The Right to Peaceful Protest

The Right to Peaceful Protest

The problem with Sovereign Governments tolerating “peaceful” demonstrations in their Capitals is that peaceful protests are only peaceful until the Demonstrators realize that they outnumber the Police and the Army, then they move violently to take power for themselves. Every Revolution…even Rebellion… starts peacefully enough. Peace only seems to be a stage in the process of mustering forces and organizing a Command Structure. Once all the pieces are in place, then the Reign of Terror ensues.

What about the Leaders claiming to believe in Peace and Non-Violence. Well, even Gandhi admitted to his buddies in Detention that his Philosophy of Non-Violence was only a legal charade – the British defined Sedition as being the willful promotion of Violence. So Gandhi, who was first and foremost a Lawyer, branded himself as the total Pacifist. When Violence became necessary, he knew he could always just count on the natural tendency of the Mob to do what the Mob always does.

Do the Demonstrators themselves, the small pieces and pawns, do they ever realize the grand design? Well, some do but I would guess that most don’t. But, you see, it hardly matters, for what individuals think hardly counts when it is really a matter of Group Psychology. However separate individuals feel and think and behave when they are alone, that all changes when Group Dynamics take over. Yes, “Peaceful” Protestors will be peaceful enough when they are disorganized and outnumbered, simply out of fear, but add Organization, Command Structure, and overwhelming strength of numbers to the intoxicating mix, and then 98 out of 100 ‘peaceful’ protestors will be more than willing to take over the Capital Building, capture the Army Barracks, or man the barricades. The Leaders only have to point and yell “Charge”. Or, as Gandhi pretended, “Oh, no, don’t!” One never has to instigate such violence. When the numbers are there, it happens of itself.

So, should there be a right to Peaceful Protest. Well, no. Most of all because it never has ever made any sense. The Americans only believe in Protest because their Precious Revolution was born of Protest, and Americans are yet ready to blame themselves for killing so many innocent British Colonial Peace Keepers. Maybe after America has put down Rebellion after Rebellion after Rebellion, it will finally realize that Rebellions are not Glorious Affairs…not even their own. But back to my point here, and that is that any Protest is by definition disruptive, and disruptions are not peaceful. They are contradictory terms. A functioning and Peaceful Society should not have to deal with gratuitous disruptions. If one wishes to exercise some important freedom, then the freedom of Speech and Publishing should be plenty enough. As soon as more than two persons block the first curb or stand too long in front of a single door of home or business, then the arrests should be instant. Bring out the Horse Troops and ride down the Rioters! And hang the Gandhis of the World no matter how much they scream to be the Advocates for Peace and Non-Violence, for when they make every effort to gather every malcontent they can find, to march them up against the Army and the Police, deliberately threatening the Established and Legitimate Order, then they should be philosophically clever enough to realize that the Violence that inevitably ensues has been of their own making and they should be held responsible for it.

And it would be a good lesson for everybody else… to never play host to a bunch of idiots unless one is certain they can be kept under some control. To make empty talk of Peace is one thing, but to keep a crowd under an iron fist of an Absolute Discipline is quite another (and historically almost impossible to do. Gandhi could not or would not do it, and neither could or would Martin Luther King. They both presided over some of the deadliest and most destructive riots in their Nation’s History. If that is what they called Peace, then it is a good thing they never flexed their mean streaks. If they had really believed in Peace, they would have told their people to stay home). So whether or not the Trouble that occurs is the product of a deliberate call to violence, or only negligence in being able to keep one’s followers in line, as the Damages and Deaths are the same, and so should be the Punishments.