“Activism is the rent we must pay for the privilege of living in a democracy. Protest is how you pay your civic rent.”  – Red Room author Naomi Wolf, quoting her late grandmother, Dr. Fay Goleman in her article "The First Amendment and the Obligation to Peacefully Disrupt in a Free Society." Last week, we asked Red Roomers to blog about civil disobedience.

A few posts stood out:

• Author Gabriel Constans gives an able history of nonviolent protest, moving from the Buddha and Jesus to eastern and southern Europe in the '90s. We learned a lot reading "Civil Disobedience—Not For the Weak."
• One criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that the demands are unfocused. Member Rae Francoeur, however, hears a "harmony in this rallying cry." Read why in "A Cacophany of Causes."
• As a veteran of the antiwar movement of the late '60s and early '70s, member David Brown felt detached from the current OWS protests. Read how he changed his mind in "Searching for Civil Disobedience."

A few bloggers will receive books by Red Room authors:

• In Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries, bestselling author Naomi Wolf "illustrates the breathtaking changes that can take place when ordinary citizens engage in the democratic system the way the founders intended and tells how to use that system, right now, to change your life, your community, and ultimately, the nation."
• Gina Misiroglu's three-volume American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History "details the American counterculture from the establishment of the first Virginia colony in 1607 to the present day, focusing on the writings, recordings, and visuals produced to educate, inspire, and incite action."
• Dennis Loo's Globalization and the Demolition of Society is "(a) rousing critique of the rise to dominance of the belief that market forces and unfettered individualism should direct all matters in society—a recipe for disaster for both the individual and the society."

You can read all of the civil disobedience blog posts here. I hope you'll find many inspiring or informative entries and leave comments letting the bloggers know what you liked (or didn't—respectfully, of course). All of Red Rom's past blog topics are here. Thanks as always for blogging!

–Huntington W. Sharp, Senior Editor, Red Room