ABSTRACT
Others, who grow impatient with the processes inherent in traditional democratic institutions, are also often moved to act in such a way that they advance upon revolutionary objectives without a solid program to offer, with little knowledge of viable alternative forms of government, and with even less concern to devise new and effective machinery to replace that which their actions threaten to destroy. As they engage in demonstrationswhether designed only to confront the police, to appeal to the hitherto uninvolved, or forthrightly to undermine institutionsall claim for their acts an idealism and moral rectitude with which, they seem to say, there can be no compromise. These engagements in direct action and the claims made by those who pursue them raise many questions. Among them are those relating to violence, especially as violence has tended to replace earlier efforts at nonviolent action. Even more elusive is the rarely stated problem arising from symbolic violence and its frequent use in activist movements directed toward rapid or immediate change.
