Civil Disobedience

The Netflix film The Trial of The Chicago 7 should be required viewing for anyone who believes that public protest is the way to promote change in America. The movie is a tragic retelling of what happened at the 1968 protest of the Vietnam War that took place during the Democratic Convention that was held in Chicago. The so-called Chicago 7 were arrested and put on trial for their efforts the next year and subjected to what amounted to a kangaroo court trial after the new Republican administration took office in 1969 when the new President and Attorney General decided to dig the criminal charges out of mothballs and prosecute the protesters and send a message to anyone of likeminded ideals that America was going to shut you down for having the audacity to disagree with its policies. That we have the legal right to assemble and protest what we feel is wrong in the world is a right that can be squashed at any time by our leaders whenever they feel like doing the squashing.  What the Chicago 7 wanted to stop was a war that had already killed many thousands of Americans and would continue to kill many thousands more before the troops were brought home in the 1970s. I don’t blame them for trying to stop the war. They had every right to want to live.

There are few if any protestors today that are objecting to the Russia-Ukraine war that is going on now because there aren’t any Americans over there doing the fighting but as a result of this war many Americans are becoming destitute because we are supporting it financially and capitalism is taking advantage of the conflict. There are more deaths here every single day than are occurring in the war because people have lost their minds and their hope and are taking their fear and frustration out on others who are not responsible for their trauma. We are seeing some protests here for the injustice and inequality that we are experiencing but people who have lived to remember how past protests were carried out were proactive in setting up a legal system that would be able to call a halt to the unrest in most cases before it could get too far out of hand. That is, unless they approve of the unrest, and the protests over inequality are being ignored and stamped out lightning fast by a system that wants to hear no flack about it. So, with all of the deck stacked against us in the corporate, legal, and political factions most of us are incapable of making any headway in our attempts to right the wrongs against us. So, without political representation large enough to bring down the creators of rampant inequality we will see our attempts to stand alone against the Goliath inequality machine that holds a wrecking ball over our heads result in even tighter restraints and in far too many cases the deaths of those who would dare try to stop the purveyors of the destruction of what may be left of democracy. When you see the abject failure of protestors such as the Chicago 7 in the film, you know that it is only a change of thinking in the minds of those in power that will be able to turn the suffering around. But how can we do it? What will it take to redirect the energy that is being used to destroy the people? Only a major loss of some sort has the power to turn the situation around or there will have to be a new understanding of how detrimental their policies really are.

When the people protested in centuries past, they had much less to lose than we do now. Yes, you were probably more likely to lose your life then or your freedom. You would probably be thrown into prison maybe for the rest of your life doing hard labor, but the consequences for standing up against tyranny were mostly cut and dry. It was pretty much you will prevail or you won’t, but doing nothing about the inequality that existed was a sure bet that no one in the ruling class was going to advocate for you and no laws were ever going to be enacted to change your circumstance. Revolt was your only option. In the here and now we have come to believe that there is always a possibility that change could happen. Our elected officials who refuse to actually represent us could logically be voted out after their terms end. We might be able to elect a candidate who understands the needs of the people within a few years. There is still a hope in the minds of many people that this can happen. But our representatives are aware of that fact, too, and they have spent many decades working furiously to tip the scales in their favor by using underhanded tactics to take as much of our voting power away from us as they can, and they have been successful too much of the time. There is much talk about their having cheated us out of truly free and fair elections but there seemingly isn’t the will or the ability to actually stop it. Though we are still fairly confident that it can be done we don’t seem to be able to accomplish that. Historically, people knew darn well that things would not change without new people in charge. So, with the gerrymandering of districts and voter suppression and the voter intimidation that occurs it is amazing that we still believe that anything helpful can come out of an election here. They didn’t believe it back in 1968 and for us to believe it in 2023 is pretty darn amazing since people are more narcissistic and selfish now than ever before.

Let us count the ways in which we lose without actually losing our lives in today’s world. When basic living necessities are enormously expensive and even impossible for many to obtain you would think that the first people to take a stand against tyranny would be the homeless, the working homeless, and the working poor. They have already lost what so many of us are afraid of losing without uttering one word in dissent over a capitalist system that made their situation possible. It is said that many of our homeless here are mentally ill and/or drug addicted. I think that assessment is likely true, but I used to work in a homeless shelter and I have seen that most of them are just regular people who found themselves in some unfortunate circumstances that could have happened to any of us given the same situation. So why aren’t these people standing up and being vocal about what caused them to have fallen and made it impossible for them to get up again? It is anguish and embarrassment that they found themselves in their predicament. It is also a society that is quick to blame and quick to stomp on you to make sure that you can’t get back up. Your life is bad enough without calling more attention to yourself and risking the laughter and abuse that too many people feel entitled to subject you to if you were to dare point the finger at the elitist society that created the circumstances that makes poverty in a very wealthy society possible. Kicking people when they are down is a favorite pastime of those who are arrogantly sure that they are too damn good to ever have to endure such a fate.

So, who among us has the ability to shake up the system and wake up the ignorant to the realization that the fear, the violence, the crime, and the loss of democracy and a true sense of community here exists because of a lack of maturity and a lack of responsibility on the part of too many of us? It is a cinch that they won’t listen to the poor, and the poor are afraid and already pretty sure that their voices count for nothing. Is it possible that those in power would have to become the poor to have any real understanding? I have seen politicians tell their stories of growing up poor or having parents who fell upon hard times like a badge of honor and try to remind everyone that you just have to work hard and get a good education to make it. Once again telling us that it is our own fault that we aren’t living the good life that anyone who isn’t lazy can achieve in America, and pretending that you are responsible yourself for never having enough to satisfy the demands of capitalism. Who will be able to erase that ignorant origin where this kind of thought process comes from? Do you believe that a university education can fix that? I don’t think so when it is our business, legal, and medical schools who are teaching capitalism and obscene profit aspirations. Where will a different mindset be found? If it isn’t already in your heart, you are unlikely to ever find it. And for those people who do not possess that kind of heart the only hope is a government that will legislate it. And if we don’t have the intestinal fortitude to demand and create that kind of legislation then expect the extinction of at least ¾ of the population within the next five to ten years. There just isn’t any other way that can evolve from where we now stand. Everyone wants to keep their freedom but refuses to acknowledge that the ability to belittle and terrorize others for their differences is not freedom, it is irresponsibility and ignorance held on to as a leftover from childhood when if parents and older people didn’t teach you restraint and show you a better way to get along in this world you would destroy it and then wonder how it became destroyed.

How is it possible that this video is even more relevant 39 years later than it was in 1984?

I will not mention any more spoilers from The Trial of The Chicago 7 here but I will tell you that if you can stomach the abusive treatment of the defendants during their trial you will not wonder why the people who stage a protest rarely have a better outcome than these people did. It is because of a system that fears the loss of the superiority that they feel they are entitled to. And it is those very people who believe that they earned their entitlement who are the ones who must see to it that entitlement to live without the fear of illness and death and basic human dignity is afforded to everyone and should never be contingent on the whims of others whose judgements can be horribly wrong when they are based on an illusion of power and grandiosity which has to be proven to an admiring world constantly, many times at the cost of the lives of others. To assume that your station in life grants you that right is to be challenged on that assumption by those who will not willingly lay down their own lives for you, and should not ever have to hit back with violence to get you to understand that.