Some Thoughts on Nonviolence
by Jim Clune
I first discovered nonviolent resistance on my own. I was in 10th grade in 1962, walking along a busy street with a number of other students when a fellow whom I perceived as a bully, but actually was just an athlete full of himself taunted me again to a fight. He had been at it for a while with the "four eyes" routine, etc. I gave my glasses to a friend and did my best. No rules–it was a combination boxing and wrestling match. He had me in about 15 seconds. The best I could do was pull at his greasy hair. I thought that was the end of it, but it wasn’t. A week or so later he caught up with me again with nobody else around. He went into "the stance" again. This time I got angry and stubborn. "I already fought you, George. I lost. What’s the point? No, I’m not fighting." And I stood there with my hands at my side. He took a few jabs, a few taunts, gave me a bloody nose. I kept looking him in the eye, refusing either to back off and run or to fight. After a while he walked away disgusted. I was shaken, but I knew then that I had done the right thing. I asked the one person who had seen it why he didn’t help and he said why should he help someone who wouldn’t help himself. Actually I had helped myself immeasurably, and didn’t know it. All this with absolutely no conception of nonviolence–I had never heard of it then. It was only later that the pieces of that came together as something that others have used, and even tried to make into a political force. The key word is dignity. Over the years since, I’ve had a few moments of courage, including some civil disobedience arrests, and a goodly number of moments of failures in courage, but I believe that practicing courage gradually makes one stronger.
This World March for Peace and Nonviolence is a good way to start the conversation about Gandhian thought and practice in relation to current problems. The organizers started from a humanist perspective and realized the universal appeal of Gandhi’s example. They use five core violence problems–nuclear proliferation, occupations, conventional arms races, aggressive wars, and war as first choice of states–to mobilize as many as possible to address their concerns. They are open to related issues and certainly open to many, many ways of expression. Is this openness incomplete in analysis and recommended tactics? Maybe. But I don’t think so because it reflects a profound democratic spirit of trust in peoples’ ability to do the right thing. It reflects a worldwide disgust and abhorrence of war.
I remember studying Gandhi’s life years ago, and what I remember most clearly are three Indian terms which are essential to understanding Gandhi’s possible relevance today. "Ahimsa"–nonviolence; "Satyagraha"–truth force; and "Swaraj"–self-rule.
"Himsa" is violence–destruction of others, the self, the world, etc. "A-Himsa" is nonviolence. This concept is more basic and more all inclusive then political strategy. It is a concept of awareness and discipline of how things ought to be. Sort of like Thomistic "natural law". It says that nonviolence is not just a tactic to be proven or discarded based on excessive concern for expediency and effectiveness. The starting point, the entire process, and the goal is the wholeness of the human being. Like the Ignatian goal of education of the entire person. It grounds our political activities in the realities of our daily lives and our struggles to be helpful and affirming to others and ourselves.
"Satyagraha" is truth force. Or "holding to truth". It’s the political expression of those who are struggling to inform, even transform our lives and the structures that rule our lives so that we do not kill each other. This is experimental. If fact, Gandhi titled his autobiography "experiments in truth". It is experimental in analysis and tactics. Its goal is communication with and reconciliation with the adversary. It is open to the truth that the adversary holds. It is partisan first of all for the powerless and voiceless among us, but open to the needs of all. And above all the satyagraha activist is willing to act and stand by that action, and endure the consequences. Of law. Of rejection. Of seeming futility. And in Martin Luther King’s case, of death. It is anything but passive, but is the most active form of struggle of all.
"Swaraj" is self-rule. It is the least understood part of his program. Think of Gandhi at his spinning wheel, making thread for his own clothing, calling on all Indians to do the same, and calling for a boycott of imported clothes. This so Indians may be independent of imperial arrangements that subjugate Indian and English alike to the profit margins of the management elites. This is an enormously vital concept for us Americans today that might tell us that we don’t need corporations and Pentagons and political legislators and executives to order our lives.
Twice in the past year, the conversation about nonviolence has come up on Peacenet. The first time, the dialogue revolved around its usefulness or lack thereof in dire circumstances, particularly in the Third World. (First Worlders have no right to dictate strategy and tactics to oppressed people, but might be helpful if in true solidarity with them.) The second time, more recently, seemed to be an exercise in explaining away its successes. (We need to be open to experimentation in our own situation and to see the need of all for integrity and healing.) We need to continue this conversation. I’m sorry if I seem too preachy in this piece. Or too wordy. But I think reflection is just as much a part of the process of liberation as is public action. In fact, they go together like breathing out and breathing in. And these are questions it is important to be passionate about.
We need to talk about conflicts, personal and institutional, and how to resolve them. We need to talk about courage and cowardice. And vision. Especially vision. Vision transcends short term effectiveness. We need to do the right thing because it is the right thing. Thus we discover how this changes reality from its roots--"radically"–by changing the dialogue, changing the language, looking at the world upside down like Francis of Assisi did. Then we can approach things as much as we can as adults–healed, holistic, responsible human beings.
Jim Clune
