#on protest

[hantologie]

Emma Goldman, The psychology of political violence

[gospelofthekingdom]

“By what right do we protest?” It wasn’t a question I had ever before considered. I was born into a family in which protest was a normal activity—protest against injustice, protest against war, protest against racism, protest against cruelty. While not by nature a person drawn to protest, as a young adult I found myself seeing protest as an unfortunate necessity. I could not watch preparations for war and fail to raise an opposing voice or refuse to participate in actions of protest and resistance. To protest was an unpleasant duty, period.

In raising the “by what right” question, [Thomas] Merton forced us to consider that protest, if it is to have any hope of constructive impact on others, has to be undertaken not only with great care but with a genuine sympathy and compassion for those who don’t understand or who object to one’s protest, who feel threatened and angered by it, who even regard the protester as a traitor. After all, what protest at its best aims at is not just to make a dissenting noise but to help others think freshly about our social order and the direction we are going. The protester needs to remember that no one is converted by anger, self-righteousness, contempt, or hatred. One has to use the hammer of protest carefully. Protest can backfire, harden people in their opposition, bring out the worst in the other. Sometimes this may be necessary—consider the confrontations that occurred in Selma just a few months earlier in which police and others brutally attacked non-violent demonstrators simply wanting to exercise their constitutional right to vote. If it is to be transformative, protest needs to be animated by love, not love in the sentimental sense but in the sober biblical sense of the word. Hence Christ’s insistence on love of enemies. “Until we love our enemies,” Merton said, “we’re not yet Christians.”

“The grace to protest,” Merton wrote in his notes for the retreat, “is a special gift of God requiring fidelity and purity of heart.” Far from seeing an opponent merely as an obstacle, one wishes for him or her “a better situation in which oppression no longer exists.”

Thomas Merton Jim Forest, The Root of War is Fear, p. 117

[angeladawnwright72]

I'm about to go to this... On the correct day!! Due to a learning disability I have a date dyslexia which meant I got the day wrong and turned up for this yesterday!! There have been times I've turned up for things a week late. That's not a great feeling. On Protest could be seen as being aggressive but often the most successful protests are through making ones presence noticed, being unable to change ones own state and requiring adaptations from others thinking requires extra brain power, and intellect that, quite honestly ain't going to change some folk are very stoic in their opinions, but may bring about positive legal changes. Being present is mostly my approach to protest.

[contextual200ba-blog]

On Protest: Research Articles:

Fremeaux, Isabelle  & Ramsden, Hilary  (2007) We Disobey To Love: Rebel Clowning For Social Justice [online] Available at:www.labofii.net/docs/wedisobeytolove.doc

Hancox, Dan (2012) And Then?: A year of unrest in the UK, Frieze, Issue 144 January-February 2012. Also available at:http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/and-then/

Holert, Tom (2012) Face/Off: Anonymity and iconography in contemporary protest culture,Frieze, Issue 146, April 2012. Also available at:http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/face-off/

Jordan, John (2006)In the Footnotes of Library Angels: A Bi(bli)ography of Insurrectionary Imagination, London: Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide [online] Available at:http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/pdf_docs/SRG_Jordan.pdf

Mouffe, Chantal (2007) Artistic Activism and Agnostic Spaces,Art & Research: A Journal of Ideas, Contexts and Methods, Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 2007 [online] Available at:http://www.artandresearch.org.uk/v1n2/mouffe.html

Trowell, Jane (2012)Take the money and run? Some positions on ethics, business sponsorship and making art, London: Live Art Development Agency Study Room Guide [online] Available at:http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/resources/Study_Room/guides/platform_guide.html

Shirky, Clay (2009)How social media can make history, TED@State, June 2009 [online] Available at:http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html