Peaceful revolution: is it possible?
I was inspired by a post from @raoufwilly the other day, in which he described the peaceful protests in Algeria, in which he participated. According to him, the protestors were non-violently calling for regime change, and this series of protests has even been dubbed at "the Smile Revolution."
Of course, those who are in power are typically reluctant to give up their power without a fight, but it started me thinking about what would happen if a critical mass of people suddenly decided that they were going to live independently and not recognize the authority of the state.
This wouldn't require hundreds of thousands of people spilling into the streets, demanding change. Rather, it would merely require enough people to decide to ignore the state completely, to stop recognizing its authority and taking their futures into their own hands.
Here in my home country of the United States, many who oppose our current president have labelled themselves as "the Resistance." In my view, they aren't really resisting much, but merely ready to put someone they support back into a position of authority over them. True "resistance" would be saying "no" to the entire apparatus and walking away from it.
As a libertarian, I strongly advocate for individuals taking control of their own destinies and for taking responsibility for their own livelihood and success. While sometimes that may take an armed resistance against an oppressive government, in other cases I believe that the same ends can be achieved peacefully. How? By interacting with each other, taking care of ourselves and each other, and conducting our affairs without regard to whoever is in power. We can achieve so much without the government intervening in our lives at all, and if enough of us decide to do so, even the most oppressive regime would not be able to stand ultimately against such a peaceful revolution.
The reason why our revolution is working is because we're not hundred thousands of people protesting but millions, just this past Friday we were 5 million protestors that protested downtown peacefully, that number scared the government. Great post, thank you!
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That has to send a terrifying message to those in power: millions of people showing up to say, "We don't need you or even want you." I wish Algerians success in doing so.