20160121 (satyagraha)

Civil resistance (satyagraha) comes with a price.

To be effective is it enough

To be armed, or must one

Be armed and dangerous?

In today’s world who but 

A fool thinks non-violence

Is the way to resolve disputes?

Everybody knows, even those

Who have not seen Indiana

Jones, you don’t bring a knife

To a gun fight. So why would 

You bring nothing but conviction 

To a gun fight? If your desire for

Self-sacrifice is that severe, kill

Yourself at home, spare the

Public the danger your silly act

Of confrontation would entail.

Even Gandhi would tell you 

Stay out of it if you haven’t

Your satyagraha in order;

You’ll probably cause more

Damage than good. What’s this

“Truth-firmness” he’s talking about?

The truth in satyagraha requires

Love for the oppressor—pretty 

Tough when you’re staring down

The barrel of a rifle, remembering

Mao Tse-tung stated “Political

Power grows out of the barrel

Of a gun.” The non-violence

Or civil disobedience of the 

Protestor is more than a 

Passive-aggressive substitute

Of force to defeat the other

But a truth-insistence aimed to

Convert the evildoer not to

Coerce him. Gandhi’s philosophy

Of the truth does not allow for

Violence in the process for

Such does not refine the conflict

But only transfers physical threat 

To the next encounter. Many today

Are reading Ta-nehisi Coates who

Does not subscribe to religious

Values as Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Did. Instead he sees Black Power

More aptly displayed by gun-

Wielding Black Panthers as did

The early Malcolm X. White 

Oppressors did not hesitate to

Inflict violence on King’s 

Followers. Coates would

Rather resist forcibly and, if

Somebody is going to remove

His Black body from the earth,

They should know he will take

That one with him. It’s racial

Realpolitick addressed to the

Twenty-first century. He does

Not have King’s religious

Insight and hope to 

Reconcile the conflict by

Love and patience. The best

Coates can offer sadly is

A parity of terror—not an

Elimination of it.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016