you are inherently wrong, but when people mention violent revolution, I am always reminded of this excerpt from in the "Afterword" of Emma Goldman's "My Disillusionment in Russia":

Applied in practice it means that the period of the actual revolution, the so-called transitory stage, must be the introduction, the prelude to the new social conditions. It is the threshold to the NEW LIFE, the new HOUSE OF MAN AND HUMANITY. As such it must be of the spirit of the new life, harmonious with the construction of the new edifice.

To-day is the parent of to-morrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future. That is the law of life, individual and social. Revolution that divests itself of ethical values thereby lays the foundation of injustice, deceit, and oppression for the future society. The means used to prepare the future become its cornerstone. Witness the tragic condition of Russia. The methods of State centralization have paralysed individual initiative and effort; the tyranny of the dictatorship has cowed the people into slavish submission and all but extinguished the fires of liberty; organized terrorism has depraved and brutalized the masses and stifled every idealistic aspiration; institutionalized murder has cheapened human life, and all sense of the dignity of man and the value of life has been eliminated; coercion at every step has made effort bitter, labour a punishment, has turned the whole of existence into a scheme of mutual deceit, and has revived the lowest and most brutal instincts of man. A sorry heritage to begin a new life of freedom and brotherhood.

It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal. Revolutionary methods must be in tune with revolutionary aims. The means used to further the revolution must harmonize with its purposes. In short, the ethical values which the revolution is to establish in the new society must be initiated with the revolutionary activities of the so-called transitional period. The latter can serve as a real and dependable bridge to the better life only if built of the same material as the life to be achieved. Revolution is the mirror of the coming day; it is the child that is to be the Man of To-morrow.

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