One of the class discussions that has given me most cause for thought concerns the legitimacy of John Brown's violence in opposing clearly unjust slavery. For many, the impact of the story came from someone who felt compelled to do whatever was necessary to stand up against injustice. I agree wholeheartedly with that sentiment, and I still don't know (nor will i ever know) what I would have done in his situation. But I remain uneasy with holding up Brown as a model due to his zealous and seemingly unquestioning belief in the need for violence to achieve the ends he sees as necessary for justice.

Rather than spend more time debating with myself whether or not violence could be valuable in any situation, I've tried to turn my energy towards the more productive pursuit of understanding alternative non-violent ways of combating oppression that if effectively utilized can avoid the need to make such a decision in the first place.

As such, I thought i'd share this link to a list of methods of non-violent action, in case anyone else is interested. They are taken from Gene Sharp's The Politics of Nonviolent Action Vol. 2.

-- RohanGrey - 24 May 2012