Protests and Contests

As you can tell from the scarcity of recent posts, I'm still busy working away on my novel. Even though this has been my preoccupation for some time, there are still many conversations that have come up that I would like to share.

One conversational theme that has come up quite a bit recently is that of protests and social conscience. While I am of the opinion that it is our duty to look at the world around us and help improve it while we are still alive, the following quote sums up, quite nicely, my view of protests.

"Humanity's crying need will not be met by a struggle among competing ambitions or by protest against one or another of the countless wrongs afflicting a desperate age. It calls, rather, for a fundamental change of consciousness, for a wholehearted embrace of Bahá'u'lláh's teaching that the time has come when each human being on earth must learn to accept responsibility for the welfare of the entire human family."

A dear friend recently commented on his understanding of my view of protests, thinking that I was against protests of all kinds. In the course of our conversation, we realized that his definition of 'protest' actually included two different types of action. The first, and most common, is an action that proposes ceasing some other type of action. In short, it is a "Don't-do-this" statement.

The second, much rarer but one which I agree is most worthwhile, is a statement of an alternative option.

Fighting racism is a prime example of the first type of protest. In communities where this has been the prevalent attitude towards addressing the race issue, things have regularly gotten worse. For more on this, see one of the articles below.

The movement in the 1970s for dolphin-safe tuna is a marvellous example of the second. In this case, a problem was identified, namely that the methods of hunting tuna also ended up killing many dolphins. A solution was offered, which was identifying methods of hunting tuna that did not kill the dolphins. The "protests" involved raising the awareness of this alternative option. Today, it seems that most tuna are captured in a manner that is now safe for the dolphins.

To help better identify the difference between the two, I suggested that we refer to the first type as an actual "protest", as the people involved are acting against something. The second type I refer to as a "contest", in that they are contesting the prevailing view and offering a solution.


In the quote cited, it is mentioned that "protesting against one or another of the countless wrongs" will not help meet "humanity's crying need". What will meet this need, it says, is the "wholehearted embrace" of the realization that we must all "accept responsibility for the welfare of the entire human family". If it is this realization, and its subsequent embrasure, that will meet this need, then we need to better understand what it means.

In North America, our society seems to perpetuate the opposite view, namely that we are not responsible for ourselves, much less others. There are countless examples in the court system where people blame others for their own stupidity, for lack of a better word. In the words of Sheri Tepper, an author who consistently writes very intelligent fiction, "If someone has a broken ladder, sees that it is broken, climbs it, falls and breaks a leg, he is allowed to sue the manufacturer without even having to pay the lawyer... This is monstrous!"

A few years ago I saw a gang of 6 beating someone in a public square with baseball bats, while numerous others stood around crying "Someone call 911". I was the only one who ran forward to save this victim. The gang of people killing this person then turned on me. I took a blow to the leg, but was able to draw them away from their intended victim. Since I was the only one who arose to defend this person, the group of them got away and were never caught, much less persecuted, even though it was all caught on tape. If everyone else stopped calling for someone else to come and save this victim, then we would have been able to apprehend at least one of them and bring them to justice. Nevertheless, as disappointing as this was, what really saddened me was the reaction of the police officers. They told me that I should not have gotten involved. These officials, speaking with the authority of the government, were, in effect, telling me that it was better to watch someone die than to risk any possible injury to my own self.

This was not possible for me.

I had to accept "responsibility for the welfare of" this other individual, or else I would not be contributing to helping meet "humanity's crying need".

This is, of course, a very obvious example. It gets much more difficult to see when the problem appears more abstract.

Today, many more of us are coming to understand that our actions with the environment have a direct impact on those people living in remote areas far away from us. By driving when I can walk, or by purchasing commodities that are high in energy consumption in the manufacturing process, I am directly contributing to the manifold problems facing people in the Arctic regions. I am directly contributing to the forces that are augmenting the severe weather patterns around the globe, resulting in more severe hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and so forth.

My choices to conserve energy, and use more responsible products are a direct result of this understanding.

But this is, of course, just a beginning.

Living with these ideas has been likened to walking in a dark forest with a flashlight shining at our feet. We can only see the next few steps in front of us. Of course, as we take those steps, we see even more implications just ahead of us. While we feel we may have some understanding of what all this means, we are really only at the very beginning of seeing the implications. In the words of Shoghi Effendi,

"All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity."

So let us take these first few steps forward, seeing our positive options and helping others see them, and cease keeping our focus backwards at what we want to leave behind. Having a goal to strive towards is so much more effective in giving a positive direction to our movement.