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A few thoughts on nonviolence
Jan. 29th, 2013 08:10 pmFirst, I’m ethically opposed to violence.
Second, the ruling systems of today are based on violence: the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, and torture.
Third. violent resistance is in no way comparable to the violent system.
Fourth, violent resistance is ill-suited to ending the violent system.
Fifth, violent means are more easily bent to oppressive ends, and non-violent means are more easily bent towards liberatory ends; violent means are also prone to futility. A decisive military victory, like Breitenfeld, Blenheim, Leuthen, or Austerlitz usually turns out completely irrelevant within five or ten years.
Sixth, non-violent means are means, and to turn non-violence into an end in itself risks tolerating violent systems. The point isn’t to speak truth to power. At times it’s to speak truth to those who don’t have power or can’t see their power. At times it’s to disarm power. And in the end it is to abolish power as we know it and build a world for equality and humanity.
Seventh, know your enemy - or set out to know one part of it. Tolstoy isn’t just remembered as a great pacifist and a great novelist, he is also remembered as a historian of the Napoleonic wars.
Cross-posted from my tumblr: http://ananiujitha.tumblr.com/post/41809972693/a-few-thoughts-on-nonviolence
Second, the ruling systems of today are based on violence: the military-industrial complex, the prison-industrial complex, capitalism, and torture.
Third. violent resistance is in no way comparable to the violent system.
Fourth, violent resistance is ill-suited to ending the violent system.
Fifth, violent means are more easily bent to oppressive ends, and non-violent means are more easily bent towards liberatory ends; violent means are also prone to futility. A decisive military victory, like Breitenfeld, Blenheim, Leuthen, or Austerlitz usually turns out completely irrelevant within five or ten years.
Sixth, non-violent means are means, and to turn non-violence into an end in itself risks tolerating violent systems. The point isn’t to speak truth to power. At times it’s to speak truth to those who don’t have power or can’t see their power. At times it’s to disarm power. And in the end it is to abolish power as we know it and build a world for equality and humanity.
Seventh, know your enemy - or set out to know one part of it. Tolstoy isn’t just remembered as a great pacifist and a great novelist, he is also remembered as a historian of the Napoleonic wars.
Cross-posted from my tumblr: http://ananiujitha.tumblr.com/post/41809972693/a-few-thoughts-on-nonviolence
