There's going to be some sort of special on PBS. The show deals with successful non-violent conflicts in the last century. Six stories. They are as follows. The story of Gandhi winning independence for India from Britain. The civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950's. The labour movement in Poland in the 1980's. The Chilean overthrow of Pinochet in the 1980's. The ending of apartheid in South Africa. And......I'll be damned, I can't remember the other one. Oh yeah. The resistance of Denmark to Nazi rule during World War Two.

All fascinating stories. And really, lessons to be learned. I know next to nothing about the revolt against Pinochet, but in the other cases, all of the protagonists used their superior numbers to great effect. Boycotts, strikes, sanctions, protests, political pressure....any number of methods of conflict. And the one thing that they all have in common, again, is numbers. They have other things in common too I suppose. In all cases, the group was a large but powerless majority that had restrictions imposed on them by a powerful minority. Or so they thought. The group was more powerful than they thought. Ah...in all of the cases, the group being oppressed did not really have military force as an option. They did have economic impact which they brought to bear on the situation. But why are you listening to me ramble on? Watch the show. Wednesday night, for the next three weeks. It promises to be interesting, to say the least.

And lessons to be taken from it.....mob-democracy, if well organized, is true democracy.

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