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santiago:
Political domination (an extreme term used to illustrate my argument) by non-violent means (i.e., out-organizing political opponents) is therefore not in remotely the same category of human activity as domination through violent means -- killing people.

The Saul Alinsky school of community organizing puts it this way: There are two ways of organizing people to obtain the results of collective action: through violence, or through managing human relationships. If you're not doing it through relationships, then you are ceding the ground to those who will do it through violence.

There's also economic dominance, economic force and organizing society through money.

Denying people money is not as destructive as killing them, but only just.

Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 12:39:13 PM EST
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Economics is a subset of human, power relationships. That just speaks to the independence of methods and justice. One can use a perfectly good non-violent method for organizing a theft of the poor for the benefit of the rich, and doing it that way is clearly superior to doing it through violence.  It doesn't, however, change the injustice of the outcome or the need for people to combat it.  What Sharpe's (and others such as Alinsky's) writing has shown is that there are serious alternatives to violence for combating injustice, usually more effective alternatives, that can be employed by justice-minded people.
by santiago on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 12:49:33 PM EST
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I find myself, to my amazement, in full agreement.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.
by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Wed Feb 23rd, 2011 at 10:19:00 PM EST
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