Bravery, from a fresh angle
A never-before-seen photograph of the iconic "tank man," who stared down a column of armor at Tiananmen Square 20 years ago. Unlike other photos of the incident, it shows the man, whose identity has never been firmly established, calmly preparing for the showdown, with the tanks still in the middle distance.
Amazing. But the fame of this man in the West, coupled with lack of knowledge about his post-confrontation fate, renders a vexingly ambivalent verdict on George Orwell's argument that nonviolent protest could not work in a totalitarian society.
Orwell wrote, in "Reflections on Gandhi," that the nonviolent approach was viable only when one's actions can arouse the world, "which is only possible if the world gets a chance to hear what you are doing."
It is difficult to see how Gandhi's methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the regime disappear in the middle of the night and are never heard of again. Without a free Press and the right of assembly, it is impossible not merely to appeal to outside opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being …
On the one hand, the "tank man" is known throughout the Western world; feelings were aroused in many places against the Chinese leadership. On the other, he may well have disappeared in the middle of the night sometime after his brief public intervention. And China has done everything it can to stamp out memories of "June 4." Did tank man make a difference? Is China just totalitarian enough to ensure that he did not? Unfortunately, I'm not sure we can answer those questions yet.
