“Do you say that it is always good to be a non-conformist because you believe that, almost necessarily, the establishment, the institutions, are going to embody that which is the worst, rather than the best, of humankind? That, under the circumstances, almost necessarily, #dissent is the proper relationship towards one’s society?”

This question was posed on February 26, 1968 by #William_F_Buckley_Jr., then host of the public affairs program “#FIRING_LINE.” Buckley was an American intellectual and conservative author/commentator who founded the #National_Review. The answer to Buckley’s question was provided by the late British journalist and outspoken controversial social critic #Malcolm_Muggeridge.

Events in the American South in the 1960s served as the definitive backdrop for the discussion on dissent. Three years before the program aired, African Americans peaceably expressing dissent against voter suppression were attacked by law enforcement officers at the Edmund Pettus bridge as they initiated a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Two years prior to #Bloody_Sunday, African American citizens expressing dissent against Jim Crow segregation laws were assaulted brazenly with dogs, clubs, and high-pressure fire hoses while marching in Birmingham, also in Alabama. The appalling images of both incidents were captured on film and aired on the national network news, providing, in part, the impetus for the enactment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The former made segregation in public places illegal and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; and, the latter made it against the law to disenfranchise or suppress African American voters. 

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from [killing] me.” Sadly, post the enactment of Civil Rights legislation, the persistent unequal administration of the law has placed the last part of this pronouncement in question. Time and time again, the American public has borne witness to authorities murdering people of color with impunity. The reality is that African Americans dying at the hands of the law is nothing new in the US. What is new is that the smart phone video technology is now available to almost every citizen enabling the documentation of many injustices that once went unexposed.

The widespread dissemination of videos of White law enforcement officer killing Americans of African descent callously in the light of day suggest that the #bigotry that was the foundation of #Jim_Crow is still present today. Still, like the New York investment manager who called the police falsely claiming that an African American was threatening her in Central Park, many Whites in power continue to say, “I’m not a #racist,” while simultaneously their misguided supporters claim leaders who continually sow hate and division are empowered by divinity.

Given current and past events, the manifestation of furious dissent is more than understandable because those in power are unwilling to concede the destructive impact their actions or inaction have on minority groups.

This is not to say that the issue of racism is exclusive to one race or ethnicity. That is, living in imperfect societies creates imperfect people, biases and prejudices are ingrained in all persons in a matter of degrees. The continuous dilemma human beings have is that a numerically dominant group always exists in a society. And historically, the dominant group wittingly or unwittingly uses its governing power to perpetrate, perpetuate and promulgate their biases and prejudicial views via the #law.  For that reason, in societies formed by European colonizers in the Americas, #public_policy diminishes the worthiness of people of color. 

Buckley and Muggeridge discussion on dissent was addressing college students’ protests against the Vietnam War and not the African American led Civil Rights movement. The Vietcong’s surprise military attack, the “Tet Offensive,” took place in Vietnam four weeks before the program was recorded. The “Tet Offensive” escalated the war in Vietnam and intensified student led domestic protests on college campuses and throughout the nation. The student led dissent culminated at #Kent_State_University two years later where the National Guard fired semi-automatic rifles into a gathered crowd killing four white students and injuring nine. To many White Americans, the war’s end seemed nowhere in sight and the fear of enlistment into the Armed Forces was the basis of the dissent not the existence of unjust Jim Crow laws.

As a college student, I saw this memorable 1968 episode of the “FIRING LINE,” in which Buckley posed the question regarding dissent, in the late 1980s. Juxtaposed in a time when the Moral Majority, a politically influential right-wing Christian group, achieved prominence. To me, Muggeridge’s response, which referenced Jesus Christ’s journey into the wilderness, defied the common understanding of the nexus between power and dissent in a society.

To better understand Muggeridge’s words, I read every version of the Gospels of the New Testament, focusing on the period in which #Jesus_Christ was tempted by the Devil in the #Judaean_Desert. The biblical narrative provides that the Devil showed Jesus the kingdoms and the splendor on earth and then offered it all to him. In exchange for the power to rule over the earth, all Jesus had to do was bow at the Devil’s knee and worship him. Before reviewing the Scripture, even as a layman, I knew that Jesus was able to dissent and resist the Devil’s temptation. But reading the verse and thinking about Muggeridge’s answer made me wonder whether all the evil that exists in this world is a result of spiritually bankrupt and corrupt mortals not having the wherewithal to refute #Satan’s offer of power as Jesus Christ did.

Regardless of one’s perspective about what is written in the Bible, history tells that the struggle between Good and Evil is never ending. That is why it may be beneficial to consider Muggeridge’s iconoclastic statement about why there is a need for #dissent in a #society:

“Well, I think, … Power is the Devil…The Devil has #power in his gift. And, if men have power, it has been given to them by the #Devil, NOT by #God, because God does not traffic in power…”