Nonviolence Revolution: Part I, Introduction

by Matt Bear

When I was a kid I used to lie on the blue shag carpet of my sister’s room and listen to her records on a hand-me-down hi-fi. She had a few Beatles 45s and I’d let the turntable magically jerk the needle back to the beginning after each play to listen to them over and over watching the green apple on the label go ‘round and ‘round. The b-sides were always my favorites.

The b-side of “Hey Jude” was “Revolution.” Something in that song etched into me like the scores of pops scratched into the round of vinyl, “You say you want a revolution. Well, ya know, we all want to change the world… You say you got a real solution. Well, ya know, we’d all love to see the plan.”

I’m encouraged by well-meaning friends to lay off the nonfiction, revolutionary, three-inch thick volumes I pack home from the library and instead crack open some easy distraction of fiction. But no, thanks, I really like reading the heavy stuff. I love the way it feels when even one sentence of one of those books weaves into the fabric of a tapestry begun with the popping b-side of a 45 some thirty years ago.

I’ve read dozens of books about revolutionary change or, more accurately, why we need revolutionary change. They go into great detail about the problems and prognoses, but I’m left with my mind’s needle stuck on the groove, “Well… we’d all love to see the plan.”

I’m getting very close to my answer to what Lennon and McCartney asked of the sofa-bound pseudo-revolutionaries. Ok, I’ll admit my “plan” doesn’t have a well-polished beginning nor a predictable end. But I feel as if either I’m running out of time or the planet is, so I want to do my best to articulate “a” plan, if not “the” plan.

First of all, I’m not advocating revolution for revolution’s sake. I’m acknowledging the seriousness of our situation and the fragility of our existence. There isn’t time for philosophical ruminations or elitist throwing of crumbs. People are starving right now. Animals are suffering right now. The planet is struggling to breathe right now. So, it’s time for revolutionary change… right now.

I’m answering what my grandfather would call my obligation to leave the planet a better place than I found it. At this point, I feel as if I’m failing to meet that obligation. But I’m trying and I see millions of others trying too. I’m asking for your help. And, unlike what’s been painfully left out of the many books I’ve been reading, I’m going to tell you how it can be done.

Let’s start the conversation. Here’s a short list of some of the necessary components for a successful revolution. If the links/headings below are active, click for more information. We'll be adding to the details as we get them written.

1. Define the common enemy.
The enemy is violence. Violence takes many forms: poverty, dominance, racism, speciesism, militarism, consumerism and gluttony are among them. Buddhist monk and visionary Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that man is not the enemy. The enemy is hatred and violence. You’ll find agreement from Martin Luther King, Jr.

2. Support and recognize your allies. (more coming soon)
Those of us fighting for social justice are all on the same side. Support each other with your time and resources, but also in what you choose or don’t choose to consume. Explore why the great leader of the farm workers’ movement, Cesar Chavez, was a vegetarian and promoted nonviolent dissent through corporate boycotts. Discover the reasons why social justice icons like Coretta Scott King are becoming vegan; why animal rights advocates and GLBT rights activists are becoming fighters for workers’ rights, women’s rights, fair trade and organic farming; why being an environmentalist entails one to be against factory farming and an advocate for fair trade. We must come down from the mountaintops of our movements to explore our common ground --Nonviolence.

3. Consume consciously. (more coming soon)
Every dollar you spend or don’t spend is a vote. If you feel demoralized by a placebo vote every four years having to choose between a white, millionaire, corporate puppet and a white, millionaire, corporate puppet, you are not alone. Every dollar you spend or don’t spend holds power -- the power to decide who stands for us and what issues they find important. Make a conscious effort to support the programs and products that advance fairness to workers, respect for the planet, and kindness to animals while refusing to support those industries that support violence, destruction, domination and the other offenses you abhor.

4. Simplify. (more coming soon)
Live simply so others may simply live. Become conscious of the impact your consumption has on others with whom you share the planet. Imagine the world if ten billion people (where the population will soon be) lived exactly as you do. Would it be truly sustainable? Sustainability is usually directly in line with Nonviolence, simplicity and fairness.

5. Think critically. (more coming soon)
A healthy democracy depends wholly on its informed citizenry. An unethical corporate monster feeds on the unquestioning. Your purchasing power builds or dismantles that monster. Live in alignment with your values. Reject the constant demand to consume at the expense of people, the planet and the animals.

We desperately need a system that is rewarded for doing good instead of harm -- a system in which corporations are for people over profit; where leaders lead from the heart; where the people throw off the chains of presumed helplessness and fulfill their obligation to leave the planet better than they found it.

Nonviolence Revolution: Part 2, Details of the Plan

Define the Common Enemy!

