Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Non-violence - A Better Way
Michael Westmoreland-White, one of my favorite bloggers, has been blogging about peace and non-violence for many years. He has written a wonderful post about the history of success in non-violent movements around the world.
"I am not claiming that organized nonviolent action always “works,” especially not without loss of life on the part of the nonviolent resisters. However, in war one side always loses and sometimes the war is so devastating that both sides lose. So, violence has a very poor track record in the defense of such values as justice, freedom, etc. At the very least, the claim that is often made to pacifists such as myself that often the only choices available are violent action or do nothing apathy is proven false. One can try other options, including organized nonviolent direct action. If we spent the resources preparing for such actions that we do preparing for violent military and/or police actions, how many more nonviolent solutions might be possible?" - Michael Westmoreland-WhiteI agree! I would also extend his thoughts by considering a practice of preemptive mercy. What if we fought terrorism with a preemptive strike of building schools, hospitals, roads, electrical infrastructure, and even mosques for those nations struggling to contain terrorists? That would be some serious shock and awe!
The reality is that we live in a nation that can't embrace this strategy even in our own cities. We prefer to build prisons rather than building schools. We prefer creating tax loopholes rather than protecting jobs. We prefer the exploitation of our natural resources rather than ending our addiction to oil. We are quick to bail out corporate billionaires and slow to help hurting families. There is no doubt that our current leadership prefers the short term satisfaction of violence instead of diplomacy. We've made humility a dirty word and lifted pride to the status of sacred worship.
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2 comments:
"We prefer to build prisons rather than building
schools. We prefer creating tax loopholes rather
than protecting jobs. We prefer the exploitation of
our natural resources rather than ending our
addiction to oil. We are quick to bail out corporate
billionaires and slow to help hurting families."
Wow. Beautifully worded. And sad, but true.
Non-violence tends to be egalitarian and more difficult to exploit for financial or political gain. There's money to be made in violence, and the fear factor is much easier to use as leverage for wielding political clout than the more principled approach required for non-violence to be understood and practiced by large segments of the population.
After going through a bit of a conversion experience in the late 90s, I've been an advocate for non-violence ever since but I'm now at the point where I wonder if this value will ever be embraced en masse by American culture. There are so many forces working against it, reinforcing the idea that violence is necessary and in many cases superior as a way of "resolving conflicts." Sadly, I see the evangelical church as one of the strongest reinforcers of this belief.
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