Civil Disobedience But Not Violence

Civil Disobedience But Not Violence

Civil disobedience should pose no problem for the antiwar movement. The problem is insurrectionary violence (and the attempt to create a climate for insurrectionary violence) masquerading as civil disobedience. Those who hold the mask but do not in fact accept the morality or politics of insurrectionary violence make the most serious mistake and bear the heaviest responsibility for activity that is damaging the antiwar movement. I mean men, for example, as valuable as Dwight Macdonald and Paul Goodman, who are rightly committed to civil disobedience but make common cause with those committed to insurreactionary violence on the latter’s terms, thus robbing civil disobedience of its moral force and desired practical effect.

Wh...