Nonviolence

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Nonviolence or Non-violence is a set of assumptions about morality, power and conflict that leads its proponents to reject the use of violence in efforts to attain just ends. While often used as a synonym for pacifism, since the mid 20th century the term nonviolence has come to embody a diversity of techniques for waging social conflict without the use of violence, as well as the underlying political and philosophical rationale for the use of these techniques.

Table of contents

1 Why nonviolence? 2 How does nonviolence work? 3 The methods of nonviolent action 4 Living nonviolence 5 Pages to merge with? 6 External Links:

Why nonviolence?

The justifications for nonviolence are many; however, most advocates of nonviolence draw their preference for nonviolence from religious or spiritual beliefs, or from a pragmatic political analysis. It is not uncommon to find both of these dimensions present within the thinking of particular movements or individuals.

Nonviolence, as a technique for social struggle, is most closely associated with the struggle for Indian independence led by Mohandas Gandhi. The struggle to attain civil rights for African Americans, led by Martin Luther King, provides another well known example of nonviolence.

In the west, nonviolence has also been used extensively in the labour, peace, environment and women's movements. Less well known is the role that nonviolence has played and continues to play in undermining the power of repressive political regimes on every continent:

In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations ... If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa ... the independence movement in India ...) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world.

(Walter Wink, as quoted by Susan Ives in a 2001 talk)

However, as nonviolence scholar Gene Sharp notes in his three volume work, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, the conspicuous absence of nonviolence from mainstream historical study may have much to do with the fact that elite interests are not served by the dissemmination of techniques for social struggle that rely on the collective power of a mobilised citizenry rather than access to wealth or weaponry.

How does nonviolence work?

The nonviolent approach to social struggle represents a radical departure from conventional thinking about conflict, and yet appeals to a number of common-sense notions.

The first of these is that the power of rulers depends on the consent of the populace. Without a bureacracy, an army or a police force to carry out his or her wishes, the ruler is powerless. Power, nonviolence teaches us, depends on the co-operation of others. Nonviolence undermines the power of rulers through the deliberate withdrawal of this co-operation.

The second is the idea that just means are the most likely to lead to just ends. When Gandhi said that “the means may be likened to the seed, the end to a tree,” he expressed the philosophical kernal of what some refer to as “prefigurative politics”. Proponents of nonviolence reason that the actions we take in the present inevitably re-shape the social order in like form – therefore, it is fundamentally irrational to use violence to achieve the end of a peaceful society.

The third is that of respect or love for opponents. It is this principle which is most closely associated with spiritual or religious justifications of nonviolence, as we may see in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus urges his followers to “love thine enemy,” or in the Buddhist principle of metta, or loving-kindness towards all beings. Respect or love for opponents also has a pragmatic justification, in that the technique of seperating the deed from the doer allows for the possibility of the doer changing their behaviour, and perhaps their beliefs. In nonviolent circles, even “evil-doers” are recognised as human beings with innate worth, however aborrent their actions.

The fourth principle, concerning Satya or truth, owes much to Gandhi. Gandhi saw truth as something that is multifaceted and unable to be grasped in its entirety by any one individual. We all carry pieces of the truth, he believed, but we need the pieces of others’ truths in order to pursue the greater truth. This lead him to a belief in the inherent worth of dialogue with opponents, and a sincere wish to understand their drives and motivations. On a practical level, willingness to listen to another’s point of view is largely dependent on reciprocity. In order to be heard by one’s opponents, one must also be prepared to listen.

The methods of nonviolent action

Hunger strikes, pickets, vigils, petitions, laugh-ins, die-ins, tax refusal, go slows, blockades, draft refusal and demonstrations are just a few of the specific techniques that have been deployed by nonviolent movements. Throughout history, these are among the nonviolent methods used by ordinary people to counter injustice or oppression or bring about progressive change;

To be effective, tactics must be carefully chosen, taking into account political and cultural circumstances, and form part of a larger plan or strategy.

Walter Wink points to Jesus Christ as an early nonviolence strategist. Many of his teachings on nonviolence are revealed to be quite sophisticated when the cultural circumstances are understood. For example, among the people he was speaking to, if by collecting debts one drove someone to be naked, great shame fell on oneself, not the naked man. So Jesus' suggestion - that if someone ask you for your coat you give him your clothes as well - was a way bring shame upon the debt-collector and symbollically reverse the power relation.

This kind of creativity is typical of nonviolent movements. Aristophanes' Lysistrata gives the fictional example of women withholding sexual favours from their husbands until war was abandoned!

A useful source of inspiration, for those seeking the best nonviolent tactics to deploy, is Gene Sharp’s list of 198 methods of nonviolent action, which includes symbolic, political, economic and physical actions.

There are also many other great nonviolence leaders and theorists who have thought deeply about the spiritual and practical aspects of nonviolence: Lech Walesa, Starhawk, Petra Kelly, Barbara Deming, Thich Nhat Hanh, Julia Butterfly Hill, Dorothy Day, Albert Einstein and Cesar Chavez, to name just a few.

Living nonviolence

The embeddedness of violence in most of the world's populous societies causes many to consider it an inherent part of human nature, but others (Riane Eisler, Walter Wink, Daniel Quinn) have suggested that violence - or at least the arsenal of violent strategies we take for granted - is a phenomenon of the last five to ten thousand years, and was not present in pre-domestication and early post-domestication human societies.

For many practioners, practicing nonviolence goes deeper than withholding from violent behavior or words. It means caring in one's heart for everyone, even those one strongly disagrees with. One implication of this is the necessity of caring for those who are not practicing nonviolence. Of course no one can simply will themselves to have such care, and this is one of the great personal challenges posed by nonviolence - once one believes in nonviolence in theory, how to live it?

See anarchy, civil disobedience, civil and social disobedience, and satyagraha.

Pages to merge with?

• Non-violence
• Non-violent_resistance
• Pacifism

External Links:

• Nonviolence.org
• The Philosophy of Nonviolence
• No Fear, Susan Ives' 19 October 2001 talk at Palo Alto College
• The Idea of Nonviolence in U.S. History
• Gene Sharp's list of 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action
• nonviolencehelp