Al Gore on Civil Disobedience

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration."--Al Gore speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative

I've long admired practitioners of civil disobedience from Thoreau, to Gandhi, to Martin Luther King Jr. and it is refreshing to hear somebody of Gore's stature advocating civil disobedience as a legitimate strategy. I, however, am not sure as to the efficacy of such an endeavor aimed at the prevention of "the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration." It seems a little too nuanced of a position (that some coal plants are okay, but only so long as they utilize a certain technology which mitigates their harms) and if there is one thing I've realized from watching the last two election cycles, it's that the American people don't do well with nuance; the American people need "coal bad, solar good."

Taking the example of the civil rights movement (that of the 1950's to 1960's--again, more nuance), we see that people need dramatic images framed in terms of right and wrong. It was the televised broadcasts of innocent men and women being mauled by dogs and sprayed by fire hoses that aroused the conscience of Americans. I think it would be difficult to frame these coal plant acts thusly. Instead, I see them being dismissed as the isolated actions of tree-huggers--not to be taken seriously. That's not to say it's impossible...solely that their work is cut out for them and a proper frame will be a necessity.

One of the most difficult parts will be garnering sustained media attention, because as a society, we have the attention span of gnats. A mass movement is necessary to raise these actions above the din of the 10 second news cycle. Perhaps if a civil disobedience demonstration were planned for the opening of every single new coal plant that didn't possess carbon capture technology it might be meaningful enough to gain some coverage.

Non-violent civil disobedience, distinguished from other lawlessness by a willful acceptance of the penalty, is a tremendously powerful philosophy--one which the medical marijuana legalization movement would do well to adopt. I've always envisioned a rally on the steps of the Capitol Building with hundreds of patients, the more sickly the better, lighting up and subsequently being arrested. We must harness the lessons of the civil rights movement by employing the power of images. By replacing the image in people's minds of a young person gaming the system in order to get high with that of a police officer hauling off a wheelchair bound cancer patient, we can leverage action by politicians. It is much more difficult to dismiss an injustice when you are confronted with the face of the victim.

This was a criticism I had of a march against the DEA's closure of Santa Barbara's cannabis clubs that I recently attended. For every twenty relatively healthy looking people there was one person who looked seriously ill. Now, as a medical cannabis user who probably fits the stereotype of a healthy looking, college age student, I'd like to say that not all of us carry our scars on the outside. However, I also understand the power of framing and the importance of striking visual imagery.

"Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine."- Thoreau

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."- Thoreau

"Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is force to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."- MLK Jr.

“One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”- MLK Jr.