Political Protest under the Totalitarian System Essay example -- Total

The paper concerns the principles presupposed in political protest against the totalitarian regime. In contrast to the utilitarian view of active in political protest (K.D.Opp, M. Taylor) the author tries to suggest the moral model of political protest. According to this model, the main reason and motif for challenging the regime is the wrong-doing of the limits of concession, which jeopardizes the spiritual identity and essential qualities of the individuals and all groups (i.e., Church, family, nation). The participants of the protest do not calculate in terms of egoistic or private interests and utilities but in terms of moral values. They consider what action at law is morally good and bad or morally better or worse in this situation, disregarding their in the flesh(predicate) profits and happiness. The overthrow of the communist system is an incalculating and contingent result of combating the extreme manifestations and worst excesses of the system. 1. Protest in Defense of IdentityThere are triple essential forms of opposing the totalitarian system covert passive resistance, overt non-violent protest, and armed struggle. The first form of activity results, in a way, from a faction of utilitarian calculating and axiological considerations. The oppositionists may cooperate with the rgime and publicly countenance it, while at the same time they venture to take action in order to liberalize the system and take the edge off the dictatorship, whenever this is possible, i.e., not noticed by the authorities, legitimate, or profitable in view of the favor of the punishment faced by the offenders. Both individuals and institutions may follow this pattern. Under the Communist rule in Eastern Europe, even persons holding publ... ...pp, Repression and Revolutionary exploit East Germany in 1989, Rationality and Society, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1994, pp. 101138 M. Taylor, Anarchy and Cooperation, London, 1976 M. Taylor ed., Rationality and Revolution, Cambridge, 1988.(7 ) M. Weber, Gesammelte Aufstze zur Wissenschaftslehre, Tbingen, 1973, especially Chapters II & X.(8) Cf. A. Michnik, Z dziejw honoru w Polsce From the fib of Honor in Poland, Warszawa, 1993.(9) Cf. V. Havel, Sila bezsilnych The Power of the Powerless, Berlin, 1995.(10) Arystoteles Aristotle, Etyka Nikomachejska Nichomachean Ethics, Warszawa, 1956, Books III & V.(11) T. Buksinski, Kategoria etycznosci a rzeczywistosc krajw postkomunistycznych The Category of the Ethical vs. the Reality of the Post-Communist Countries, Edukacja Filozoficzna, 1995, No. 19, pp. 123132.(12) J. Kuron, op. cit.