Who/what is the enemy? The enemy is violence.
You’ve probably heard your parents or someone else say, “It’s not nice to hate,” or, “You don’t hate that person, you hate the actions of that person.” Very simple and very well put.

Buddhist monk and visionary Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that man (or woman) is not the enemy. The enemy is violence. You’ll find agreement from Martin Luther King, Jr. The great leaders of the Nonviolence movements recognize that it is not the goal of the movement to crush or defeat the adversary. It is our goal to reach an understanding of the issues and then collaborate on the solutions.

In the Nonviolence Revolution, we’re not forcing anyone to do anything. If we did, the results would be short lived. We're instead calling upon the innate goodness of people to do the right thing.

When people are honestly shown the truth without the bias of greed, pressures of industry gain, or the slant of political puppetry they will do the right thing. They will choose compassion over killing. They will demand justice over injustice. They will choose clean skies and clean water over poisoned water and polluted skies. They will choose a sustainable future for those yet to come. And they will join hands to help each other.

The enemy is violence -- not the individuals who perpetrate it. If we spend our time and energy working to change the perpetrators, we’ll miss the opportunity to stop violence at its root. And if we waste our time pointing the finger of blame, we may forget the role we are playing in securing the future of the perpetrators -- in our actions, by our words and because of the products and industries we choose to support.

What is Violence?
Violence exists over a spectrum from the violence that lives in our hearts, minds and in our words, to the violence committed to the Earth and upon helpless animals, to the militarized weapons now able to destroy the Earth and all its inhabitants a thousand times over. It is important to rid our lives of all of these faces of violence.

In its purest form, violence is an expression of our disconnection.

We may be disconnected and have therefore forgotten that we all share this Earth; that we breathe the same air and drink the same water; that we have the same emotions, needs and desires; that we all want to be free and to be happy.

We may be disconnected from ourselves about what happiness truly is; the difference between needs and desires; knowing when enough is enough; and knowing how to have discipline over our words and deeds.

Or we may be disconnected with the past -- about how we got here and to whom we owe gratitude; disconnected from the present -- always striving toward the future or living in the past; or disconnected from the future -- forgetting that the children of tomorrow shouldn’t beg or borrow for what we do today.

Violence Takes Many Forms
Violence takes many forms beyond physical violence: poverty, dominance, racism, speciesism, militarism, consumerism and gluttony are among them. If we can recognize violence and understand the alternatives -- we can choose Nonviolence and build a collaborative, sustainable future.

In the U.S. we live in a culture of violence, but it is not who we are nor is it who we want to be. We don’t want to live in fear. We don’t want to distrust. We want to put our hand out and help those who need our help.

But we’re so immersed in outright physical violence (war, terrorism, fighting, domestic violence, child abuse, robbery, rape, murder, drug wars) that we tend not to recognize the other rampant violence of racism, militarism, speciesism and unethical consumerism. If we ignore these other violent acts or dismiss them, we’re giving permission to carry on business as usual and we allow violence to reign over our society. It is not only wrong to inflict violence, it is also wrong to turn a blind eye to violence or to support the violators with our dollars, our votes, or our actions.

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hidden Violence
Violent acts may be hidden. Many industries go to tremendous lengths to make sure that the public (because of our innate goodness) does not know the realities of their industries. If the public knew of the violence being committed in their names with their dollars, they would refuse to support the industries and would instead choose the Nonviolent alternatives.

Simple examples may be chocolate or coffee that are not labeled fair-trade -- these products more than likely were produced using child labor and/or slave labor and indentured servitude. Or non-organic food which supports the dumping of toxic chemicals on our land, in our water, in our air and onto farm laborers. Or giant retail chains that offer inexpensive products produced by prison labor, slave labor and child labor at the expense of fair-labor and U.S. livelihoods and neighborhoods.

Once one recognizes violence in one example, the connections to other forms of violence become apparent. And as one reduces one’s participation in a particular example of violence, those oppressed by the other examples of violence will benefit because of those connections.

Some Examples of Violence
Unethical over-consumption – someone who has too much means someone else is going without. Disconnection from the resources being used; disconnection from the needs of those in the future; disconnection from one’s fellow humans who are without; and disconnection from oneself and what happiness really means.

Examples of unethical over-consumption:

Having a home too large or more than one needs while others are homeless
Driving a vehicle that wastes fuel
Having too many vehicles, clothes, shoes or other possessions -- shopping till you drop
Overeating or eating things that use excessive or unsustainable resources to produce

Nonviolent alternatives to over-consumption:

Live simply so others may simply live
Walk, bike, use mass transit, drive using biodiesel
Buy only what you need not everything you want
Eat lower on the food chain and waste less – go Vegan

Consuming non-sustainable resources – using resources that cannot be renewed results in suffering and want for people now and in the future and depletes the Earth.

