Blog 15 - Fifth Source: “Nonviolent Resistance and Violent Response: Dual Conditions Necessary in Overcoming Oppression.”

This article analyzes the effectiveness of nonviolent resistance in order to achieve their goal of getting rid of oppression. This article uses examples such as Mohandas Gandi and Martin Luther King Jr. to illustrate that nonviolence is in fact the most effective way of protesting oppression. The author argues that, literature fails to tell under what conditions will nonviolent resistance be effective. Depending on whether the oppressed group is nonviolent or retributive the group, the ruling group will be either moderate or violent. Yeates explains that only a peaceful agreement between oppressed group and a ruling group is that the oppressed group is nonviolent and the ruling group is moderate.

 

This relates to my paper because my real world connection is the Libyan revolution against Muammar Gaddafi. At first the Libyan people protested with nonviolence but the ruling group, Muammar Gaddafi, decided to respond with violence. Gaddafi ordered fighter jets and tanks to kill his own people. Instead of responding to the nonviolent oppressed group with a moderate way in order to reach a peaceful agreement, he decided to attack his people thinking that he can continue to oppress them. In this condition it seems that nonviolent revolution is not the most effective approach that maybe even a violent retaliation is necessary to end Gaddafi’s dictatorship. In one of my earlier sources (“Gaddafi’s Last Stand.”) Gaddafi even quoted that he will fight to the end and die as a martyr, he wants it his way or no way. This article helps analyzes the situation in Firefly that the ruling group, Alliance, is not open or moderate but more like Gaddafi and not willing to give up power. In result, it might be effective for the people who are against the Alliance to react with violence in the movie Serenity.

 

 

 

Yeates, Owen. "Nonviolent Resistance and Violent Response: Dual Conditions Necessary in Overcoming Oppression." Conference Papers -- American Political Science Association (2003): 1-24. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 15 Apr. 2011.