On Misuses of Civil Disobedience An Exchange

...And second, what should be our social policy concerning those individuals who refuse to accept the system of laws, and the legal and political framework of the society...

...But we have not even this much choice in fact, for the minute we are born, we are regarded (by virtue of what...

...the majority is wrong and misled...

...But as long as an open society exists—and I believe it still does—with the legal right of dissent and opposition, then as a democrat I have an obligation to try to modify social policy by the hard work of influencing public opinion...

...Levin rejects the entire society in which this democratic methodology is embedded, then communication breaks down completely, and we are truly at war with one another...

...Levin's argument is the kind of double standard that he appears to be advocating...

...LEVIN has a crisis of conscience concerning his moral obligation as an individual to a majoritarian society that he doesn't accept, and he asks us to appreciate and respect his profound spiritual dilemma...

...MR...

...I am in no way arguing for vindictive social policy or repressive legislation...

...Levin is concerned principally with the first question, but the second question raises the most disturbing problem for those committed to the democratic ethic...

...But this is not what he wants to do, for changing the contract terms would impose a different contract on 200 million people, literally impose it on the 50 million who voted against the new terms...

...But the social contract theory is predicated upon a fiction, and everyone who understands the theory understands that...

...would you like to be dictated to in that way...

...The argument generally proceeds: "You must do this because the majority has so decided...

...The group * From this amnesty follows: "They" have novalid disciplinary jurisdiction over me other thanthat contract which they have imposed and I havenot freely accepted...

...By agreeing to abide by majority rule when you are in the minority, you thereby win the right to have your way when you are in the majority...

...Or if one wants to be a Marxist, all rules are relative to class...

...If there exists within a society some democratic methods for the adjudication of differences, then the lesson to be learned is that we should try to use, not abandon, these methods...

...You are elitist...

...If the first principles are themselves in question, then let us see how and why this is so...

...Levin does not choose to enter this contract but says he seeks a new one...

...One takes over a college building, as if to say: "Why did I ever suppose that 'they' owned this building as of right, and by that right set the rules whereby I must live without choice...

...On discovering that the validity of the so-called contract is at best questionable, one will negate it through symbolic action which is primarily cathartic and thus directed at oneself, not at "them...

...It must make use of protective power to guarantee the rights of individuals within the majority when a dissident minority of individuals attempts to contravene those rights...

...Would he feel obligated to respect my right to overthrow them or deny his rights...

...Wouldn't any answer to life's issues which was expressed in terms of these artifacts be itself bound by them—wouldn't any approach to current problems perpetuate those problems, inasmuch as the "problems" arise in the context of bureaucratic structures which are themselves the real problem and are perpetuated as long as we define our problems in terms of them...

...In this context, what passes today for "civil disobedience" is a protest against the tyranny of a society which makes ever greater and more specific demands on the individual's existence while at the same time mockingly offering to submit every jot and tittle to the bar of "majority decision," with the proviso that if the majority upholds the status quo, it is not only right but the epitome of freedom...

...We must rather ask the question in all seriousness, so that when rational satisfaction is had that certain restraints are necessary, we shall rationally accept them...

...The free moral conscience of individuals must be nourished and cherished in a democracy...

...And in this case, he leaves us little choice but to seek to protect the democratic framework from a self-righteous moralism that would seek to destroy it...

...ISN'T THIS WHAT WE NEED...

...Would he permit me under his new system the freedom to disagree, to criticize, to negotiate differences...

...Second, a majority supports those restraints and will for my lifetime (let us suppose...

...If one is committed to the democratic ethic, one believes that society should leave to indi viduals the widest latitude of freedom of COMMUNICATIONS choice...

...we, on the other hand, are in need of developing supra-class rules for mediating between eternally conflicting interests and are thus denied the luxury of subjectivity...

...If you are presenting this as a contract, I decline to enter into it...

...and by the same token, I don't want them to tell me what I must do...

...I am not objecting to selective civil disobedience, but to total civil disobedience...

...Only by fully shaking ourselves of the preconceived notions inherent in the present social forms can we reach the point of conceiving a new social contract that will properly express the genuine needs of our living together in this world...

...The issues he raises are not merely theoretical exercises, but have immense practical significance...

...One has thus far arrived at anarchism, which is neither autocracy nor democracy: the authority which the one vests in the autocrat and the other in the majority, anarchism denies to all...

...Yet some social rules and regulations are necessary for the good life...

...Surely we shall eventually agree that certain restraints are necessary...

...Yet majoritarianism entails fewer risks than other methods of legislation, particularly in the political and civil context...

...This is secondary to the question: why must those decisions be made...

...COMMUNICATIONS Mr...

...We may be helped by regarding anarchism in dynamic terms only, and always specific to a given social order...

...he is actually on to something quite different...

...The social contract that I am interested in is one in which social policies are arrived at by the widest number of people...

...Paul Kurtz Replies W W E SHOULD BE GRATEFUL to Mr...

...I think not...

...But a contract must be chosen, and a choice must have an alternative— and the only alternative to this contract is not to be born...

...The initial scepticism ("the rules 'they' make have no moral validity") is, however, a progressive first step in the present situation...

