CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE & "RESISTANCE" -A Symposium: Opposition Politics is More Important
Kaufman, Arnold S.
I HAVE TWO OBJECTIONS to Michael Walzees stimulating essay. Though Walzer's main thrust is that tactical considerations are typically relevant to a moral estimate of civil disobedience,...
...Political remedies, far from having been exhausted, are just now beginning to be perceived as realistic possibilities...
...For any act of dis21 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE & "RESISTANCE" obedience is likely to be public—to have political consequences...
...I have other affairs to attend to...
...Though Walzer's main thrust is that tactical considerations are typically relevant to a moral estimate of civil disobedience, he allows an important exception: civil disobedience as personal protest need not be evaluated in terms of political consequences...
...The point is of more than passing interest because it was only civil disobedience of this type that Thoreau was concerned to justify...
...That is not the point...
...Concord's sage claimed that if an act is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say break the law...
...The claim that the main directions of American foreign policy cannot be fundamentally altered by efforts within the framework of existing political institutions is simply not supported by relevant facts...
...They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone...
...In these circumstances uncivil disobedience is totally unjustified...
...But Thoreau's position is morally, hence politically, irresponsible...
...It is, for example, a remarkable tribute to the resilience of our institutions that during the period of a major shooting war opposition has developed to the point where it now reaches deeply into existing political structures...
...All indications are that the strongest support for the President's war comes, not from corporate interests, but from the South, the lower ranks of the trade union movement, and that segment of the population that has a more or less direct 22 CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE & "RESISTANCE" interest in keeping the defense budget as high as possible...
...The Eugene McCarthy candidacy is the surface manifestation of democratically organized antiwar efforts that began immediately after the escalation, first taking the form of the teach-ins...
...For the only rational defense of the view that we who are opposed to the war should pass from protest to resistance rests on belief in the impossibility of changing American foreign policy through established democratic process...
...Civil disobedience tends to be counterproductive—not so much because bad public reaction is generated, though this may occasionally be the case, but because it wastes energies and resources that are better spent making American democracy work...
...These are formidable forces, but not politically unbeatable—and, in the case of trade unionists, certainly not unchangeable...
...So the argument goes...
...The following case seems to provide a stronger and more convincing basis for reaching his results...
...What will come to pass very much depends on what we who favor all these things try to do politically...
...If true, this assumption goes some way toward undermining his main conclusions...
...Those who refuse to try to improve our political system on the grounds that it cannot be made to work help fulfill their own gloomy predictions...
...MOREOVER, WHATEVER HISTORY'S RECORD may show, America's economic stake in the world's underdeveloped area is presently small and declining...
...Hence, morally sensitive Americans should accept the need for revolutionary change...
...The connection between belief and will is a vital determinant of historical outcomes...
...And in deciding on a course of action, responsible moral agents must always make a reasonable effort to evaluate such consequences...
...Our social and political system has other virtues as well...
...They are so powerful that to destroy their control of policy requires revolutionary reconstruction of American society...
...The calculation need not be the decisive factor in shaping decision...
...THOUGH I AGREE with Walzer's concluI sions about the need to reject "implicitly revolutionary" programs and to de-emphasize civil disobedience, the preceding argument uses what appears to be an assumption he shares in order to draw opposite conclusions...
...As for adopting the ways which the state has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways...
...Only mindless radicals equate radicalism with the most extreme tactics and refuse to try to make existing political institutions function in behalf of radical goals...
...At the very least, a suitable mixture of civil and uncivil disobedience must comprise the peace movement's central strategic direction...
...By doing less than they can and should within the existing framework they promote catastrophe...
...There is no guarantee that these political efforts will stop the war...
...But only careful tactical calculation that takes all particular circumstances into account can justify the latter...
...In the state of Michigan, for instance, both a McCarthy for President committee and a Concerned Democrats organization have been founded, the latter being now well on the way to forging a coalition with militant elements within Negro communities...
...The relationship between the teach-ins at their best and the present resurgence of conventional political activity is lineal and impressive...
...I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad...
...It is enough that such an assessment is always morally relevant...
...These corporate powers exercise an absolutely decisive, undemocratic control over American foreign policy...
...They help create the social and political basis for their own revolutionary despair...
...Romantic passion for the tactics of disobedience cuts the nerve of meaningful political effort to end the war in Vietnam and reorder American priorities so that this nation can resume its progress toward a welfare society rooted in institutions that promote human dignity...
...Those who object to the present course of American foreign policy are, at least for the present, best advised to concentrate all their energies on a political and educational attack within the frame of established organizations...
...Because the United States is "partially democratic," there exists here a presumption against uncivil disobedience...
...However insistent conscience may be, if it is itself properly conscientious, it will demand that the individual try to calculate the good and bad of consequences...
...But how many chronic doubters who persist in their dim view of politics within the Democratic party would have predicted that we could have come to the point where we have an established, serious, prestigious opponent to an incumbent President, and where a new mood of insurgency prevails that embraces a wide range of issues...
...Since the teach-ins, many have made courageous efforts—elected officials, civil rights leaders, clergymen's groups, and so on...
...WALZER CLAIMS that "there is no effective popular participation or representation in foreign policy decision-making...
...U NDENIABLY, SPECIFIC FORMS OF CIVIL disobedience—for example, by selective pacifists—are morally justified...
...The argument typically made is that powerful corporate interests decisively shape American foreign policy...
...The Vietnam War and, more generally, the counterrevolutionary thrust of American policies in the Third World, are ultimately due to private industry's need to guarantee overseas markets for its surplus production...
...Nor need I deny that political activity outside the existing frame is sometimes justified...
Vol. 15 • January 1968 • No. 1
