Comments on: Campus Politics, and What Liberalism Can’t Become (Again)

By: Why “Take Back Wall Street” Might Matter, Maybe « Submitted to a Candid World

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:23:14 +0000

[...] there, to be taken seriously. (Locals will remember the comparably schizophrenic agenda of the “Take Back NYU” protests in 2009: those guys were hilarious.) On the other, they’re getting into a disproportionate [...]

By: Wilf’s Blog » Take Back NYU

Wilf’s Blog » Take Back NYU — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 01:50:51 +0000

[...] at Submitted to a Candid World has a couple of very good articles about the situation with TBNYU, with this nice summary of the ridiculousness: American South, [...]

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:19:06 +0000

Oh, I agree with you, violence is wholly inappropriate as a part of plausible American student protests. I just think that’s a matter of failing to meet the proportionality, just cause, or probability of success criteria out of just war theory, not of violence being per se invalid – which is what I (perhaps unfairly) interpreted the original post to be saying.

By: Ames

Ames — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:43:45 +0000

I’ll agree with you to a point: there’s no way to deal with some things but with violence. The 20th century proved that very well. But in American student protests, violence is not ever an answer.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:16:34 +0000

1) I prefer the Angry Young Man song that Tommy Shaw wrote for Styx.
2) “Nothing is accomplished by violence” isn’t just a platitude, it’s a platitude that’s wrong both factually and (in my opinion) morally. Violence is a tool that properly applied can solve problems with the utmost of efficacy. To quote D.A. Clarke: “When the winners exterminate the losers, historical conflicts are permanently solved. …A dead rapist will not commit any more rapes; he’s been solved.” Not to mention, as she pointed out quite rightly, non-violence only works on a political level when it’s as an alternative to a very real threat of violence. King was only able to accomplish anything because negotiating with his crowd was the only way whites could keep blacks from listening to X and Newton en masse. Gandhi wouldn’t have accomplished anything if he’d faced a more violent occupying power – I think Turtledove’s right that if Britain had been defeated by Germany, Gandhi’s peaceful methods would have resulted in lots of dead Indians and no independence. Violence worked wonders for the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, it did wonders for the world in the 1770s and 1780s, and for the world again in the 1940s. Violence isn’t the best solution – or even necessarily a solution – to every problem, but it is a viable solution to many problems. Sometimes it even is the best solution – because the only thing that can prevent or put an end to unjust violence… is just violence.