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Civics - Art of Civil Disobedience Monday 4th Period

Jack watched the class come in and waited until they all took their seats. "Alright. Last few classes have been full of the heavy to give you an overview of how things have worked in this country. I've mentioned episodes of civil disobedience in passing but now we're going to start talking about how to use them to get laws changed. The main purpose of civil disobedience is to get attention. Thing is, you want to draw positive attention to your cause and keep the negative sh..stuff.. focused on whatever's opposing you. Not an easy thing to do. That's why most of it focuses on remaining nonviolent even in the face of violence done to you. Not always; as we talked about, sometimes there's a moment when you gotta act. You'll usually know it when it hits. Everyone thinks they'll act, that they'll do the right thing, because in their own minds everyone's the hero of their own story.

Reality is different. Sometimes you choke, sometimes you freeze right up and can't do anything, sometimes you're so scared for your own skin that you don't dare act. None of that's wrong. Most of it you can't help because the human brain's a really weird piece of meat. If you can act when that moment hits then you shouldn't be the one standing there waiting for someone else to move first. Someone has to start it. Instead of wondering who, change the thought to 'might as well be you."

Methods of Civil Disobedience
Passive
Picketing/Marching
Strikes/hunger strikes
Sit-ins/occupations
Parodies or mockery/hacktivism
Malicious compliance/passive non-compliance
Peaceful mob/rallies

Active
Vandalism/tagging/trespassing
Sabotage/property destruction
Whistleblowing/leaks
Roadblocking/treesitting/human chain
Cyber attacks
Angry mob/riot/black bloc

"So let's talk about this sh..stuff.. and how it's used.

Jack started them off with definitions and examples of each of the things on the lists and how they'd been used in the past. ~~Which I wrote and it was so long I decided I'm handwaving it this way.~~

"The long of the short is: the more people you can get involved, the more attention you'll get. How's it used to change laws? Politicians take note of numbers. They have staff to go through newspapers to cut out clippings of anything where they're mentioned by name. Political cartoons get noticed. Parodies and filk songs and other forms of mockery can go viral on social media. If you can get enough people involved and get enough attention - and keep that attention from backfiring - you've got a pretty strong tool in your arsenal.

Let me be upfont about this: Active civil disobedience has the biggest chance to turn on you. Take whistleblowing or leaking. To do either of those things takes a measure of trust betrayal. To some people you'd be a hero but to others you'd be a traitor and even if your reasons were the best in the world it can blow right up in your face. Had a soldier who a few years ago leaked information that a foreign government was interfering in the most recent election. She was arrested and jailed even though her leaked information turned out to be valid and she was doing it for the right reason. She's not going to get out of jail anytime soon. She's not covered by the few protections civilian whistleblowers get because she was active military. Sabotage, rioting, property destruction - all that stuff is gonna get you people who think you shouldn't have done that for any reason - even people who agree with the why of why you're doing it. That the end don't justify the means. It's probably the single biggest thing that can cause civil disobedience to turn ugly on you faster than you think it can. It's why media campaigns are so effective at turning people against civil disobedience. All they gotta do is lie and say damage or violence happened, put it in the headlines. Weeks later post something on page 10 that says 'oops sorry we were wrong'. A lie can go around the world before the truth has even got its boots on. An example of that is a protest against the World Trade Organization some years back. There was some property damage and people throwing trash at police. A big newspaper printed that people were throwing petrol bombs into the buildings. Nobody ever did that but it divided attention and public opinion long enough to damage that protest beyond repair.

Your civil disobedience is a direct play to the social conscience of the public. You want them sympathetic to your points. You want them willing to act. To sign petitions, to call their Congresscritters, to join your protests, to spread the word. To get involved actively instead of sitting at home on their sofa wishing things would change. The more people you can get to agree that a change is needed or that it's a positive thing, the more likely you are to change the laws."

"Your assignment today: Pick something you consider an injustice. Pick something from the list and tell me how you'd use it to raise awareness and try to get the public on your side."

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You know what to do.

Peebee

Vette

Astrid Magnussen

Mae Borowski

Jack (Two)

Kagura

Questions? Comments? Arguments? Bring it.

Vette stared at the list.

Stared at it for a long time.

And tried to pick something, some injustice, besides the obvious. She could bypass the use of her people as slaves entirely, maybe. And then focus on... something. Something she saw plenty around Nar Shaddaa. The displacement, enslavement, and eradication of the Evocii by the Hutts?

... That was too heavy for this class, too. She frowned and went down the list again.

Jack watched Vette's face go a little helpless so she wandered on by. "Didn't I hear you complaining about drinking age laws here over at Devil's Nest?"

"You might have," Vette said, after a moment's pause. "I don't know enough about the reasons for them to come up with a good argument against, though."

"Didn't ask for a reason why," Jack pointed out, "Just the argument against." She lifted a shoulder, "For what it's worth, it's because a group of angry moms decided they didn't want 'teenagers' drinking and they did all sorts of protests and angry calls until most states just changed the age up a few years. Maryland was one of them."

"But that's dumb," Vette muttered. "Especially here on the island, where even most kids aren't really kids. And I'm pretty sure they don't even know this place exists on the mainland, so why bother with the mainland's laws?"

