Delmas在《A Duty to Resist》中列舉了目下支持 disobedience has to be civil 的諸多理由,最有殺傷力的一項是「反求諸己,前呼後應」(the prefiguration argument):即既然我們求變求的是世界變得更美好、更理性、更民主、更包容、nonviolent、non-dominating ,那麼我們所採取的手段也必須貫徹這些理想價值,否則我們便是三刀兩面(morally inconsistent),虛偽無恥禮義廉(morally hypocritic)! 然而,仔細一想,我們自有如此一問:Does resistance need be guided by the values it aims to promote?答案恐怕是個大寫的Negative!其原因約有兩端,首先手段和目標可能只是修辭標籤,我們只是希望由the present state of affairs(P),進展成另一個future state of affairs(F),F與P之間的是無盡的可能,沒有邏輯上的理由叫F的價值回溯至P的時代;其次,civility 跟眾多普世的開明價值一般,講究reciprocity(否則如何能universal?),但正如當下我城人仔給黨國特府欺凌久矣,二十二年來已遭denied of full and equal political status,我們實不必寸步不離civility,否則我們永遠不能脫離那repressed status,又或永恆寄望oppressors的善心和覺悟,方得超生。
「公民抗命」雖如雷貫耳,但我最怕大家還以為這是一項法律選擇,只從現行法律角度探討,因而否定甚至歧視被定性為罪行的武力或 civility。Delmas 也認為 civil disobedience 本身太狹窄太偏頗,轉而討論的應該是「a broad, multidimensional matrix of political resistance that includes principled disobedience, both civil and uncivil.」我深以為然。
Delmas 提醒我們,對抗不義是 political ethics, not legal issues! 我們要思考的是the difficulties of fulfilling one’s political obligations under unjust conditions!
從前討論political obligations,多著眼於 the legitimation submission to the authority,Delmas 的創見在於敢問:Is there a political obligation to disobey based on the natural duty of justice?