Civil Disobedience as Compassionate
Action / Rose McCormick
Within contemporary news over the last ten
or more years can be found a slew of stories
regarding social and civil disobedience: people
chaining themselves to pipeline valves, making
homes up in trees, camping out in front of natural
gas pipelines, protesting the electing of
government officials, questioning the authority and
decisions of Conservation Authorities…the list goes
on and on.
Often, these stories are retold through
various media, but with a distinctive lack of focus
as to why all of these individuals and groups are
taking such severe and, at times, highly punishable
actions. In creating a fragmented discourse around
environmental activism, major media outlets are
able to paint those acting out in protection as
social dissenters bent on overthrowing what is
displayed as a perfectly healthy system. At times,
individual activists are questioned regarding their
reasoning and beliefs around their action, but,
within dominant social discussion this reasoning
and praxis remains fractured and individualized.
Overwhelmingly, it seems as though groups
of social dissenters and activists must write their
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