violence / revolution
You don’t kill the movement by killing the man; you hand the movement his ghost. Worse, it gives his allies carte blanche to crack down harder, scream about “lawlessness,” and tighten their grip in ways the system can’t easily reverse. Nonviolent resistance doesn’t just look better — it works better, because it leaves the institutions intact and... See more
Democracy Bleeds Out When Violence Wins
I have learned to take the construction work of organizing as it comes, creating things that I believe have to exist, and working with others to build containers, organizations, and projects that I believe the world needs. I am always dreaming up new ideas and making things, because the world is not transformed primarily by what we think of it.
... See moreKelly Hayes • Let This Radicalize You
Revolt can take place on purely ideological grounds, sometimes in full awareness that it will largely fail, yet manage to leave a crucial legacy behind it for the next revolt to build upon.
reaking the Cycle
If we are serious about preventing bloodshed, we have to stop treating each explosion of violence as a meteor strike and start dismantling the systems that make explosions inevitable.
If we are serious about preventing bloodshed, we have to stop treating each explosion of violence as a meteor strike and start dismantling the systems that make explosions inevitable.
The Violence Before the Violence
Mass struggles have come to rely too much on street protests, Chenoweth observes, and to neglect the “quiet, behind-the-scenes planning and organizing that enable movements to mobilize in force over the long term, and to coordinate and sequence tactics in a way that builds participation, leverage, and power.”
The Problem With America’s Protest Feedback Loop
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
— Mao, Report on... See more
Lukas Ungersubstack.comNONVIOLENCE is an orphan among democratic ideas. It has nearly vanished from public discourse even though the most basic element of free government—the vote—has no other meaning. Every ballot is a piece of nonviolence, signifying hard-won consent to raise politics above firepower and bloody conquest.
Taylor Branch • At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68
Just take a step back and ask yourself: Is sending this tweet, posting this insta story, issuing this inflammatory text like a press release to my right-wing Dad or left-wing aunt putting us on the path to passing comprehensive gun control legislation? Or achieving universal mental health care? The cost of getting a tangible policy win is often
... See moreThe Folk Theorem states precisely this. As the time horizon gets longer, people are more and more able to approximate full cooperation.