Nonviolent Tension In King's 'Letter From Birmingham City Jail'

1. What does King mean by “constructive nonviolent tension” and how does he define its goal? He means tension that allows for advancement and confrontation of the issue—here specifically about racism and prejudice. The goal of constructive nonviolence tension is to create a situation that is causing such so much tension that the opposition cannot ignore your cause any longer. When and if King’s fourth step for nonviolent social change, discussion & negotiation, fails to work then direct action must be taken. At this point there is no other choice, nothing else has worked, and tension is necessary.
In his “Letter from Birmingham City Jail” King talks about direct action and how it forces people to stop ignoring the issue, which is going to

Desegregation was (is?) an acute conflict. There is no in between area, no “well, how about just a little segregation, like every Tuesday or in malls”, the only result is complete desegregation or allowing it to exist. “Separate but equal” is not actually equal. Acute conflicts usually happen when something fundamentally important is at stake, such as freedom, and there is never going to be room to compromise such fundamental ideals. Acute conflict is different because there is absolutely no compromise possible. Obviously Sharp talks about this in “Facing Acute Conflicts” and he stresses how important to handle these conflicts nonviolently, but also how hand it is to do so because they are so vitally important that “people therefore believe that it is necessary to wage the conflict by applying the strongest means available to them. These means often involve some type of

We’ve said that obedience is at the heart of political power. What is meant by this and what are the reasons for this obedience that we discussed in class?
{I basically answered this question in the previous question, so I am going to reiterate some stuff, but also continue to talk more about this because I find it such an interesting topic. Also, sorry for the ranting and swearing that is happens, probably not appropriate but I felt the need to.)
Obedience is the heart of political power because every action a government takes relies on the people 's support, which means without it the government would be nothing. We the people are the beams holding a heavy ceiling that is the government. If we stop supporting it, it will collapse, and be left no more than rubble.
Unfortunately, like we talked about in class, we rarely utilize this power even though we know that we possess it. Because of fear, moral obligations, habit, lack of confidence, and/or just plain indifference we more often than not just do nothing. We, myself included (I’m not that oblivious), bitch and moan about the things our government does, we talk about changing it, and then we do nothing. The irony here does not escape me and now I feel like an even bigger asshole because here I a writing this, acknowledging I am no exception, but I know I am still not going to do anything to try and change anything! And now I actually just complained about complaining about issues and not doing anything—while