Rights Violation or a Complete Jerk?

[Doc]

That's just the thing, Doc's point isn't about degree. It's about pedal to the metal, fight for your rights tooth and nail every time.

The problem I have with imaging a society that functions such a way is there's no flexibility. There's no room to let bygones be bygones, to turn the other cheek. If you truly follow the maxim 'defend your rights', then you're forced to push back anytime you get pushed. Just take a moment and really think about what a society like that would be like. I'll tell you point blank it'd be very far from the civil lives most of us enjoy.

Now, I understand the knee jerk reaction. And I don't blame many of the posters for reacting to my point negatively. And that's why I wanted to respond, I feel I need to clarify my point. First and foremost I'm not against fighting for your rights. Personally, I have a deep love for the black civil rights movement, womens suffrage and womens civil rights, a love that an entire bookshelf of books can attest to. Not only do I think their actions were warranted, I think they were hero's for fighting against true injustice. They were smart, organized, and fought through as many channels as they could. And when those didn't work, they innovated and pushed on until change started to happen.

But the truth is this man isn't a hero like Ella Baker. It wasn't an effective and organized protest for change like SNCC's freedom rides. Standing up for your rights is about a goal. It's about fighting off true injustice and inequality in order to create a caring, peaceful, and functioning society - whether that be done as a great melting pot of homogenized culture, or as independent fingers on the hand of American culture.

Justice may be blind, but fighting blindly for your rights isn't just. The greater goal of this man's actions wasn't to create change for a better and more peaceful society - I believe if it was, he'd of started through the correct channels of protest (to the corporate level etc), and then upon their non-action, organized and committed civil disobedience. This man's actions were using the right to our Civil Rights as a sword, to exact the privilege guaranteed by being an American.

I know people will still disagree with me, and believe that fighting for your rights no matter how its done or in what context is correct. I know Doc will disagree with me vehemently, which I accept. But if you really stop a minute and think about a society of people blindly wielding their rights as a sword, I think you'll agree that it's not a better society. But just take a minute and really ask yourself, is this man a hero like the MLK Jr.'s of the world, or is he more like the DC Judge who wants 56 million dollars for his lost dry-cleaned pants (they did say 'satisfaction guaranteed', and after all isn't it his right to sue them when they don't live up to that standard?).

Cheers,

Munk

Edit: Left an extra paragraph at the bottom.

I don't disagree with you vehemently. In fact, I don't disagree with your post at all. You are absolutely correct in your line of thinking.
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However, I am also correct in that the little things do matter, and it is important to nudge back when nudged, push back when pushed, shove back when shoved, and shoot back when fired upon. See the points of escalation there? Opening fire when you are merely nudged IS the wrong thing to do. You are absolutely correct in your thinking there. Your logic is sound.

This man got played a ball. He lobbed it back in to their court. They escalated the game and shot the ball back to his side of the field, and he returned it in kind, totally fair play up to this point. And to make a complete failure of this sports analogy, the other side cheated and a referee that had no clue what was going on made a bad call, which for all likelihood, he will be punished.

Not everything has to be a battle, but it takes two to tango. If somebody asks me for a receipt, and I say no, ball is in their court. From there, their play. Not mine. It becomes their responsibility. If they insist, and press the issue, the responsibility passes to me to deal with their wrongdoing. Not every infraction requires a lunch counter sit in, but every infraction requires action, or at least some kind of action or acknowledgment lest we become complacent and lax in our own civic duties and begin to slide in to the very sort of mess we seem to be miring in right now where we have dozens of protrusions in to our privacy, our rights, and our personal space.

One thing that is very important to learn about civil disobedience as protest is to only push back as hard as you need to achieve equilibrium. And no harder. Unless of course the situation demands that the scales be completely demolished and a new system of checks and balances be built. (See women's suffrage and the civil rights movement) You don't go off and riot and set fire to stuff just because somebody asks to see a receipt. You do however, draw attention to the issue and demand recognition that your rights have been violated. There is a fine line here... And it takes a real asshole to push the issue right to that line but no farther. This guy is not telling people to go out and set fire to Circuit City... He is trying to make sure that his voice is not drowned out over this little unfairness or this injustice. He wants to be heard, he wants his rights. That's all. And he has the conviction and the gumption to stick up for himself and make himself heard. The cowardly sorts are going to gripe, piss, bitch, and moan about how he should have just shut up and took it, or that he is a jerk, or how wrong he is, but that is only because they are cowards. It galls them because they lack enough personal convictions or the stones to do it for themselves and they want to draw attention away from that fact by demonising the sheep that stood out. He didn't do enough to be a hero, but he did just enough to stand out, and that makes him an object of ridicule by the masses. The lone do-gooder that ventures forth to achieve his own ends is always alone, until he has his reward, at which time all the people mocking him and deriding him step forward to claim what they feel is their fair share of his reward.