The case for rebellion

Protest and discontent on the part of an individual do not necessarily indicate that something is wrong with him; something may be wrong with society. Yet the general trend of contemporary psychiatry is to adjust the individual to society rather than help restore the health of society.

Manis a rebel. He is the author of the changes of his physical and social environment. He is committed by his biology not to conform and herein lies the fundamental cause for the turmoil he faces in relation to society. Unlike other creatures, man cannot submit, cannot surrender his birthright of protest, for rebellion is one of his essential dimensions: quot;It is better to die an unsatisfied Socrates than to die as a satisfied pigquot;.

Before John Locke, respectable people had abhorred rebellion as a form of sporadic, untamed, mob violence, illegitimate in origin and incapable of achieving moral good: to impose upon power the necessity of justifying its existence 8212; not by reference to divine grace, nor to tradition, nor to sheer force, but through the freely given consent of the people. Locke declared the arbitrary autocrat on outcast and rebels against him the defenders of the law.

Harold Laski said, quot;The roots of valid law are and can only be within the individual consciencequot;. Locke restricts the right ofrebellion to the injured minority. Laski goes further, concluding that the individual will have to decide for himself whether he will bow to established law and order or feel compelled, by an inner impulse of irrepressible intensity, to rebel.

Rebellion against government is justified only when the majority of people are oppressed by despotic majority or by a single despot as in South Africa, India and Germany. Mussolini8217;s ouster in 1943 and his assassination also justify this concept. Under such conditions, rebellion is not only morally justified but it becomes a moral duty. If force is the only way to wrest freedom from a tyrannical minority, then force must be used.

Lenin unbreakable will was central to the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. In his last letter to comrades Lenin roared, quot;History will not forgive revolutionaries for procrastinating when they can be victorious today, while they risk losing much, in fact everything, tomorrow.quot;

Thomas Jefferson declared, quot;And what countries can preserveliberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of freedom8230;The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.quot;

There is no way of making a state active in the fulfillment of its functions except the knowledge that men will refuse to obey its commands where they regard them as a violation of that function. Pericles saw that truth when he told Athenians that the secret of liberty was courage.

People8217;s patient wait for reform before they turn to violence is a remarkable feature of the human race. In any society, violence is unlikely if the conviction is widespread that the state is seriously attempting to fulfill its obligations. Violence comes when the facts persuade men to believe that the bona fides of their rulers are no longer self-evident.