The right to think for yourself

How do you stand up to a mob? Lauren Victor, urban planner and Washington, D. C., resident, demonstrated as much on Aug. 24. On the first night of the Republican National Convention, a crowd of protesters marched down a popular commercial street in Washington shouting “White silence is violence!” and calling for everyone, including young children, to raise a clenched fist. Ms. Victor, however, refused to participate in this morality play.

As she sat outside a restaurant, she found herself surrounded by a crowd of angry demonstrators, screaming at her to “Put your fist up!” The mob felt no obligation to clarify. Ms. Victor wrote in an op- ed published in The Washington Post that no one in the group told her why they were marching when she asked.

“When they crowded around my table and started demanding that I raise my fist, it was their insistence that I participate in something that I did not understand that led me to withhold my hand,” she said. “In retrospect, I would have done the same thing even if it was crystal clear to me who they were and what they stood for. If you want my support, ask it of me freely,” Ms. Victor added. “That’s what we do in a democracy.” Indeed.

By standing defiant, and alone, in the face of a bullying, sanctimonious mob, Ms. Victor demonstrated what philosopher William James called that “lonely courage.” The protesters understood one thing very well: Their demonstration was about power.

Coercing their fellow citizens — and even the prepubescent — to follow their demands allows the protesters to exercise what they think is political power; however, Ms. Victor understood that power based on fear and intimidation is fraudulent, and she refused to be cowed.

Progress of the nature these protesters are presumably demanding will not be achieved by this type of aggressive activism. This behavior is not a vehicle for effective political change. In fact, it is an abandonment of politics, and it will only corrode the social fabric and lead to mistrust and violence.

Further, what exactly does “White silence is violence” mean in this case? That anyone who does not join the mob, march down the street and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens is perpetuating violence against Black people? Or that whoever does not sanction the protesters’ self- righteous behavior by raising a fist is somehow unconcerned with the plight of Black America?

Ms. Victor demonstrated that the First Amendment assures us the freedom to think for ourselves. Freedom of speech is freedom of thought.

The irony of the story is that Ms. Victor is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and has marched repeatedly this summer in support of their cause.

But she still controls her own thoughts and actions in specific moments in her life.

“Patriotism and intelligence will have to come together again,” George Orwell once wrote. That must be the hope in our current season of discontent.