Having launched this hitherto exhuberant thread on civil disobedience,
perhaps I should follow up on a few conspicuous pitfalls.
1. Symbolism. A 'symbolic' act of resistance sounds to me like an
equivocation. Or worse, like yet another one of those 'simulations' that
Baudrillard describes as making up the post modern world: shall we say
Disneyland for dissidents?
Could we speak instead of a zen of disobedience in which the 'target' is not
media coverage or self-vindication but the citizen's ARREST of the state? It
may help to think of the 'disobedience' as almost entirely incidental.
_Almost entirely_, because because the renegade state compulsively piles
regulation on prerequisite (in the name of deregulation!) so that ultimately
'obedience' isn't even feasible. To comply with law A, one must break law B,
etc.
2. Despair. The catalogue of vices is inexhaustible. Breaking out of the
infinite loop of objective critique requires an act of subjectivity. How do
we know that our subjective act isn't merely narcissistic? Can we ever have
sufficient grounds to act in view of the certainty that any act contains a
residue of self-reference?
"To be or not to be?" as Hamlet put it.
Probably all the great crimes against humanity were committed by people who
imagined they had found a way around -- or through -- this dilemma (cf.,
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment). The small crimes may have been committed
by people who didn't realize there was a dilemma. What we need to do is wind
the dilemma tight like a spring and power our actions from the discharge of
the tension.
3. Cynicism. "How many do-gooders are off on a big power trip?" That's a
valid question. However, it may also be the foundation of a twisted
counter-ethics in which those who profess base motives are held in highest
esteem because at least we can be assured of the 'integrity' of their
motives and actions. We've seen such a rush to ethical limbo in the
well-orchestrated and well-financed campaign against 'political correctness'.
As Dante described, Hell is a complex place. The proposition, "the road to
Hell is paved with good intentions", doesn't prove the corollaries that "all
roads paved with good intentions lead to Hell" or "the road away from Hell
is paved with bad intentions."
Regards,
Tom Walker
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Vancouver, B.C.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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