A Thoreauvian Vision Coming to Pass

As my fifth and final post to follow my four formal posts (link to those four provided here), I would like to expose the literature, Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" in a comparison with Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) as we know it.

In my research and readings, I haven't found much on the topic other than ECD articles and websites simply saying that Thoureau's essay was the primary text or that it pioneered ECD. Something I believe but I could never find evidence or support for this philosophy. In a close reading of the literary, I have found many comparisons that can be applied to ECD and establish the text as a true primary source for the virtual method of protest.

The Analysis

"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'...and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." Thoreau begins the text by arguing that government is subject to the people. This sets a foundation which allows the people the right to stand up to their government, protest, and standing for what they believe is to be true. "Government" he says has "lost some of its integrity...it [imposes upon man]...it does not keep the country free, it does not educate." Thoreau mentions the Mexican War, something he was greatly opposed to. The Mexican people would not have "consented to this measure" to which the Mexican government imposes upon them.

"Civil Disobedience" and the Zapatistas

The Zapaitsta Army of National Liberation have been fighting a battle against the Mexican Government for its implentation of NAFTA, which they believe increases neo-liberalism and capitalism which oppress the indigenous people and Working class in the state of Chiapas. The Zapatista Army is not demanding a government to cease governing the people at all but "at once a better government." This battle began in 1994 and is still continuing 16 years later. Thoreau admonishes "every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it." A battle that has prolonged 16 years and is not over yet has definitely posed as a threat to the Mexican government. A battle for the equal rights and liberation of the indigenous people in Chiapas.

Thoreau was not only an abolitionist but also went to jail for refusing to pay his poll tax under President James K. Polk's term in office in protest that it would support the Mexican War. He says:

I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also. All men recognize the right of revolution...the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government when its tyranny or its inefficient are great and unendurable.

The Zapatistas recognize the right and freedom of all mankind. They believe that Everything is for Everyone and Everyone has the right to Freedom. This video clip below shows two travelers visit to Chiapas and their interview with Zapatista leaders. In Zapatista territory, the Zapatistas rule the government and the government is subject to the people. This illuminates a society in which Thoreau imagined.

Thoreau wrote this text for all people in all places. The Zapatista battle has also been a battle of peaceful protest. A "peaceable revolution," Thoreau states, is "if a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood." The Zapatistas have partaken in Thoreau's ideology of peaceful revolution. Since 1994, the Zapatista army has abstained from using their weapons for violence. Instead, they have been determined to fight their war through words. Words relaying their actions and messages. The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) has greatly assisted in spreading the Zapatista message through using FloodNet software and other forms of ECD like Virtual Sit-Ins and Hacktivism.

"Civil Disobedience" and Professor Ricardo Dominguez

Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of EDT and professor on ECD at University of California-San Diego, recently led a protest along with his students against the UCOP (University of California Office of the President) in the increased college fees. The protests took place on the internet through Virtual Sit-Ins. "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right." Dominguez and his students thought this to be right and a cause for a Virtual Sit-In, "[letting] every [student and professor] make known what kind of [UCOP] would command [their] respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it." As the UCOP websites were hacktivated and the reload button was clicked by over 400 students every 1 to 6 seconds, creating a feel for thousands of computers trying to access, messages were sent out and students felt their academic freedom was being violated.

Shortly after the attacks, Dominguez was brought into questioning, UCSD placing him under surveillance to see if any criminal charges could be placed for a professor that had just recently given tenure. Placed under scrutiny by his own "government", Dominguez "educated" his students and others by "serving the state with [his] conscience, and so necessarily [resisting] it for the most part" to be "commonly treated as [an enemy]." Through their protest, they "[refused] allegiance to, and [resisted], the government [UCOP]." Letters were written all over the globe in support for Dominguez's actions. Students and faculty performed a silent protest on campus in support of Dominguez and protesting the right to academic freedom, declaring their virtual protest as a new media form of art.

