Reading about the KKK in the South I just came upon their strategy of "violence and the subsequent exploitation of counter-violence". It strikes me that hate and the exploitation of counter-hate is equally important in human affairs. While the Klan may not be bright enough to have this as a conscious strategy, in studying sexism and racism the last few weeks for Ethics and Social & Political Philosophy it is common for a reactionary group to be labeled as the very problem they oppose. Feminists are seen as "man-hating" sexists and black and Latino groups are seen as white-hating racists. While nations such as the UK and US brutalize other countries, the reaction against it is seen as the hate and the terrorism.
It is true that everyone hates and everyone is capable of violence, so those who fight fire with fire are indeed engaged in the problematic and all-too-human. However, the real issue is the hypocrisy, the inability of human beings to see in themselves what they see clearly in others. Thus, after Klan members killed four middle aged black women with shotguns drive-by style in Chattanooga, Tennessee (1980), the black riots that followed the light jail sentence were used by the Klan as clear evidence that they stood for justice and defense of the white population. The counter-violence was used as a recruiting tool.
There is no easy solution to this problem. It may be that we will always swim upstream, but as it is with so many things in life, transparency, the ability to see all sides of what is going on, is a worthy goal and sometimes is the difference between life and death.