Examples of consumption of non-sustainable resources:

Wasting paper made from trees
Petroleum products (oil and gas are unsustainable and cause pollution)
Eating farmed animals and animal products (requires amounts of water, land, grain and petroleum)

Nonviolent alternatives to consumption of non-sustainable resources:

Use hemp, Kenaf or pre-cycled paper
Support solar power, wind power and biodiesel
Eat products that require less water, land and petroleum to produce – go Vegan (consume a plant-based rather than an animal-based diet)

Militarism -- the unrestrained build-up of arms and armies and the belief and perpetuation that “might makes right.”

Racism -- the belief that race determines human character and that one person is superior to another based on skin color or heritage.

Speciesism -- the belief that humans and their companion animals are the only beings with feelings, desires and worth.

Pollution -- contamination of our shared resources (earth, air and water) while depriving or harming ourselves, other people and animals of present and future generations..

What is Nonviolence? Connection!
If violence is disconnection, Nonviolence is making the connection.

When living Nonviolently , we think about where our food comes from, who had to suffer to make a product, who will suffer in the future if we over-consume or pollute the Earth, and who will benefit from choosing the Nonviolent option.

Nonviolence is not passivity or apathy. Nonviolence is an active way of life that takes discipline.

"Nonviolence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid of weak… Nonviolence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win.”
-- Cesar Chavez

Society seems to tell us there are only two options when faced with violence -- fight back or run away. But there is a third option -- Nonviolence. Nonviolence is the active non-cooperation with evil while collaborating with good. In other words, Nonviolence involves supporting only the individuals and industries that are in line with your collaborative, positive and Nonviolent values. This is the basis of the Nonviolence Revolution.

We don’t have time to reinvent the wheel. We don’t have time to start from scratch. We don’t have time to wait for good to happen. And, thankfully, we don’t have to. We study the masters -- Thoreau, Gandhi, King, Chavez and others. We collaborate with the past and pick up torches that may have been dropped but certainly have not gone out.

We recognize Thoreau and his passion to stand up to a government that is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people, but is instead of the elite people, by the elite people and for the elite people.

We recognize the wisdom of Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and others who were dismayed by the control by an aristocracy of a supposed democracy -- a country ruled by a small, very elite group. And we firmly agree that a true democracy relies wholly on its citizens being well informed.

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

We study Gandhi’s advancement of civil disobedience to empower the individual and the masses.

"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man."
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi

We hold up the example of Cesar Chavez as a master organizer and proponent of the power and effectiveness of a conscious public and a financial boycott of evil.

“In some cases Nonviolence requires more militancy than violence.”
-- Cesar Chavez

And we follow Dr. Martin Luther King’s philosophy of Nonviolence:
1. It is not passive; it requires action and courage
2. It seeks understanding not defeat of an adversary
3. It is directed at eliminating evil, not at destroying the evildoer
4. It requires a willingness to accept suffering for the cause, if necessary, but never to inflict it
5. It requires rejection of hostility or violence of the spirit as well as a commitment against physical violence
6. It calls on us to have faith that justice will prevail -- that the arc of history moves toward justice

We hear Dr. King’s call to become more and more creative in our Nonviolent actions to bring about a better world.

“It is no longer a question of Nonviolence or Violence; it is a question of Nonviolence or Non-existence.”
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence in Action (What is Active Nonviolence?)
While it may be empowering to work as a group in civil disobedience, it is necessary and individually empowering to live one’s life for Nonviolence. When we at NonviolenceRevolution.org talk about Nonviolence in Action, we are talking about using individual power every day.

Every dollar you spend or don't spend is a vote. Everything you consume or don’t consume is a vote. Everything you share or don’t share is a vote. Did you vote for human rights, the environment and Nonviolence? Or did you vote for greed, environmental destruction and violence?

Nonviolence in Action is recognizes that immediate, individual power. Nonviolence acts as a “moral compass” to choose the better option.

Building a Win-Win Society
We in the U.S. are brought up in a society of dualism -- the belief that most things can be reduced to two irreconcilable parts: black vs. white, good vs. evil, human vs. non-human, etc. We love competition and watching sports and “crushing the other team." Only one team can be number one; only one person can win.

But what if both teams… what if everybody could win? It seems a noble goal and it is possible. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t enjoy our favorite sports; what we’re saying is that in the game of life – nobody is better than another. All of us deserve to eat from the “tree of life.”

Nor does it mean that we all have to live in exactly the same way. If we help each other and truly work to understand each other and support each other, we reap the rewards of a brotherhood of humankind and a sustainable and peaceful existence.

With Nonviolence as our moral compass; with our eyes and minds open to the alternatives to violence; with Nonviolence being not only our strategy but a way of life... we are well on our way into the Nonviolence Revolution.