I once heard that some Anarchists thinkers highlighted the impact of the individual action.
They referred to it as propaganda by deed, a term I decline. Infamous term, often related to violence.
To associate the individual revolutionary action with terrorism is a mean to undermine it.
To call the revolutionary action of the individual "propaganda by deed" is yet another one.
Was the Tunisian greengrocer Mohammed Bouazizi , a university graduate that set himself on fire because he was denied of the right to sell his goods by the authorities propagators?
Ideology manifested in words might become propaganda, if it is not backed up by actions.
Or was he on of-
Men of courage, not satisfied with words, but ever searching for the means to transform them into action, — men of integrity for whom the act is one with the idea, for whom prison, exile, and death are preferable to a life contrary to their principles, — intrepid souls who know that it is necessary to dare in order to succeed, — these are the lonely sentinels who enter the battle long before the masses are sufficiently roused to raise openly the banner of insurrection and to march, arms in hand, to the conquest of their rights.
Peter Alexeievich Kropotkin (Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин), Spirit of revolt, 1880
I didn't go to the 1 million people demanding social justice on Saturday.
Partially it was due to my ambivalence towards the tent protest, being exclusively Israeli thing, and not targeting the occupation and apartheid, as Max Blumenthal and Joseph Dana wrote.
But it's not all about ideological differences.
There are personal reasons that kept me from being there.
I have already made my individual revolutionary action as I rather call it.
A few years ago I filed a complaint to the police against a prominent man.
The process left a heavy burden on me.
I lost my faith in law, that isn't parallel to justice, as I discovered, the hard way.
This act, among other unfortunate life circumstances,
for some of them I hold responsibility, left me in a state that feels broken, wounded, impaired, but also in great ambition not to allow other people to endure the suffering I did.
As my right to be heard was denied for me, I don't want other people to be deprived of it. The #J14 people, those who demand social Justice. are being heard, almost through any media channel.
They earn their right to be heard, because their demands are just and I wish they will be fulfilled.
I may directly benefit from their activism - I too, in great need for "social Justice".
But I also have my limits and disabilities too. There are things I can and cannot do.
I couldn't be there on Saturday night , but it doesn't mean I don't want or need social Justice.
I am just not built to be part of a masses. I get lost and overwhelmed by the crowds.
But I did what I could. I tried. To stop that prominent man from hurting other people, despite the damage I took. That was my individual revolutionary act, not propaganda by deed.
