In our time together today, our “Take Ten” with Will Luden, we will separate the causes people are protesting or supporting from the tactics used; they are most often incorrectly blurred to favor the person or group making the comments. Let’s go over some foundational principles first: 1. The ends do not justify the means; means are ends in and of themselves. As soon as you say that your ends justify your means, you are saying that might is right. 2. “Whatever it takes,” might be an acceptable strategy if: A. Your cause is fundamental to the survival of mankind and B. You’re dead, no pun intended, certain that you cannot be wrong. 3. Follow Revolution 2.0™’s Golden Rule of Political Tactics: Use only the tactics that you are okay with being used against you.
This 10 minute episode will help us in our lives, and help us to think through the issues surrounding us.
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Continuing:
It is the height of arrogance to claim that tactics that you approve of using in support of causes you favor are unacceptable to the point of being criminal when unemployed to support causes you do not believe in.
The trucker protest in Ottawa crippled the capital city of Canada for over two weeks, and shut down the https://www.ambassadorbridge.com/ (Ambassador Bridge) that carries 30% of the annual trade between the US and Canada. A 2004 Border Transportation Partnership study showed that 150,000 jobs in the Detroit–Windsor region and $13 billion in annual production depend on the Detroit–Windsor international border crossing.
Ambassador Bridge map and discussion.
Trucker protest photo
Latvia protest photo.
Many of the same people and groups who enthusiastically support the trucker protest get self-righteously irate and want to shut down other protests when they block an intersection for an hour or two. And these people and groups want to export the trucker protest to other cities and other countries.
Now for more about separating the causes from the tactics:
Truckers and others have every right to protest, but they have no right to cripple cities and major thoroughfares. We can either approve of or criticize the anti-mandate cause for the protests, but we cannot approve of the tactics.
Civil Rights protesters, including those supporting BLM and wanting change post the George Floyd murder, have every right to protest, but they have no right to block streets, burn and loot businesses, and invade police stations. Once again, we can debate the worthiness of the causes, but we cannot approve of the tactics. 3. Supporters of a failed presidential candidate have every right to protest, but they have no right to invade our nation’s capitol. Debate their stolen election promise if you will, but do not support the tactic of invading the capitol.
The intentional mistake that I see in all three areas, truckers, civil rights, Jan 6th, is that people who are in support of the cause focus on the cause, and gloss over the tactics. Phrases like, “Mostly peaceful,” and “Peaceful protest supporting democracy,” come to mind. People who are against the cause, focus on the worst of the tactics, and gloss over the cause. Phrases like, “Another night of violence, burning and looting,” and, “January 6th was the worst and most dangerous event in America since the Civil War,” come to mind.
Separate the causes from the tactics, the fly poop from the pepper. Stop making people and events either all good or all bad. Either all black, or all white....