Libya

Faces of Oppression

The situation in Libya shows the power of anger and the inevitable effects of oppression of the many by the few. The Arab Spring is simply a normal human expression of rebellion against oppression. So is the Occupy movement in the United States. Different forms of expression to different forms of oppression.

The Libyans have the advantage of starting anew. They have fought hard against a homicidal maniac, and their own violence may prove a hard poison to remedy in their society. The cycle of violence is a difficult one to break. If they can restore civility, they could be exemplars for establishing a more egalitarian, civilized state from the ruins of dictatorship.

In the United States, civility in protest is a relatively new phenomenon. Police are less violent when dealing with nonviolent civil disobedience due to nearly microscopic visibility of all their actions in the media. Compromise between authority and protesters on the ground in local communities is a good model for creative change. Occupy demonstrators have, for the most part, been able to get their message across to society through commercial media without having to smash storefronts or overturn cars. 

I know from my experience in the gay rights struggles of the 1970s that nonviolent protest speaks loudly to oppressive power. I know from my experience during the peak of AIDS deaths in the U.S. (1988-1998) that nonviolent civil disobedience and activism breaks through society's denial of a real problem. I also know that problems denied and oppression denied become explosive over time.

Part of what I call humanist practice is addressing oppression, whenever encountered, directly and immediately. This may entail calmly interrogating a police officer when I think I see an unjust situation. This may entail writing an email or making a phone call  to an authority which is not doing its job or is abusing its power. In business, I do not tolerate being cheated or lied to. I assert my rights as a citizen, as a consumer and as a vendor. This requires education in the basic laws of citizenship and commerce, as well as developing a code of personal behavior and ethics.

A society, in order to be considered civilized,  must be composed of civil people and must be governed by civil authority, which adhere to law and a code of behavior (order). Preventing oppression by greed, authoritarian brutality or familial domination is the job of each individual in a democratic society. Being a humanist brings the additional responsibility of fighting oppression of others as well as of oneself for the greater good.