I still recall as a child being very impressed by an interview withthe Sufi writer Idries Shah, who remarked how curious it was that somany intelligent and decent human beings in Europe and Americaspent so much of their time in protest marches chanting the namesand waving pictures of people that they hated (“Hey hey, LBJ, howmany kids did you kill today?”). Didn’t they realize, he remarked, howincredibly gratifying that was to the politicians they weredenouncing? It was remarks like that, I think, that eventually causedme to reject a politics of protest and embrace one of direct action.

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.