"A wise man will not leave the right to ther mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority." What if Dominguez didn't protest the increased college fee? The vote would go to the California people and the majority vote might be a "yes". Through protesting and standing for justice, Dominguez raised awareness, sparked thought, and possibly created change through sending artistic messages across the Internet medium. As Thoreau ceased to pay his poll tax, he said "it costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey." Pay the highway tax yes he would but "as for supporting schools," Thoreau is "doing [his] part to educate [his] fellow countrymen now." Would Dominguez pay the increased college fee if he were subject to? I do not believe he would. As the "Government" fails "to educate," Dominguez succeeds through his actions.

Thoreauvian Vision

"I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor...A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen."

The Zapatistas in Chiapas, Ricardo Dominguez's protests in San Diego, and Virtual Sit-Ins and other forms of protest provided by the Internet allow for this State to be visualized. Activists exposing the truth, defending causes for truth, justice, and equality, and standing up against the "evils" and "machines" of government, have pushed Thoreau's philosophy further. Thoreau applauds a Chinese philosophers wisdom "to regard the individual as the basis of the empire"

The Internet provides a means of freedom. As Thoreau sat in his jail cell, he recognized the freedom he had and in no sense a feeling of confinement. The World Wide Web provides a means of open access, communication over the globe, and endless opportunities to spread messages of activism and protest. There are no "walls of stone...to climb or break through" to become free. A vision and a means becoming fulfilled one activist at a time.

Discoveries

I've been searching blogs and Twitter trying to find people interested in social networking and discussing electronic civil disobedience and (if possible) in relation to Henry David Thoreau. I stumbled upon civil disobedience & nonviolence: Manuals for resistance with the help of Internet, a blog "on civil disobedience, innovative resistance without protest, direct action and plowshares disarmament". In this post that I have linked, the author (who I believe is Per Herngren, an author of several texts online that discuss non-violence and the practices of civil disobedience) provides links to websites that teach internet activists how to use Twitter in times of conflict (providing a variety of languages including Farsi) and mentions that "Quite a few of my postprotest hacker friends are involved in making the manuals." This sparked some interest in that in my last post I mentioned hackers on the internet (more in depth posting of hacktivism to come in future blog posts). Herngren is familiar with postprotest hackers and commemorates each blog posting to an act of civil disobedience or nonviolent action.

A recent article found in the NY Daily News speaks about an act of civil disobedience occurred this past Tuesday in Manhattan as a crowd of protestors gathered in front of the Federal Building protesting immigration laws. Ever since Arizona passed the SB1070 immigration law, incidents have occurred all over the country.

Arizona's new law has reawakened Latino and immigrant communities. They're not about to let Congress and Obama dodge the question any longer.

If they do, watch the number of people arrested for civil disobedience climb from a just few hundred into the tens of thousands.

Although this article discusses a physical form of civil disobedience, there are forms of ECD that are occuring along the same issue as well. Twitter users tag #Arizona and #immigration to discuss disturbances about Arizona's new law. Twitter users hate Arizona's new immigration law according to the Huffington Post. Activists are spreading the word about the Arizona anti-immigration law through social networking cites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs.

Online news articles discussing civil disobedience are getting several comments. By participating in some of the comment streams I think I'll be able to get my ideas out there and even form new ones as discussion allows.

Electronic Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau wrote in his revolutionary essay, “Civil Disobedience”, "I heartily accept the motto…That government is best which governs least;…and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out it finally amounts to this, which I also believe…That government is best which governs not at all." Civil disobedience may be defined as a non-violent direct action involving denials of service, occupation, and obstruction. Sit-ins, protests in front of official’s buildings, blocking entranceways, and creating formations that are civilly disruptive. Civil disobedience has been present in America since the beginning of her battle against England for independence.

