"Weapons of the Weak" and "Race Rebels" (Week 2 Entry 2) 4/20/17

“Weapons of the Weak” James C. Scott “Race Rebels” Robin D.G.Kelley

In the excerpt from James Scott’s “Weapons of the Weak” he highlights an aspect that the masses in his examples the “peasants” and what they can do aside from the often talked about peasant revolutions. As such revolutions are incredibly rare, he shows us that insubordination and how these so-called “weapons of the weak” work in undermining the ruling power. While he acknowledges that these alone will not topple a government, he shows us how it is nonetheless invaluable in the study of power and politics within a society. He mentions several examples such as those in France or in the confederate states at the time of the Civil War. Lastly, in a case study he examines how these “weapons” were used by the Malay peasants. He highlights the subtleties, that while these methods don’t represent outright defiance, they may achieve more because of their intention and aim of self-help.

The second article in a way adds to the first, portraying in a way this unconscious implementation of these “weapons.” As a McDonald’s employee he examines how they were unknowingly in a “working class” struggle. He further asks us to question what we define as authentic movements, as even his example can be shown as a movement of the “peasants” against those in power.

The first article really struck me and made me think, because such methods don’t say “change the people in charge” or “fix the system,” rather this methodology basically says, “down and out with the system entirely.” In relating it to today’s events it wouldn’t have been choosing whether to vote for Trump or Hillary, it would’ve choosing to not vote at all. Scott highlights that changing the people in charge can lead in it of itself to new people in power that don’t have the same ideals that the original revolution had in mind. This lead me to thinking that such methodologies could be worse (i.e. the Bolshevik Revolution). At the same time I was also skeptical of how effective these weapons were. Because there is often no coherence in these methods, I’m of the opinion that ultimately it doesn’t work unless you have a mass group of people all implementing their “weapons.”