...Third, the restraint is so momentous as possibly to diminish my life by five-sevenths of its natural term (and five-fifths of the adult portion thereof) . If I question whether this restraint has any moral validity at all, I clearly am not questioning the principles of "democracy" (i.e., majoritarian decision-making) but of "society" (i.e., the social body's exactions on its members...

...Mr...

...To illustrate by absurdity: if the majority chooses to sell every tenth nineteen-year-old into slavery, this is freedom because democratically arrived at...

...But they are an aberrant offshoot essentially irrelevant to the central trend of the recent generation, whose response to the foregoing would probably be: "I have no desire to tell them what they must do...

...He has argued well that civil disobedience can play a positive part in the normal workings of democratic society only if it defines itself by certain characteristics which themselves grow naturally out of democratic and social-legal principles...

...my inner human light says we should do the opposite, and it is right...

...Mr...

...For the few who do want this dictatorial power, the argument is valid...

...Whoever rejects those first principles is not, strictly speaking, misunderstanding "civil disobedience" and will therefor not profit from Mr...

...Levin, like many others, wishes to defend the moral right of civil disobedience against a social contract that he says he has neither entered into nor wishes to affirm, and that he accordingly finds unjust...

...AS PAUL KURTZ PERCEIVED [in "Misuses of A Civil Disobedience," DISSENT, January– February 1970], he has written about a principle—" civil disobedience"—which is intelligible only in a wider context, the context of civil society and especially democratic society...

...He is to be commended because his comment, in my judgment, enables us to see clearly the fallacies and dangers involved in that position— though this undoubtedly is unintended by him...

...But how shall we achieve this end...

...Rule by majority is one method among others of social rule-making...

...But we may not assume these a priori, for that is the substance of our social disease, to submit too readily to every species of chain...

...But why on earth should he want 200 million to obey his will...

...Mr...

...This is so obvious that it would hardly seem to need argument, and moral considerations apply not only to the need (negative) for protection of individuals against violence, but to the contribution (positive) to the good of individuals and the general welfare...

...Levin for focusing on an anarchist point of view that is reaching epidemic proportions today...

...That is a far cry from anarchism, to be sure...

...How can he...

...I am here speaking from a point of view that is committed to the democratic ethic and wishes to defend it from those who assault it...

...But even if I concede that Hobbes is right, this is a bleak picture indeed of what social affiliation must be...

...By radically calling into question the moral validity of the current social order, by saying that (and acting as if) its authority is no valid authority but merely the consequences of its power, we create the possibility of a genuine social contract to which we can give active assent and not mere grudging acknowledgment...

...The principle of "democracy" only relates to the question: given that decisions binding on all must be made in areas X, Y, and Z, who shall make those decisions—an individual, a select group, or "all" (i.e., a majority, or their representatives, or their representatives' appointees, etc...

...though it is he, not we, who declared the state of war...

...Levin's attitude towards me, if once the new kind of social contract that he advocates came into existence, I refused to obey its most fundamental rules...

...One can approach the problem of civil disobedience in a democratic society from at least two viewpoints: from the standpoint of either the individual or of the majoritarian society...

...Levin tells us that he is not opposed to democracy per se, but only to the present society and the majority that claims to speak for it...

...Kurtz must surely see, if he considers it properly, that the Hobbesian argument won't work here, for society may be a greater threat to my existence than that from which it pur COMMUNICATIONS ports to rescue me...

...Are not all rights civil rights, socially developed and recognized...

...A laissez-faire approach in these areas has historically resulted in the catastrophic social injustices whose effects we are still experiencing...

...It is an empty reward, hardly worth the sacrifice of his free will...

...if you choose Us, then as long as We are one whit better to you than that Chaos, you must admit that you chose rightly and owe Us gratitude...

...His elders interpret this for him: "You have a minority opinion as to what the contract terms shall be...

...But the thing that troubles me about Mr...

...Mistake Number One: The abandonment of the principles of "democratic society" is not so much out of weariness with "democracy" as with the other term, "society...

...Kurtz's instruction...

...First, what should be the obligation of the individual to a society if he protests the entire social system on moral grounds...

...COMMUNICATIONS must impinge on my life economically, technologically, and culturally in a thousand ways for any life to be possible for me...

...If Mr...

...I have argued that where civil disobedience is disruptive of the social peace and the democratic framework itself—i.e., where it prevents others from expressing their rights—it cannot be legitimately protected by the law or public policy on moral grounds.* At some point a democratic majority may be forced to use defensive measures to protect the rights of individuals (as it must now do in the universities...

...Whoever grants this much thereby grants that arguing the terms of the contract is pointless: one does not choose to enter this contract but seeks a new one...

...The question is, how shall we decide which rules and regulations shall govern our lives and what is the degree of restraint that society will impose...

...Thus, "I object" refers not to the specific contract terms but to the contract itself...

...Haven't the present rules, through bureaucratization, become selfperpetuating and self-aggrandizing ends in themselves instead of servants of men's purposes...

...If taken to solipsism ("I make the rules"), this approach is clearly destructive...

