Red, Green and Blue: Crazy Acts or Civil Disobedience?
Image source: Nature.comEditor's note: This week, Shirley and Jimmy take on the subject of radical environmentalism. Are acts of vandalism, break-ins and civil disobedience always wrong, or do they sometimes serve a greater purpose?
Shirley: Fake blood tossed onto socialites wearing fur coats. Late-night liberation of laboratory animals. Wholesale destruction of Hummers and gas-guzzlers in California parking lots. The lists of exploits by some radical animal-rights and extreme environmental groups reads more like rap sheets than a honorable curriculum vitae. For reasonable stewards of the Earth, breaking and entry, theft, destruction of physical property and other mayhem serve no purpose.
Or do they? I don't condone violence or criminal acts as a means of conveying a message, however well-intended the message might be. But I have to admit that, sometimes — just sometimes — a crazy or even slightly illegal (as if there is such a thing in the eyes of the law) act by a group like, say, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) brings to light a practice that's been kept in the dark largely because it's unpleasant, harmful or cruel. The act of sneaking hidden cameras into poultry processing plants, for example, opened a lot of people's eyes to just how unnecessarily inhumane the methods of turning chickens into wings and nuggets actually are. So is there an argument to be made that maybe, just maybe, the occasional whack attack by radical vegans or Luddites is a justifiable act of civil disobedience? I'd have to say, cautiously, yes.
Tags: activism, civil disobedience, environmentalism, PETA, Red, Green and Blue, vandalism
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June 5th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Yes Kelli… they’re using patriot in their drug war too.
I guess my main beef with all of it is that it’s such a non-value-added waste of money that could be put to so much better use in society. Instead of ruining people’s lives based on minor improprieties just to justify an ever-growing police and incarceration machine we could be spending that money developing alternative energy etc.
Another good book on the topic is “The Perpetual Prisoner Machine” by Joel Dyer. He leans a bit left and blames it mostly on businesses. I, instead, think a better case can be made to blame municipalities for turning ‘justice’ into a profit center.
As for Eco-terrorism I really liked Crichton’s “State of Fear” but I think he under-developed the main theme of Government selling fear to gain power.
As for your comment, Shirley:
Hey… ‘I can skin a buck… I can run a trot line… yes, a country boy can survive’… lol.
As for opting out of paying taxes; as I explained before when half the second income goes to taxes and you don’t really need the money then it becomes a viable option to many (in fact, almost all) who are paying substantial taxes. It’s a delicate balance to keep me in the workforce rather than leisurely swinging a hammer on home improvements and then cashing in to the tax-free capital gain on the sale of a primary residence every 2 years.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Jimmy: Good luck flipping those properties … not in this market! : )
June 5th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Wow, this is a great discussion!
A bit about PETA (coming from someone who’s worked there) - they have been refining their approach in recent years and focus on education primarily. They also don’t condone activists doing anything illegal or violent. They’re not affiliated with other extreme animal rights groups but seem to get blamed for a lot of their actions…
Something that one person representing an organization does or says does not define the entire organization or movement. And there are a lot of lies and exaggerations running around… but PETA people have heart and they really do a lot of good for animals.
I have participated in several KFC protests (in small-town Northern Idaho - not the most receptive crowd to animal rights) where people flip us off, yell “get a job,” or in one case, blast us with diesel exhaust just for protesting something. We’re standing there in chicken costumes holding signs like “Have a Heart for Chickens, Boycott KFC” and a few people seem to hate us just for protesting. Luckily, the negative responses are few & far between, but it really bothers me that people can’t stand to see others exercising their rights of free speech or assembly. It’s as if civil disobedience is looked down upon, when it should be upheld as a sign of a healthy democracy.
Kelli, I definitely agree on the war on drugs (or as I call it, the war on personal freedom) is out of hand. Prison populations for non-violent offenders have been skyrocketing the last few decades.
Also, the Patriot Act being used to trounce true displays of patriotism is just disgusting. Another recently renewed law is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which basically makes any action against a business that has anything to do with raising, processing, killing, or selling animals an act of terrorism if it has any negative affect on the business. This includes affecting their profits.
The Shac 7 case is a recent one that really makes me angry. Activism is not terrorism! Terrorism is being painted with a very broad brush, and it’s starting to scare me.
I don’t condone hurting anyone or using violence in activism, but sometimes it takes a lot to get a company to pay attention, especially to get the public’s attention. Opening minds and changing policies may require showing a little skin, it may require crazy costumes and stunts, or it may require boycotts and protests. But it is part of democracy. Civil disobedience has a great history in democracy and it works to create change… squashing it in the name of a “war on terror” or a “war on drugs” is just not what a healthy democracy would do.
Anyway, lots of good points in this thread… and it’s good to see this sort of thing openly discussed.
~Megan Prusynski
my site | volksvegan adventures | unplug
June 6th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Now Shirley you know I’m in Nashville… no housing bubble here.
This is where everyone abandoning the high-cost high-tax liberal paradises are fleeing to…
June 6th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Megan said:
Be careful not to lump ‘W’ in with the others on this one Megan. Since he took office he has switched focus to violent offenders and those who have actually done harm to others.
Also prison population increases have leveled off with municipal jail growth offsetting state prison decline.
What bugs me is when people pitch a living fit over terrorists down at Guantanamo when we’ve got statistics like one out every 8 black males between the ages of 20 and 35 incarcerated in our for-profit ‘justice’ machine at this very moment. With those kind of stats it’s a de facto injustice, a de facto waste of money and a de facto waste of the lives of people who would otherwise be net productive members of society.
Municipal leaders and grandstanding politicians of both major parties keep selling fear and spewing the ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric; basically feeding the monster while the masses go right along with it.
What a waste that could otherwise do so much good. For every officer we have there is one less teacher… for every police captain there’s one less environmental scientist… and for every jail cell we have there will be at least that many of us who are prisoners.
Although we have only the best intentions we must be careful of the power that our cries to ‘DO SOMETHING’ give to government.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Now, Jimmy, you know I’m in northwest Florida … maybe experiencing a bit of a housing bubble, but HARDLY a “high-cost high-tax liberal paradise.”
Thanks for the excellent comments, Megan. You’re right: PETA does often get lumped in with other organizations or individuals that commit crazy acts, and I’m sure that’s difficult to deal with when you’re on the front lines there. I appreciate your courage in taking part in protests, especially in — as you say — areas that aren’t always leaders in the animal rights movement.
June 8th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Activists are about action and I support and admire most forms of radical action. Even the IPPC Report says that the changes needed to mitigate the consequences of global warming must be “deep and quick”, so it’s obvious we have to make big waves RIGHT NOW. Julia Butterfly and GreenPeace members who scale buildings to hang banners or chain themselves to gas pumps really are superheroes in my book, while actual and literal destruction possibly inhibits the rising consciousness.
Check out these posts on my blog, Tao of Change to read more about activists and action:
http://taoofchange.com/2007/04/04/the-idle-reach-idling-autos-a-story-of-intervention/
http://taoofchange.com/2007/06/06/the-eco-rebel-in-me/
April 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
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