Jack smiled at her. "Choose something and make your argument."

Vette leaned her head back a little, and then grinned faintly.

"A municipality that gets no benefits or even awareness from the mainland shouldn't be subject to the mainland's restrictions, as well. Especially since the nature of the island is completely different, the actual make-up of the island's population should be taken into account before enforcing rules that make no sense and provide no real benefit here."

"There you go. Now choose something and do the assignment," Jack nodded.

Vette considered for a moment, and then nodded back.

"Got it."

And there, perhaps, was another root in what mired Astrid into such an awkward position in this class. Because when you just went along with anything, because that's all you really knew, it was sort of difficult to think about what to actually change about anything.

And even she didn't think 'don't put murderers in jail' was a very solid cause to stand on.

She had maybe an idea or two, nothing big or important, nothing like probably what the others in the class might come up with, but she was...interested to hear what they might say in the discussion, if anything. Even if it would only make her feel even less confident about any of her own contributions. So she planned on listening, carefully, feeling like seagull on the sand, ready to snatch up any little dropped morsel for herself, expecting just to wind up shooed away.

This was all way above Jack's head in some ways, but in others... "A passive campaign assumes those in power can be damaged by criticism, doesn't it?" he asked, checking his assumptions.

Jack nodded slowly, "It does. It usually only works in a place with an elective government. Dictatorships, kingdoms, it gets much harder."

"More frightening to take action, too." Jack nodded back, thinking carefully. "Is it strange to say that taking this class makes me want to join the nomads? They at least need a majority before they stake you out in the wastelands, from what I've heard of them."

"Much more frightening," Jack agreed, "Committing to an action means committing to the consequences of that action. Sometimes things go as planned and sometimes they don't but once you've started it's all you all the way down."

Her chin tilted in thought, "I don't know the nomads you mean, but if you have a choice between a dictatorship and any sort of voting parliament, generally the voting f.. fellows are a better choice."

Jack's lips twitched at that pause in the teacher's commentary. "They're hunters, and herdsmen. Harsh, but they have to be. They survive in the more isolated places around my country." He grimaced, and said, "I don't really know much about them, but I know they're outside the command of most of the city rulers.... I'm beginning to think the whole system we have is flawed in the city's, not just those who are currently in power."

"Your assignment today: Pick something you consider an injustice. Pick something from the list and tell me how you'd use it to raise awareness and try to get the public on your side."

List:
Passive
Picketing/Marching
Strikes/hunger strikes
Sit-ins/occupations
Parodies or mockery/hacktivism
Malicious compliance/passive non-compliance
Peaceful mob/rallies

Active
Vandalism/tagging/trespassing
Sabotage/property destruction
Whistleblowing/leaks
Roadblocking/treesitting/human chain
Cyber attacks
Angry mob/riot/black bloc

Edited 2019-01-28 07:12 (UTC)

"So, the obvious one here is going to be picketing," Vette replied. "Protesting that it's unfair to hold the population of the island to the mainland's rules when so many people on the island can't even walk around the mainland without hiding what we are in the first place. Why should I be subject to rules that make no sense here, when a set of local rules customized to the island's actual population would be more effective? We're part of a multidimensional hub and here I can't cross the causeway without worrying about being vivisected for science!"

A beat.

"All of which will be written out very eloquently," she sighed, "in English," and rolled her eyes, "for the consideration of those who uphold the law here."

She wanted to skip right to the 'angry mob' bit, honestly. That sounded way more fun.

Astrid, while still a little wishy-washy on exactly what cause she might vouch for but still feeling like 'any cause that'll have me' should be a valid response, still knew at least one thing with certainty, so she'd better offer it up before she lost her nerve.

"I'm an artist," she said, shrugging modestly, "so I like the idea of using art as protest. All the best artists of the past have done it, it can even be subtle, but I'd definitely be the type of person to turn a statement into a public fixture."

She did, after all, have a record of public defacement now, and it was something she thought about doing again more than just once or twice.

"Sabotage," Jack said, carefully. "Um. That is, if we're referring to my home city of Ev. The government is secretly manufacturing weapons for a neighboring power. Sabotaging the works would draw attention to what they are doing, and hopefully derail the plans to sell them, or at least bring the people's attention to the possible mis-uses."

She's here, sitting on the corner of her desk and waiting to see if anyone needs her.

When she signs in. Peebee could probably give you private lessons in several of the things on the list. Then again, so could Jack.

Who, Peebee? Have a decent amount of expertise in things like hacking and sabotage? Never.

In case I need a misc because haha it's 1am here and my brain is jello.

Edited 2019-01-28 07:12 (UTC)

Welcome to the world of an epic handwave because I typed out a really good class with examples of everything on the list and cross-referenced it all to how it helped change laws and..

45 pages was too long for a class. I'm sorry. I get like this when I start researching. It had footnotes, fer goshsake.

Pretend this class post wasn't horribly truncated and handwavey please. Happy to go over anything in the 'discussion' thread.

Edited 2019-01-28 07:13 (UTC)

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Civics - Art of Civil Disobedience Monday 4th Period

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