The Tea Act, Quartering Act, and Stamp Act led up to the Boston Tea Party among several different types of boycotts performed by colonial citizens that showed England they were pushing towards an American democracy. In 1848, Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his poll tax. Paying it would support the war against Mexico, something that Thoreau thoroughly opposed. His essay “Civil Disobedience” emerged from his actions and his teachings have become integrated into the foundations of The United States of America. Years later, women fought for the right to vote and succeeded in 1920 with the 19th Amendment.

Fourty-eight years later, in 1968, evolving from the Civil Rights Movement, civil disobedience became an important and pervasive tactic used by protestors of the United States war against Vietnam. In 1971, Howard Zinn and twenty thousand people opposing the United States War with Vietnam gathered at Washington and committed civil disobedience by tying up Washington D.C. traffic to express their anger and repulsion against the killing going on in Vietnam. Zinn among fourteen thousand others were arrested, the largest mass arrest in American history. Zinn and protestors chose civil disobedience to protest the Vietnam war. He says in his speech at Washington:

A lot of people are troubled by civil disobedience. As soon as you talk about committing civil disobedience, they get a little upset. That is exactly the purpose of civil disobedience: to upset people, to trouble them, to disturb them. We who commit civil disobedience are disturbed too and we need to disturb those who are in charge of a war

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These forms of civil unrest and defiance have shaped United States history and altered the laws, practices, and policies of the American government. Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”, shook America and over 150 years later has influenced thousands to revolt against the evils of government. As time moves on, the tactics of civil disobedience have become even more prevalent and accessible in modern society.

The form of civil disobedience is steadily becoming altered. Telegraphs and railroads in Thoreau’s time, television in the 1960s, and today the usage of the personal computer advances the information that is being spread to the public. Cyber-activism allows a means for activists to communicate with one another and across international borders. As cyber activists join together, they engage in what becomes more popularly known as electronic civil disobedience.

Electronic civil disobedience is comprised of the same ideas present in civil disobedience but just transferring them over to the internet. Clearly, the physical aspects of civil disobedience are not present among electronic civil disobedience, however, the trespassing and blockading is applied in a different way—in digital form. Hacking the internet to perform electronic civil disobedience creates a whole new realm of places for protest in cyberspace. Virtual sit-ins are demonstrated where government and corporate web sites are blocked, prevent usage and allow activists to protest. Keith Parkins writes that “direct action in cyberspace is one end of the spectrum of infowar, where aggressive infowar can be seen as the cyberspace equivalent of physical warfare. The virtual sit-in, the equivalent to a physical site occupation.” Cyberspace gathers thousands just as the protests against the Vietnam War did among the streets in Washington. Cyber-activism creates a place where information can be shared rapidly and throughout cyberspace. The non-violent civil disobedience in history that has suspended government and corporate agencies is related to non-violent e-mail assaults capable of shutting down or suspending government or corporate servers. Electronic civil disobedience stands as an important element in radicalizing social movements on a cyberspace international level. Governments and corporations are now more aware of the potential threat of electronic civil disobedience created by cyber-activism. The flood of information through cyber-activism and the action taken because of that information, electronic civil disobedience, has greatly impacted the way people join together to protest and has certainly reformed the tactics of ordinary non-violent civil disobedience. And it all began with a revolution…

A revolution that began as history has allowed it to come to pass as people have for centuries displayed acts of social rebellion to obtain something of truth and valor. Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience”, however, taught the method and has influenced courageous activists for over 150 years. In an attempt to discuss the frontier and endless possibilities that electronic activism and civil disobedience will have upon the world, I will throughout a series of future blog posts discuss the history, current world-wide electronic civil disobedient movements, social networking, and various other topics that revolutionize the cyber world into a world that is greatly impacting the world. Standing for justice and fighting for the sanctification of human rights, Thoreau declares that “unjust laws exist” and asks fellow citizens “shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded or shall we transgress them at once?” Civil disobedience, including its various forms, opts to amend and fix problems found within government and if all else fails, to stand for justice and transgress the evil laws.