Conscientious
Objection according to the
Selective Service System
Spring 2001
RELG 2420.03
© Bill Barrett and Robert Goss,
2001
Updated 18 January 2001
Feedback to Bill or Bob (general opinions, problems, suggestions, etc.) on this hypersyllabus is encouraged!
Class description:
Through readings, discussion, and direct experience, we seek to understand and integrate into our lives the principle that is really is possible to live a life that seeks justice and acts rightly in the real world. We will examine the stories of women and men who seem to have succeeded in living with integrity through the centuries, and we will try to move beyond theory to concrete experience. Topics include nonviolence and pacifism,
conflict resolution, gender and sexual orientation and civil protection, feminism and patriarchy, racism and economic
justice, as well as action for change, civil disobedience and resistance. Class attendance is very important this course. Your participation and attendance are a large part
of your grade -- make sure both are exceptional. Written assignments and class presentations
must be completed on schedule.
Texts:
Requirements: Class participation, presentation and the writing of that presentation into a 3-4 page paper, and a group project. Your are expected to visit each of the online sites and spend some time reading and familiarize yourself with the resources.
What we're doing and when:
Week 1 (1/17). Why we are here.
"There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."
--A.J. Muste
Introductions and expectations; because of the topics we will cover, it is important to get a sense of our personal histories and why this course seemed interesting. Requirements and grading. Your presentations and papers
Using eGroups to communicate with each other; the conference for this class is called "DoingJustice." (If you are new to on-line discussion groups, read the "rules of the road" before you jump in!).
Week 2 (1/24). Nonviolence and pacifism.
read: Lynd & Lynd, Nonviolence in America, pp. 209-220 (King); 220-222 (CORE & SNCC)
further reading...
Bill Sutherland & Matt Meyer, Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation in Africa, Africa World Press, 2000, ISBN 0865437513.
Week 3 (1/31). Civil disobedience, resistance, and action for change..
"Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnal house. We could not, so help us
God, do
otherwise, for we are sick at heart. Our hearts give us no rest for thinking of the
land of burning children. We say, killing is disorder, life and gentleness and community and unselfishness is the only order we recognize. The time is past when good people may be silent, when obedience can segregate us from public risk, when the poor can die without defense. How many indeed must die before our voices are heard? How many must be tortured, dislocated, starved, maddened? How long must the world's resources be raped in the service of legalized murder? When, at what point, will you say no to the war? We have chosen to say with the gift of our liberty, if necessary our lives: the violence stops here, the death stops here, the suppression of the truth stops here, the war stops here!"
--
Daniel Berrigan,
Statement on the burning of draft files at Catonsville, Maryland, 1968
read: Lynd & Lynd, Nonviolence in America, pp. 21-38 (Thoreau); 508-515 (Rosenblith)
Week 4 (2/7). Conscientious objection and the "Just War" theory.
read: Lynd & Lynd, Nonviolence in America, pp. 492-503 (Zinn)
Conscientious
Objection according to the
Selective Service System
further reading...
Gordon Zahn, In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter
Week 5 (2/14). Gender Oppression
"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution."
-- Emma Goldman
read: Ellison, Erotic Justice, pp. 1-58
Week 6 (2/218). Sexual Orientation Oppression
“Though pleasure
producing, our eroticism is not self-indulgent. It is a way of being open to
life. Our sexual liberation affirms gay/lesbian sexuality as God’s creative
design for sexual creatures. Erotic
power is about inclusive love-making and justice-doing. Erotic power opens lovers beyond themselves to a network of erotic
relatedness and embodied interactions.”
-- Robert
Goss
read: Ellison, Erotic Justice, pp. 59-93
Week 7 (2/28). The Intersection of a Network of Oppressions
“Oppression is not only
evil, it is blasphemous because it makes a child of God doubt that s/he is a
child of God..”
-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu
read: Ellison, Erotic Justice, pp. 94-122.
Video: Dr. Elias Farajaje-Jones
Week 8 (3/7). Capital Punishment, Economic Justice and American Society
"Capital punishment: Them without the capital get the punishment."
read: Lynd & Lynd, Nonviolence in America, pp. 344-361 (Prejean); 363-374 (Chavez)
Spring Break
Week 9 (3/21). Human rights, refugees and the effects of war
"Today the causes of war are almost entirely business
causes...that is to say, money causes. The whole world is scrambling and
grabbing for money - for markets and oilfields, and coal field, and spheres of
influence and concessions... Every Penny paid in income tax is usury on war
loan.... Modern war having come to be what it is, all talk about patriotism and
defense of civilization is irrelevant."
-- Eric Gill (Armistice
Day, 1936)
Week 10 (3/28). Dissidents and their legacy in the Christian tradition.
read: Lynd & Lynd, Nonviolence in America, pp. 309-324 (Day); 324-326 (Merton);
Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness, Harper San Francisco; ISBN 0060617519. Peter Maurin, Easy Essays, Franciscan Herald Pressfurther reading...
WRL Tax Pie
chart "Where Your Income
Tax Money Really goes" 2002
A class
experiment: How would you spend your taxes? (You need
the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view this page.)
Week 11 (4/4). The Traditions of Nonwestern Religions
“Nonviolence is the
greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the
ingenuity of man.”
-- Mohandas
K. Gandhi
read: Subverting Hatred, pp.13-110
Week 12 (4/11). Engaged Buddhism
“For as long as space endures, and for as long as
living beings remain, until then may I, too abide to dispel the misery of the
world.”
-- Bodhisattva Vow
read: Buddhist Peacework, pp. 15-92
“We in the movement for democracy in Burma recognize
that democracy and human rights are interdependent, that one cannot survive
without the other. In working for democracy and human rights we are striving to
establish political and social institutions and values that will free our people
from want and fear. We wish our country to be a genuine refuge for all who
come under its protection. In our endeavours we are strengthened by the support
of organizations that have acquired firsthand knowledge of the indissoluble
links between freedom and security.”
-- Aung San Suu
Kyi
Nobel Peace Prize Winners and Nominees:
Week 13. (4/18) Engaged Buddhism
“Our most valuable
teachers are our enemies. Not only is this a fundamental Buddhist teaching, it
is a demonstrated fact of life. While our friends can help us in many ways, only
our enemies can provide us the challenge we need to develop tolerance, patience,
and compassion.”
-- The Dalai Lama
read: Buddhist Peacework, pp.93-199
Week 14. (4/25). Additional student presentations
Week 15. (5/2). Additional student presentations
Week 15. (5/9). Final exam
loose ends: domestic violence, organizing (WRL packet), logistics of doing a demo (ask Kit re PR), getting arrested, CO docmentation, El Salvador, Ghandi & the salt march, sweatshops, anarchism & personalism
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