The problem is the performative contradiction. Among the things a
person opposed to militarism might be expected to believe is that
Might does not make Right (I do understand now, and did then, that
there is rather more to it than that). But marches and protests and
demonstrations do seem to me to involve an at least (and not always
only) implicit assertion that you have to listen to us because there
are a lot of us and we're taking up a lot of space and making a lot of
noise. They are rather ineluctably a demonstration of physical oomph,
even if they are impeccably nonviolent in their conduct and consist of
nothing more agitated than a bunch of people sitting down in the
middle of a public square and singing.
Dominic
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