I started a conversation with my dad about governments and their role, its something that i´ve been thinking on sporatically for a while, and so i figured, since it eventually got around to Bolivia, that i would post some of this for you all as well.
This is especially pertinent to me because of the increased talk about Santa Cruz´s (a state as well as city in Bolivia, like Cochabamba)desire for independence from Bolivia, and the strange power tug-o-war that occurs when the governed and leaders disagree.
Often i think that our governments do more to instigate chaos than instill peace, and while i acknowledge that a governmental structure is necessary in some form, i dont think that we´re anywhere near to having a democracy that reflects the needs, wants, and desires of people who live within the country. you are right, for the most part i think anarchy is not the answer-it seems to be an incomplete thought to me, lacking in fullness, but there are organizations such as the Catholic Worker Movement which align themselves with that label, because they feel that for them to be anything else would be to condone, accept, and support a government that does not stand for the values held in Gods kingdom. If to disagree and constructively criticize our nation, if to intentially find legal ways to avoid payment to a system you find corrupt, if to live a life of protest against injustice and this includes actions of ones own nation mean anarchy, then i wonder if i am an anarchist. But i would not claim this label still, i think i would instead sit with the book of john, and the multitude of times Jesus mentions being ´of the world.´ Jesus didn´t encourage or instigate rebellion against the powers that be, but i dont think he bowed to them either. he existed in a wholly different plane with a wholly different value system.
I´m not saying that Jesus was an anarchist(although some have), i am saying that i see an incredible demonstration of commitment in the lives of some of the people (catholic workers) who have choosen to meditate on what loyalty looks like, and to what point we´re called to live our commitments with our lives. If someone believes that their government is going against Gods goodness in this world, and fails to value human lives like God would have us, then i think that i stand behind that persons decision to refuse to pay taxes, or any other non-violent action in protest.
These are questions that are coming up increasingly for me here in Bolivia because of the political situation. I´ve never seen a more politically active population of people. The government here in Bolivia does not have a good track record, they have had every type of dictator and a heinous history of colonialism and its rape. While Evo Morales may or may not be making changes in the country. While he may or may not be swindling it like all the rest, I do not believe that the people of Bolivia are called by God to honor the power that he has been given if he takes advantage of the people or behaves in such a way that he brings harm to others. Leaders are as worth as much as they protect and care for the people that they lead. I believe that Bolivia is not so different than the US (as much as those in the states and here would hope at least). I think that while larger groups of people are mobilized here (albeit, violently at times) when injustice is done, i think that they are no more anarchists than the Catholic workers. I think calling the government to its true job, servanthood, is our right as individuals governed. And that if something unjust is occuring, it is our responsibility to act in whatever (nonviolent) way possible to bring the issue to the authorities immediately for it to be reconciled.
All that to say, i´m gaining a different viewpoint on civil unrest. I see how it effects people when there are constant issues coming, constant fights, and the pain it causes when Governments do not do their job. I could never have realized that the indignant positions i held, the letter writing campagins and boycotts that I participated in in the United States against globalization or the impact of neo-liberal policies were trivial and childish. But one month in Bolivia, i have begun to see it is sweat and blood and lives that are poured out against these things-mere ideas to me, because it is the blood and sweat and lives that will be taken from the people if they do not fight against them. The water wars in Cochabamba, among hundreds of other instances show that our government, and their government are not serving people, these governments cannot even see the people, let alone their needs anymore. I am learning to be quiet and listen here. Because this is a country where MY country, has stolen and robbed. This country is a place where MY country has dumped toxic waste and wounded lives.
So even if I were to believe, before this, that my country or my government listened or cared about human life, I would have to reanalyse this position. I would have to realize that MY country sees some peoples lives as worth less than others.