...We have learned from bitter experience that unless certain democratic principles are not compromised, a basic revolution against a framework may bring in another more terrible system...

...Accordingly, those who completely reject the democratic legal and political structure cannot at the same time insist upon sharing its protection and claim immunity from breaking its laws...

...He would much rather obey his own will even if this goes against the grain of the general will, and for this precious gift of personal freedom he will allow others to do their preference without consulting his will in advance...

...you think you should be allowed to dictate to the majority...

...and if that satisfaction cannot be had in other instances, we shall know what to infer from that...

...Levin may wish to debate whether our system is in fact democratic or quasi-democratic, and I am willing to concede all of its imperfections...

...they may be mediocre and lumbering...

...The chief issue here concerns the nature that the opposition takes...

...I grant that our society is overbureaucratized, often corrupt, and that its institutions are in need of reform...

...This is what I tried to do in my article, "The Misuses of Civil Disobedience...

...Surely, Mr...

...these impingements are largely the product of other people's choices, and there must be principles whereby all these aspects of social life are regulated...

...But the restraints are present, first of all...

...Dissenting individuals within a minority have a right to their conscience, but so do those who are committed to majority rule...

...He grows up under the "contract" and finds it more and more distasteful...

...To have your way" really means to have it that way for 200 million...

...Thus we may pose two questions...

...I would defend majority rule basically on moral grounds...

...And he has every right to be so opposed, to insist upon and work for a change in the social system...

...As for transgressing otherpeople's rights, one must distinguish in this context between natural rights (of speech, association, etc...

...he says, "I object...

...Does he think that those of us who on moral grounds are committed to the democratic ethic and the laws that fulfill it should grant immunity to those who do not believe in this ethic or who seek to destroy it...

...To persons...

...and rights-by-convention (feudal rights, corporate rights, the right of any bureaucrat to perform his bureaucratic functions): the latter standor fall with one's acceptance or rejection of the"contract" which creates and defines them...

...It is sheer primitive romanticism to hope that a society can move from a condition of total disobedience to its entire fabric of rules to a new social contract in which there will be a higher level of commitment and devotion...

...Hence the indifference as to whether communication with "them" is achieved...

...Relative to what...

...Choose Our authority without qualification, or unredeemed Chaos...

...I wonder what would be Mr...

...How are we to judge which point of view shall prevail, if not by a deliberative process of rational persuasion whereby we may negotiate differences...

...Levin does not deny this...

...Aren't the "silent majority" happy servants of the artifacts typified by the American flag, the Pentagon, SSS, CIA, FBI, NASA, AT&T, etc., instead of proud masters of their lives...

...Yet for Marx, the rules of one class would become universal as that class became the prime mover of history...

...I don't care...

...By a total act of civil disobedience toward all the institutions of society, as Mr...

...Yes, he might say, but only insofar as you don't endanger the whole fabric of society itself...

...Mr...

...So the child is born...

...they make mistakes...

...Yet there can be in fact no anarchism except maybe in the strict political sense...

...rather it presents a moral justification in support of an individual's obligation to obey a system of laws: without some regulation of social life, individual life would be impossible...

...But those of us committed to democratic procedures may also have a moral crisis about what to do about dissident individuals, or about minorities who disobey the basic rules and regulations of the democratic society...

...Levin advocates, or by the patient rebuilding of them through the development of new democratic majorities...

...What validates this...

...I wish to narrow my discussion only to a democratic or quasi-democratic society...

...Individuals should be permitted as far as possible to plan their own lives and careers, to develop their own visions and destinies, to express their unique talents and tastes...

...each person sets up his own rules, determined by his own interest...

...Or would he seek to protect that society...

...As I have already pointed out, civil disobedience in its full sense only makes sense by presupposing a democratic value structure: it presupposes that individuals have a claim to respect as individuals, that they have a right to be tolerated, to be heard, and to have their views taken into account...

...that same government" presently taxing and redistributing the national wealth, converted in order to mobilize and put the national wealth to effective specific use, thereby recreating the public environment for public purpose, is no longer the "same government," it is a new public social contract taking over the functions we now assign to "private" corporations...

...However, his arguments can have force only for those who already accept the democratic and social principles that are the foundations from which the principle of civil disobedience is derived as a corollary...

...Majorities are fallible, not sacred...

...as having entered a social contract and accepted all its obligations...

...And it then becomes clear that no contract is meant, but something of a different character...

...Levin's distinction between naturalrights and rights-by-convention cannot be sustained...

...But let me regard my life as my own, unruled by 'them,' and let me similarly ask whether I haven't as much right to this building as 'they.' " * Thus one denies the established rules utterly and regards all rules as relative...

...why must individuals be bound by anyone's decision in areas X, Y, and Z? I do not suggest that we may come to the conclusion that social restraints are superfluous without exception...

...Yet, can we say: "The youth, who objects to the use of the federal government's authority in drafting him to fight, would nevertheless like to see that same government's power directed toward utilizing construction tools and materials rationally for meeting housing needs...

...The contract does not assume historical fact...

...it is for you to present this in forum so that you may win a majority to your point of view and change terms...