Rioting as an action against opression

In this week’s text Tessman as well as MacDonald and Symmonds expressed how oppressed groups sometimes have to resort to actions that contradict their moral beliefs in order to defend themselves against injustice (cf. Tessman; MacDonald; Symmonds 26). Rioting is one form of action that is described here to act against injustice (MacDonald; Symmonds 27). When it comes to fighting against oppression and other forms of injustice, I think it is hard to say what is acceptable and what should not be done. This is because injustice in itself is unacceptable, and it puts people in moral dilemmas as they have to decide whether they fight fire with fire or whether they fight peacefully. I think to a certain degree it is inevitable to fight by means that contradict with one’s own values and that fighting peacefully is a privilege that most people do not have.

As an example, my parents are from Kosovo and in the 1990’s, wars broke out in many of Yugoslavia’s republics. It was predicable that a war would break out in Kosovo as well. The latter president Ibrahim Rugova always advocated for a non-violent solution to the conflict with Serbia. Being a philosophy major, waging a violent war probably contradicted with his principles. But this passive resistance did not change anything in the country. Civilians were still getting killed on the street. In 1998, a war broke out. Albanians did not have the privilege to peacefully resist Serbia’s oppression. They had to defend themselves against the oppressive regime. War is always a complicated topic and there is no right answer on how to handle things. All that I can say now is that after the war had ended and other countries had helped to rebuild the country, people had hope again that they would one day be able to have a better life. But still, the war was a traumatic experience for everyone and still is 24 years later.